reading....

... a book I randomly picked up off a shelf in the library last week.  I knew there would be lots of time reading time, when we went to TN and back. With a man who has nothing more to say than: 'do you need to stop?' So I was prepared for a long quiet drive, with a couple of books, hoping at least one would be a distraction during the hours on the interstate.  And a couple of books on CDs, also checked out from the library, that I have always called 'talking books'. This expression was used by my grandmother, after her eye-sight failed and she had them delivered to her door from the Library of Congress, in the form of LP vinyl years ago.

One of the books I took along for the four hour ride was something anyone who has an affinity for animals, especially large, untamed land mammals would enjoy. So in reality what you are reading is a Book Report. The title of the book I finished in just over twenty four hours: "The Elephant Whisperer". Written by Lawrence Anthony.  You probably remember the movie with Robert Redford, "The Horse Whisperer", so will assume that the man who talked to elephants did the same thing... well - sorta. But not.

He lives in Africa, in the far south, relatively close to Cape Town. But Africa being vast, and much of it sparsely inhabited, he lived on a twenty mile square game preserve, and was working with native tribes to enlarge the preserve to provide more protected area for wildlife. Of every variety and size, to the point of actually buying and relocating rhinos. With constant patrolling for poachers and hungry tribesmen.

He was getting his project established when a preservation group called to ask if he would take a family of elephants that needed to be relocated. The place the elephants were living was unwilling to deal with their unacceptable behavior, and if he could not take them they would be destroyed.  He agreed, and the book is the story of how the man was able to get the matriarch of the group to learn to trust a human, as she discovered a man who meant her family no harm. Anthony was willing to devote the time necessary to build a relationship with the group while deliberately not making any effort to actually 'tame' them in the sense of having them do what humans want them to.  The story is  worth reading if for no other reason that learning how a reluctant elephant can be moved. Not easily, as you might guess.

It was an amazing story. And when I opened the book, I discovered the author was the same man who went to Iraq during the first war. Where he spent six months in Baghdad, trying to protect and save the animals that were captive in the zoo there. I have requested "Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo", from the library, but have not read it yet. I remember desperately wanting to read it when I first heard about the story, but apparently didn't write it down. And you know what happens if you don't write stuff down? Fail to make notes to yourself? Yeah, me too....


A p.s. would be good here: one of the talking books was so full of foul language, I returned it after listening for less than ten minutes.  I guess I should have known it would be obscene when the story was about substance abuse and addiction. It's already been delivered to the library drop box.