Below is a list of some of the books I own. It is broken down into three sections:

1) Books about amphibians
2) Books about reptiles
3) Books about both amphibians and reptiles

The books are in alphabetical order by author’s last name. If you are looking for books about a specific species or books that I have given a high rating to, it may be helpful to use your web browser's find feature. In internet explorer go to the Edit menu and then select Find, or press Ctrl + F. This will bring up a window where you can search for a specific word or the amount of stars a book has received. For example, to see only the books that I gave a high rating to, you could search for ***** and check the box labeled "Match whole word only". The list of books below is not well-rounded by any means, and reflects my specific interests. There are few books with information about snakes or larger lizards, with most focusing on tropical amphibians, geckos, turtles, and tortoises. Below each book is a short summary and review of it.

The star rating is the unoriginal way that I came up with to rate each book. Ratings are based mostly upon the information contained inside the book, but the physical quality of the book itself may also affect its rating.

1 * - The book will likely not be helpful because of many bad qualities.
2 ** - The book contains useful information but has at least a few large drawbacks.
3 *** - The book is helpful and worthwhile to read. It has very few drawbacks.
4 **** - The book is excellent. Good content, well-written, original information, and has no bad qualities.
5 ***** - The book is exceptional and is one of the best on the subject. A strongly recommended book.

1) Books about amphibians:

Coborn, John. Salamanders and Newts… as a Hobby. T.F.H. 1993.
3 ***
A good beginners book. Information about readily available species, captive housing, feeding and a brief chapter about breeding salamanders and newts. This book is bound in a better way than most books published by T.F.H. I’ve had mine for over 8 years and it’s still in one piece!

Coborn, John. The Proper Care of Amphibians. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H. 1992
2 **
Chapters about housing, feeding, collecting and breeding amphibians can be found in this book along with individual sections devoted to common and rare amphibians. There is a lot of detailed information in this book but unfortunately some of it is outdated. Much of the basics can still be applied to keeping amphibians today so it’s still a good book to have on hand.

Crump, Marty. In Search of the Golden Frog. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press 2000
5 *****
In Search of the Golden Frog is a collection of journal entries from the author’s amphibian related journeys and field work. She takes you through her data collection and survey of Darwin’s Frog (Rhinoderma darwinii) in Chile to her research trip to find the famous Golden Toads (Bufo periglenes) of Costa Rica. This is an excellent book that all amphibian enthusiasts should read. Crump brings up many interesting questions and ideas that will keep you thinking for hours.

Hunziker, Ray. Horned Frogs. T.F.H. 1994.
2 **
Information about natural history, captive husbandry and breeding can be found in Horned Frogs. Some of the captive care information is outdated and a few of the recommendations in this book have been proven to be unsafe. The chapter about breeding makes this book a good addition to a horned frog enthusiast’s herp library though. This book is bound poorly and the cover fell off of mine.

Korb, Randy. Wisconsin Frogs. Green Bay, WI: Northeastern Wisconsin Audobon 2001
4 ****
Wisconsin Frogs has detailed range maps, descriptions and photographs of all twelve native Wisconsin frogs. There is also a list of public places to see frogs in Wisconsin. Included with the book is a CD that has fifteen tracks of frog calls on it which is helpful for identifying frogs in the spring. No amphibian enthusiast in Wisconsin should be without this book!

Kubicki, Brian. Leaf-frogs of Costa Rica. Costa Rica: INBio 2004
3***
This book contains information about the Phyllomedusines that inhabit Costa Rica. Information about distribution, natural history, reproduction, and status are present for all six species covered. This book is unique in that it contains both English and Spanish text. The left hand side contains the English version, while the right hand side provides the Spanish translation. This can be confusing while trying to read the book, but when looking up specific information it presents no problem.

Mattison, Chris. Keeping and Breeding Amphibians. London, England: Blandford 1993
5 *****
This is one of the best books available about captive maintenance of amphibians. I strongly recommend that anyone who is interested in amphibians purchase it. Part one contains chapters about general care such as cage constructions, water quality, environmental controls, feeding, breeding and health. Part two and three contain chapters about groups of related amphibians and their care. There are some absolutely awesome pictures throughout the book. Some of the information about individual species is outdated but I consider most of the general guidelines suggested in this book to still be useful and up to date.

Samples, William and Jack Wattley. Poison Dart Frogs. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H.
3 ***
Poison Dart Frogs was first published as a flimsy low quality magazine. A few years later it was published again as a nice hard cover book. Both publications have the exact same information and pictures but the magazine form falls apart very easily. This book contains information about feeding, terrarium construction and a few chapters about some of the commonly available species. In each species chapter there is information about natural history, temperature and terrarium preference and breeding. It is a good introductory book about poison dart frogs.

Schmidt, Wolfgang and Friedrich Henkel. Poison Frogs - Professional Breeders Series. Germany: Chimaira 2004
4****
This book is currently the most up to date text on poison dart frog captive care. It includes chapters on terrarium construction, diet and food production, diseases, and breeding. There is also a short section at the beginning that contains the natural history of poison dart frogs. The last half of the book is filled with individual species accounts. An excellent book with solid information and gorgeous photographs.

Staniszewski, Marc. Amphibians In Captivity. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H. 1995
4 ****
One of the most complete books about keeping amphibians in captivity. This thick book (541 pages) is packed full of useful information about general amphibian care. The most useful part of the book is the individual species profiles that contain species specific information about feeding, housing, temperature preferences and breeding. This book is bound poorly and will fall apart easily.

Staniszewski, Marc. Guide To Owning A Mantella. T.F.H. 1997.
2 **
When this book was first published it was the best book about mantella frogs available. It focuses on captive care and breeding although there is a little information about natural history entwined within the chapters about captive maintenance. Since its publication, Marc Staniszewski wrote a more detailed book that is superior to this one. This book is bound poorly and will easily fall apart.

Staniszewski, Marc. Mantellas. Frankfurt, Germany: Chimaira, 2001.
5 *****
This is a must have for anyone interested in keeping mantella frogs. Detailed chapters about natural history, care, breeding and a very valuable section covering all the individual recognized species.

Staniszewski, Marc. The Golden Mantella Handbook. Worcestershire, England: Neurogus Books 1998
3 ***
This book is about obtaining, caring for and breeding the golden mantella frog (Mantella aurantiaca). There are chapters about natural history, housing, health, quarantine, lighting and reproduction. There is also a nice collection of journal entries made while the author was rearing Mantella aurantiaca tadpoles. I would recommend this book to those that are seriously interested in keeping golden mantella frogs.

Walls, Jerry. Jewels of the Rainforest – Poison Frogs. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H. 1994
4 ****
This is a classic book that all Dendrobatidae enthusiasts own. There are brilliant photographs of both wild and captive frogs. Most of the chapters are about commonly available species (species that were commonly available at the time the book was written) and include topics such as natural history, captive care and a map of the frog’s native range. There are also a few chapters at the beginning of the book about taxonomy, terrarium construction and the rainforests of Central and South America. The high price for this book is worth paying for the photographs alone.

Walls, Jerry. Keeping Poison Frogs. T.F.H 1994.
2 **
This book covers the basics of care and breeding. There are individual chapters for the most common groups of frogs. Some of the information is outdated. This book is bound poorly and the cover fell off of mine.

Wright, Keven and Brent Whitaker. Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company 2001
5 *****
The most up-to-date thorough book about amphibian health and disease and captive care. The first few chapters discuss taxonomy, biology, housing and diets but most of the book is about diseases, both common and uncommon, and safe treatments. There are eighteen detailed chapters about amphibian health problems including nutritional disorders, bacterial diseases and internal parasites. This is an extremely useful book to have on hand if you maintain a large collection of amphibians or do not have access to a veterinarian that has experience with amphibians. I highly recommend this book.

2) Books about reptiles

Bartlett, Richard and Patricia Bartlett. Chameleons. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s 1995
3 ***
The first few chapters are about housing, feeding, watering, breeding, health and understanding chameleons in general. The rest of the book is broken down into chapters about individual species or closely related species. These species accounts contain information about natural history, appearance, captive care and breeding. This is a good basic book for the beginner.

Bartlett, Richard and Patricia Bartlett. Day Geckos. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s 2001
3 ***
This is an introductory book aimed at beginners. It has well written chapters about basic biology and natural history, choosing a day gecko, caging, diet, health and breeding. It does not go into much depth on any subject but the beautiful color photographs make up for the lack of detailed information. A very short but nicely made book.

Bartlett, Richard and Patricia Bartlett. Geckos. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s 1995
4 ****
This is one of the better books available about keeping geckos in captivity. There are chapters about biology, behavior, housing, handling, health, diets and breeding but the most valuable part of the book are the chapters at the end that include notes, pictures and information about individual species. This book also has a modest price which is a nice bonus.

Bartlett, Richard and Patricia Bartlett. Lizard Care from A to Z. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s 1997
3 ***
This book touches on the most important aspects of caring for lizards in captivity. There are chapters on handling, housing, health, breeding, feeding and watering that can be applied to all species of lizards along with a few great chapters that provide overviews of most common pet trade species. This is a great book for anyone considering buying a lizard for a pet.

Christenson, Leann and Greg Christenson. Day Geckos in Captivity. Living Art 2003
4 ****
This is the best book currently available about day geckos. It contains up to date information about keeping and breeding day geckos. Some of the pictures are beautiful. The individual species accounts in the back are very useful. It was not edited well and there seem to be typos on every other page but other than that it is an exceptional book. I highly recommend that anyone interested in Phelsuma buy this book.

Francois, Berre. The New Chameleon Handbook. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s 1995
3 ***
Most of the book is dedicated to caring for chameleons in captivity. There are detailed chapters about housing, feeding, watering, health, breeding and understanding chameleon behavior. The last fourth of the book contains individual species accounts with basic information about type and size of cage, preferred temperature range, amount of offspring produced and some additional comments from the author. It also contains some very nice color photographs. This is a good basic book for the beginner.

McKeown, Sean. The General Care and Maintenance of Day Geckos. Lakeside, CA: Advanced Vivarium Systems 1993
3 ***
Contains general information about housing, feeding, breeding, diseases and individual species accounts. It’s a very good book with good information for any Phelsuma hobbyist. The species accounts in the back are particularly useful. Unfortunately the general information and care section is a little short and not as detailed as I would have liked.

Necas, Petr and Wolfgang Schmidt. Stump-tailed Chameleons - Miniature Dragons of the Rainforest. Germany: Chimaira 2004
4****
An amazing collection of data on all currently described Brookesia and Rhampholeon species. The first quarter of the book contains information about general biology, natural history, reproduction, and captive care. The rest of it consists of individual species accounts that include both information about care requirements in captivity and the range of the specific species in the wild. A wonderful book that all chameleon enthusiasts should own.

Patterson, Jordan. Box Turtles: Keeping and Breeding Them In Captivity. T.F.H. 1994.
3 ***
If you keep, or are planning to keep, box turtles I’d recommend that you read this book. This is an inexpensive book that has valuable information about captive diets, housing, breeding and common illnesses. It focuses on North American species although there is a chapter at the end covering the Asian box turtle genus Cuora. This book is bound poorly and will easily fall apart.

Rundquist, Eric. Day Geckos. T.F.H. 1995.
2 **
General information about day gecko care and breeding with a long section (almost half) of the book being devoted to individual species. Of the four readily available books about day geckos this is the worst one. Not to say that it’s a bad book, but it is a little outdated and some of the information in the individual species section is just plain wrong. There are some very nice pictures in it though and is worth the $8 that it normally retails for. This book is bound poorly and will easily fall apart.

Schmidt, W, K. Tamm and E. Wallikewitz. Chameleons, Volume 1: Species. T.F.H. 1994.
2 **
This is the first book of two volumes that are devoted to true chameleons. It is broken into two main sections: live-bearing species and egg-laying species. It provides basic information for many different species and is a good reference book to have on hand. This book is bound poorly and the cover fell off of mine.

Schmidt, W, K. Tamm and E. Wallikewitz. Chameleons, Volume 2: Care and Breeding. T.F.H. 1994.
2 **
Although the title suggests that this book focuses around captive care and reproduction it also covers basic chameleon biology and behavior. Some of the information is outdated. This book is bound poorly and the cover fell off of mine.

Svatek, Sascha and Susanna van Duin. Leaf-tailed Geckos: The Genus Uroplatus. Germany: Brahmer-Verlag 2001.
3***
This is the best book currently available about Uroplatus geckos. It contains chapters about anatomy, biology, captive care and breeding, and specific species. It also contains a chapter about Uroplatus species that have yet to be described by science. Unfortunately, the translation to English is rough and sometimes it can be difficult to read.

3) Books about both reptiles and amphibians

Bartlett, Richard and Patricia Bartlett. Terrarium and Cage Construction and Care. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s 1999
3 ***
The title of this book is misleading because the majority of the book is actually about caring for reptiles and amphibians, not terrariums or cages. The book is broken into nine different chapters about nine different types of terrariums. In each chapter it explains a few different ways to create that type of terrarium and then goes into detail about the different types of animals that can live in that environment and how to care for them. It is a good book for what it is but don’t expect to learn much about building cages or terrariums.

Brazaitis, Peter. You Belong in a Zoo!. NY: Villard Books 2003
5 *****
Peter Brazaitis spent a life time working in the reptile department of two zoos in New York city. This book is full of entertaining stories about catching escaped cobras, wrestling crocodiles, catching goliath frogs and more. Anyone that has ever maintained a large reptile or amphibian collection can sympathize with many of the author’s stories about common problems. There is also a lot to learn about the way zoological institutions and the reptile trade work.

Breen, John. Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H. 1974, 1994
1 *
A long and thorough book that covers all common reptiles and amphibians. Chapters about individual types of herps along with chapters containing information about collecting animals and caring for them can be found in this book. At its time I imagine that this was one of the best books available. Now much of the information in it is outdated and some of the recommendations that the author offers have even been proven to be dangerous to captive animals. It is a nice book to compare current literature to so that you can see the progress that has been made recently in herpetoculture. This book is bound poorly and will fall apart easily.

Bruins, Eugene. Encyclopaedia of Terrarium. Netherlands: Rebo International 1999
5 *****
This is a wonderful book full of useful information. It focuses on keeping reptiles, amphibians and insects in attractive living terrariums. Like many similar books, this book is divided into two main parts. The first has to do with housing and feeding. The chapter about housing is especially nice because it shows how to create many unique styles of terrariums. The second part of the book is dedicated to individual species with a large chunk of it being devoted to keeping insects in terrariums. A very good book.

Conant, Roger and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide: Eastern/Central Reptiles and Amphibians. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin 1991
3 ***
If you live in the East or Mid-west United States and are interested in reptiles and amphibians you should own this book. Illustrations, maps and information for all species.

Flank, Lenny. Herp Help. New York, NY: Howell Book House 1998
2 **
Amphibian and reptile species summaries as well as sections about common problems, reptile and amphibian housing and conservation. Beautiful color photographs by Bill Love. This is a great book to have on hand because it has a few short paragraphs of information about almost all reptiles and amphibians that are common in the pet trade. It’s good for looking up that cool gecko you saw in your local pet store but have no idea what care is involved in keeping it.

Jes, Harald. The Terrarium. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s 1998
2 **
This is an introductory book that introduces you to the basics of setting up and maintaining a terrarium housing a reptile or amphibian. It provides a few short paragraphs for some of the more common reptiles and amphibians that do well in a terrarium. It also has a few pages about understanding reptiles and amphibians, common diseases and purchasing reptiles and amphibians. This is a good beginners book that contains the basics.

Mattison, Chris. The Care of Reptiles and Amphibians in Captivity, Third Edition. London, England: Blandford 1992
2 **
This book is divided into two parts. The first part has to do with general care such as caging, feeding, breeding and health. The second part is a collection of short paragraphs about individual species. The selection of species is well rounded and covers most readily available types of reptiles and amphibians. Unfortunately much of the information is outdated and the individual species section contains some recommendations that could be unsafe. There also are very few color pictures which is disappointing. A great book for its time and a nice addition to any herp library but if you’re only going to own one amphibian and reptile book this is not the one to own.

Obst, Jurgen Fritz, Dr. Glaus Richter and Dr. Udo Jacob. Atlas of Reptiles and Amphibians for the Terrarium. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H. 1988
3 ***
This is an immense book that has over 800 pages with over 2000 photographs and illustrations. It was originally written in German in 1984 but was translated to English in 1988. The English edition also has added information and photographs. It’s written in complete alphabetical order without any chapters which is unusual for this genre of book. There are many subjects including basic biology, health, housing, environmental controls, breeding and an incredible number of individual species accounts, from poison dart frogs to tree vipers. Some of the information about care is outdated but the wonderful photographs of rare animals make up for the lack of current information. I imagine that at it’s time this book was ahead of the game.

Stebbins, Robert. Peterson Field Guide: Western Reptiles and Amphibians. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin 1985
3 ***
If you live in the Western United States and are interested in reptiles and amphibians you should own this book. Illustrations, maps and information for all species.

Walls, Jerry. Plants for the Reptile Terrarium. T.F.H.
4 ****
An excellent book that gives an overview of common plants that are used in reptile and amphibian terrariums. This is a good introductory book for those that are interested in incorporating live plants into their reptile or amphibian cage.