First, we have Mark O’Shea’s Big Book of I Don’t Think So. O’Shea is a herpetologist, which is someone who knows the difference between a stick and a snake. In fact, O’Shea is so good at telling the difference that he’s put together a comprehensive guide of over six hundred species of snakes. That’s right. Everything from Scolecophidia (the blind ones) to Henophidia (the old ones) to Caenophidia (the new ones).
We don’t understand how taxonomy works, really. But apparently, it’s more than Big Snakes, Snakes You Don’t See Coming, and Hissing Snakes That Were Really Just Minding Their Own Business Until You Came Thundering Along. Which is just nightmare fuel, really, but thankfully, O’Shea has put together a guidebook to help us figure out which slithering beastie we’ve just encountered.
–A Good Book, Sumner, WA
Knowledge is power at A Good Book and other independent bookstores.