Of Books, Frogs and Memes

I've just finished reading You Darkness by Mayra Montera. Its a book of frogs, zombies and violence, beautifully written but not easy to read. Victor an American herpetologist (zoologist who studies reptiles and amphibians) and his Haitian field assistant Thierry are searching for the almost extinct Blood Frog. They are constantly in danger because of the violence that is around in the rural areas of Haiti at the time. There is an almost palpable sense of this oppressive atmosphere in the book. The narrative of the story is broken up with information about endangered species of frogs and toads.

I became angry at the behaviour of the herpetologists. Here they are searching for a dying species and what do they want to do? Measure it, photograph it and set it free to hopefully find a mate, breed and have some sort of a future as a species? No they want to pickle it and take it back to the lab to dissect, which needless to say isn't going to directly prevent extinction....

Poet with a Day Job tagged me with the book meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.

So here is the appropriate passage from You Darkness:

He shook my hand and asked me to sit down, then he began to talk about frogs, he sketched a few on his little slate and asked me if I recognised any of them. Later he took out a photo of a slimy toad all covered with warts, I knew the creature very well, we talked about its poison for a while and I told him what the fishermen in Jeremie always said, that this toad was the mother of all toads. Papa Crapaud started to laugh and said he felt like their father, that was when I though "Papa Crapaud" and then I said it out loud. "You can call me that if you want to!". He shook my hand and told me to go back to Jeremie and find him a nice little house where he could keep his things.

I know this meme is doing the rounds at the minute, so I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you feel like doing it, consider yourself tagged! Edited to add, people who considered themselves tagged are: Kamsin at Fearfully Made

Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect has been Leaping into Books about Frogs

Visit Amphibian Ark to find out more about the International Year of the Frog. Please join in their campaign. Between a third and half of all known amphibians are threatened with extinction. They need our help.