Refreshing! A fun read. A new perspective on African hunting.. All of this is true about this semi-autobiography by a quail hunting cardiologist from North Carolina.

Dr. Greenfield is a pure blood quail hunter. He never intended to hunt anything with hair or horns but fate interrupted his previously happy life. A friend just sort of getting going in the booking business talked him into going to Africa to hunt buffalo. He bit and is now hooked.

This book chronicles his first trips after buffalo, then lion, then elephant. He never took the beginning step of chasing plains game on ranches in South Africa. He started full bore in Tanzania with a double rifles and the big stuff. His views and insights are refreshing as he is not a collector of heads or inches but a collector of life experiences. He spends a considerable amount of time in his book discussing the trackers and one in particular. Judging from his description of the PH's he worked with, they kind of grew up into hunters themselves as they hunted together.

Overall, his fresh view of Africa, his fascination with all of Africa and his comments about collecting butterflies makes this a fun read. The photos are decent, the stories are well told and he adds poems at the end of his chapters. He is no poet, but he really seems to have fun making the words work to convey his thoughts and feelings.

This is a good book and on sale at Safari Press right now for $10. I messed up and bought it for $25 earlier but it is well worth it.

Buy it, read it, laugh and rekindle your wonder about Africa. On the dogcat scale, I rate this a solid 8 and one you should read.