Folks,

I just got, as I'm sure others here have, an email from Safari Books for a 25% discount on most books.

I got to looking at the web site. I was a bit bewildered as to what, if any books I might allow my money to burn a hole in my pocket to purchase.

Was thanking of buying Boddington's latest, Buffalo (PLEASE(!) let's don't get off on an anti Boddington rant if you don't care for his writing). Any other suggestions?

It's Summer and I'm not going to be in Africa. I need the Africana methadone equivelent!

-Steve

The Perfect Shot

I think one of the books that offers the most practical advice of African safaris is African Experience by Craig Boddington.

Also Perfect Shot & In the Salt by Lou Hallamore and/or anything by Ron Thompson.

Or if you just want African entertainment, how about

Winds of Havoc by Pires & Capstick
With a Gun in Good Country by Manning
Hunter by Hunter
Any of the Ruark books

......Damn, the list is endless!!!!!!

"Kambaku" by Harry Manners - professional ivory hunter in Mozambique

"Rogues and Marauders" by John Dawkins

All of WDM "Karamojo" Bell's books

"Horned Death" by John Burger

All of Jim Corbett's books of hunting maneaters in India.

Many others.

Safari Press has a boxed set of Corbett's India books at a good price. The discount makes them more attractive.

Boddington's "From Mount Kenya to the Cape" is just fantastic. "Safari Rifles" is good, "Where Lions Roar" is good also.

African Hunter (Mellon) and African Hunter II (edited by Boddington and Flack) are must haves.

Any or all of John Hunter's books.

Taylor's "African Rifles" is a must.

As mentioned, all of the books you find that Bell wrote.

Robert Ruark's books, if you don't have those.

I think the limited editions are off limits for the discount, so I won't mention those.

Rowland Ward's "African Reprint Series" is a beautiful set and a great collection. All written by Africa's greatest hunters (mostly elephant); Selous, Gordon Cumming, Finaughty, Stigand, Sutherland, Neumann. It used to be available bound in Cape Buffalo hide (Shown below).

That reminds me. I bought them from "Books of Zimbabwe", formerly "Books of Rhodesia", when they were still in Zimbabwe. I think they've moved to South Africa, but have an office in England. They have the whole set for UK £182.40 - (Plus shipping). I think BOZ is the actual publisher/Printer, not RW. No more Buff or Ellie bindings though. They have plenty of other great books and collections also.

http://www.booksofzimbabwe.com

Steve,

The best hunting book I have ever read "Memories of a Sheep Hunter" by Rashid Jamsheed. He lived the hunting life we all wish to have. Unlimited funds and political connections through the Shah of Iran to be able to hunt the most remote areas in the world. I got the book when Safari Press had it discounted. Great photos in a large format.

Get:
Shoot Straight and Stay Alive, by Fred Bartlet
Months of the Sun, by Nyschens
Heat, Thurst, and Ivory bt Everett
After Big Game in Central Africa, by Foa
The Recollections of William Finaughty: Elephant Hunter 1864-1875 bt William Finaughty
Hunting the Elephant in Africa bt Stigand

Steve, all of the books mentioned are excellent, and here are a few more:

Modern African Adventures -- Ed Matunas

White Hunters -- Brian Herne

Uganda Safaris -- " "

Hunting the Dangerous Game of Africa -- John Kingsley-Heath

Last of The Few -- Tony Sanchez Arino~

McElroy Hunts The Dangerous Game of Africa -- C.J McElroy

McElroy Hunts the Antelopes of Africa -- " "

The Big Five -- Tony Dyer

Trophy Hunter In Africa -- Elgin Gates

The White Nile -- Alan Moorehead

African Hunting -- Peter Barrett

African Twilight -- Robert F. Jones

Search For The Spiral Horn -- Craig Boddington
(ALL of Craig's books are worth owning!)

Chui! -- Lou Hallimore

A Life On Safari -- Goeff Broom

AD

Favorites in this order:

Hunter by JA Hunter
Maneaters of Kumaon by Corbett
Pondoro by Taylor
The Maneaters of Tsavo by Patterson
Tales of the African Frontier by Hunter et al

quote:

Originally posted by Steve:
It's Summer and I'm not going to be in Africa. I need the Africana methadone equivelent!
-Steve

Horn of the Hunter by Robert Ruark.
My all-time favorite.

-Bob F.


This Waterbuck was one of the excellent
trophies that Robert Ruark collected with
Harry Selby on his first safari to Tanganyika
in 1952. This safari resulted in Ruark's book,
'Horn of the Hunter'.
http://gabrimaun.tripod.com/HarrySelby.html

Steve,
To get the best value from the Safari Press offer, concentrate on their less common books.

The more common SP titles, like the older Boddingtons, Capstick, J.A. Hunter, Ruark et al are always available from Books A Million , for one, at 25% or better off full retail. Their shipping rates are at least as good too.

And on the BoZ African Hunting Reprint series, there's a comment at the top of the list: "Leather bound editions prices on request." Hmmm....the standard binding set is about USD355.

This place has some out of print books and hard to find. http://www.alibris.com/

I'm trying to save money and ya' ll adding to my readding list.

quote:

Horn of the Hunter by Robert Ruark.
....

This Waterbuck was one of the excellent
trophies that Robert Ruark collected with
Harry Selby on his first safari to Tanganyika
in 1952. This safari resulted in Ruark's book,
'Horn of the Hunter'. ....

Interestingly this book was written by a person whom at that time we would now call a "one safari expert"!

Edited: My comment was provocative. But I agree it is a great read and worth owning. My comment was a comparison to the comments by some about similar today. It would be interesting to see where we all are in twenty years time.

quote:

Originally posted by invader66:
This place has some out of print books and hard to find. http://www.alibris.com/

Alibris is good but only one of many on-line booksellers. WWW.BookFinder.com searches through almost every on-line bookseller - including Alibris - from all over the world - a truly exhaustive search. Both new and used, rare, out-of-print, virtually every copy available.

http://www.bookfinder.com/

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:

Interestingly this book was written by a person whom at that time we would now call a "one safari expert"!

Edited: My comment was provocative. But I agree it is a great read and worth owning. My comment was a comparison to the comments by some about similar today. It would be interesting to see where we all are in twenty years time.

Well, sure it was written by a "one safari expert". At least Ruark was at the time he wrote the book. He did go on many safaris later on, though. But, we have to remember, that at the time Horn of the Hunter was written, not many Americans had gone on safari yet. Along with Hemingway (Green Hills of Africa), Ruark inspired many Americans to go hunting on safari. His later novels, Something of Value and Uhuru are also excellent reading. Another excellent Ruark book that I have enjoyed is Robert Ruark's Africa edited by Michael McIntosh.

And as Steve originally posted "It's Summer and I'm not going to be in Africa. I need the Africana methadone equivalent!", I find a little Ruark to be my "fix".

-Bob F.

Another good source for used and out-of-print books is:

http://www.abebooks.com/

-Bob F.

This might be worth a look !

UK site

Peter

And then after you buy any of the above mentioned, purchase "I Married Adventure" by Osa Johnson. Read it and then give it to your wife, lover or any woman you would like to see Africa with.
Frank

And since no-one has said so. Read anything Capstick.

Frank,

Yep! Another good one by Osa Johnson is "Four Years in Paradise".

-Bob F.

The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum
http://www.safarimuseum.com/

Bob

I wasn't knocking Ruark's book at all. I enjoy it and it is an essential part of a good safari library.

My comment was how many times do we here "he is just a one-safari expert" on AR.

Where will some of these people be in thirty years time?

You are also right Ruark inspired many Americans to go on safari again.

***

More books:

"African Hunter" by Bror Blixen
"Out of Africa", "Shadows on the Grass", various other stories by Karen Blixen / Isak Dineson

Nitrox about Ruark and "one safari expert's".
i own a machine shop and know quite a few machinist's with 20 years of experience. i also know a quite a few machinist's with one years of experience 20 times. all depends on the man. some just pick up things faster than others. but you can learn something from everyone no matter what there experience. sorry about the off topic statements. African Hunter 2 covers a lot. Craig Boddington states that hunting in Botswana will end in a few years. what's up with that.

quote:

Originally posted by brad may:
Craig Boddington states that hunting in Botswana will end in a few years. what's up with that.

Sounds like a new discussion. Did give any reasons?

I think it is necessary to understand what the reader expects from a safari book, i.e a how-to manual, or a chronical of what happened, than to simply criticize based on number of safaris hunted. It is far more important that the writer can accurately enable the reader to be there with them at the moment of the hunt and to describe their feelings, thoughts and the natural world around them so that it matters not whether it is the first or thirtieth time it has happened. African Game Trails was written during/after a first safari, but was written by a prolific genius and has the characteristic of performing time travel when read. First anything books are often plauged with the writer writing over his head, trying to make something out of nothing or glassing over the important with a mere mention wheras it should have been a chapter. It is only experience as a writer, not a hunter, that these differences become apparent and I think that is what makes some first safari books lethargic, it is not that there were no stories to be told, rather, the wrong person telling them.

Seq craig states in african hunter 2 in the chapter on Botswana (don't have book with me at present, i'm at work) that hunting will come to an end for i believe political policy's. maybe same as Kenya? that's the limit of my knowledge on this.

It is good to see Kenya discussing the opening of hunting there again. At lease that is the rumor from the news media.
Frank

Bob, thanks for the lead on the Johnson book. I will have to start looking.
Frank

Frank,

Try http://www.abebooks.com/ I just did a search on there and got 92 hits for "Four Years in Paradise". Many are first editions.

-Bob F.

Thanks Bob, I got one on order.
Frank

Myself I acquired recently a small library of African hunting literature - mostly as a result of sieving the avaia;ble opinions here at the ARF.
As already mentioned - most good ones are out of print - a good many difficult to impossible to obtain.
I consider myself lucky in that I was able to purchase most fairly reasonably thru Alibri or E -Bay - it just took time.
I came to the conclusion that most animals are shot at the familiar targets to us NA hunters,but elephants certainly different.Their shear size makes target identification a different challenge,the closeness of persuit together with the real or imaginative danger, makes them a quarry second to no other.
I had to overcome my dislike to kill an elephant though,the familiar friendly animals of zoos,circus etc
Ron Thompson in his book Mahohboh helped on both issues.It is a marvelous book and should be in any library- so I believe.
Others are the WDM Bell trilogy, richly illustrating the circumstances and customs when african hunting was a true challenge and virginal.
Pondoro also very educational.
The reason I mention those 3 is because the belong to a different class than all others I read so far.
I started with Ruark,moved to Capstick and on
these are mostly adventure.

Mahohboh by Ron Thomsson.

Thanks Folks!

Sorry for the tardy response. Been out goofing off.

I've got several of the books that have been mentioned. But the others look intriguing. I'll be making a list and comparing prices with other sites.

Looks like my list of books that I'm going to be behind on will be getting longer.

-Steve

Horn of the Hunter may have been by a one safari hunter, but what a safari. It was a few month safari over a fair chunk of east Africa. I'm pretty sure that safari would be impossible to duplicate today, regardless of the time and money you have to spend.

If anyone would like to read "The Maneaters of Tsavo" for free, check this out:
http://www.free-books.org/europeanliterature/ManEatersOfTsavo.htm

(Forward by Selous)

quote:

Originally posted by Steve:
Thanks Folks!

Sorry for the tardy response. Been out goofing off.

I've got several of the books that have been mentioned. But the others look intriguing. I'll be making a list and comparing prices with other sites.

Looks like my list of books that I'm going to be behind on will be getting longer.

-Steve

Steve

Harry Manners whom commenced his professional ivory hunting career in 1940 has a book called Kambaku

IT chronicles his adventurous life as an ivory hunter in Portuguese East Africa and according to some is one of the greatest hunting books you could ever read.

He has/had the number 4 tusker record I believe, and the story goes those tusks are still somewher BUT no one can locate them

Apparantly he died in SA in recent years and there may stil be some of his artifacts left for sale / if anyone is interested I can find out



Peter

For pure pleasure reading, Jack Atcheson's Hunting Adventures Worldwide is excellent.
http://www.atcheson.com/books.aspx

quote:

Originally posted by Balla Balla:
Harry Manners whom commenced his professional ivory hunting career in 1940 has a book called Kambaku

IT chronicles his adventurous life as an ivory hunter in Portuguese East Africa and according to some is one of the greatest hunting books you could ever read.

He has/had the number 4 tusker record I believe, and the story goes those tusks are still somewher BUT no one can locate them

Apparantly he died in SA in recent years and there may stil be some of his artifacts left for sale / if anyone is interested I can find out

Peter

As he was a professional ivory shooter he probably SOLD THEM. Maybe they are long since piano keys.

Yes I would be interested in any artifacts.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:

Peter

As he was a professional ivory shooter he probably SOLD THEM. Maybe they are long since piano keys.

Yes I would be interested in any artifacts.

I will ask around and let you know should I have any success

Guests /

These two are also a good read for those whom particular like yester year hunting escapades /

MEMORIES OF AFRICA: Hunting in Zambia and Sudan
by Werner Brach

JOHN BOYES KING OF THE WA-KIKUYU.
by Boyes, John.

You can get them from seller in AZ /// they have some real classics to buy on Africa plus Military & Guns

Telephone: 520-512-1065 (ask for Tony or Jeannie) Fax: 520-512-8820

Peter