Tarantula Keeper's Guide

bamato

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 25, 2008
Messages
768
Thanks so much for giving us a heads up on the down low of your new book Stan and Marguerite!! We all can't wait!!!
 

bugguy1

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
May 26, 2003
Messages
118
Thanks for clearing that up! I cannot wait to get my copy! This has always been my favorite book on the subject and am looking forward to the new material!
 

IrishKnight

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
92
cannot wait to get my copy as well!! hopefully it will have some pictures of G.pulchra's and P.metallica's!:D
 

T-Harry

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 12, 2005
Messages
265
I'm not sure if the US release date is different from the UK release date, but it has been out since the 1st February in the UK. It is a very good book and worth every penny even for the seasoned keepers. :)

Alex
Thanks for that info.
I've allready preordered last autumn at the German amazon affiliate where it said that it will be released on February 1st. But in February they removed the release date and stated that it is not deliverable at the moment. After they sent me an e-mail asking me if I want to cancel my order since they're not sure if they can ever deliver the book I checked at other German online book stores but they all said that it is not in stock.
So then I checked at amazon.com where I could've preordered it but they too don't give a release date.
I googled but I couldn't find any online store that could deliver the book. That struck me strange since it was previously told to be released on February 1st.
After I've read your post I checked at amazon.co.uk (don't know why I didn't have that idea before) and now I should receive my copy soon!
And since the British pound is quite weak against the Euro at the moment I even get it cheaper than at amazon.de allthough I have to pay shipping charges... :clap:
 

Stan Schultz

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Messages
1,677
I always love to find new reading material for my hobbys! I have the book but i'm not sure what edition it is. I got it just before I got my first spider about 6-7 years ago. How can I tell what the edition is? If I have edition 1 I might have to pick up edition 2 as well, so I can get a hold of ALL of the information! hehe ;P (insert evil laugh here)
Visit http://atshq.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20000&highlight=guide. See posting #5. KJ did a great job of sorting it out, and a tip o' the hat to him for that.
 

ph0bia

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 13, 2009
Messages
330
What information has been dropped between 2 and 3? I don't own any other than 3 and wondering if the info in 2 that disappeared is relevant.

How come you had to drop some anyways? Do you have a limit on how much can be placed in? I'd have thought creating the 'Ultimate Guide' would be difficult to resist, thus filling it with EVERYTHING. =P

Either way, much respect for Edition 3. It's an incredible read, nice to read a book that's not just "Dump this species in a slightly moist container that's warm" book, one where the author seems to care about the subject rather than trying to get money from newbies to the hobby.
 

Stan Schultz

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Messages
1,677
What information has been dropped between 2 and 3? I don't own any other than 3 and wondering if the info in 2 that disappeared is relevant....
The best way for me to answer this is to suggest you get copies of both and compare their tables of contents. I know that sounds like a cop-out, but a blow by blow itemization would take too long and too much space. (You need not buy G2 because most public libraries will have copies and I think there are a few websites that list the table of contents, although I don't know their addresses.)

... How come you had to drop some anyways? Do you have a limit on how much can be placed in? I'd have thought creating the 'Ultimate Guide' would be difficult to resist, thus filling it with EVERYTHING. =P ...
You are quite correct. Barrons at first insisted that the third edition not have any more pages than the second, i.e., about 280, but they didn't tell us that when they asked us to do a revision. (Had we known that all they wanted was a cosmetic makeover, we'd have firmly declined.) We sent them a manuscript that would have translated into a 500 page book BEFORE THE 200 ILLUSTRATIONS WERE INSERTED! :eek:

The result was a classic heated exchange (and I'm being civil here) between an author (actually a pair of co-authors) and a publisher. The end result was that we dropped several other large chunks to reduce the book's size as much as we could without castrating it (Oops! Did I use that word in a family forum?) and their response was to reduce the print size, the white space, and the size of the illustrations so they could fit more words per page. That's how we got 386± pages. (A compromise is an agreement that neither party is really happy with!)

My intention is to publish the parts of G3 that did not make it into print on our website so anyone who's interested can still read them. Of course (now here's a little of my ethnic ancestry coming to the fore :eek: ) they'll still have to borrow the actual book from a library or buy a copy to get the majority of the text. We will not be including the dropped parts of G2 because that's already been published and is readily available elsewhere, because it would be a terrific pain in the fundament, and because I don't have that much time.

...Either way, much respect for Edition 3. It's an incredible read, nice to read a book that's not just "Dump this species in a slightly moist container that's warm" book, one where the author seems to care about the subject rather than trying to get money from newbies to the hobby.
Thanks for the compliment. "We aims to please."

Some might say that we're getting rich off the royalties (they're nice, but not enough to allow us to retire in the Bahamas!), but it turns out that the money wasn't our primary interest.

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s the only tarantula books available were Baerg's (scarcer than hen's teeth!) and Dale Lund's. We didn't like some parts of Dale's book and decided to write our own to suit our own needs.

The problem was that no one knew very much about tarantulas as pets and I spent literally years in major university libraries photocopying anything I could get my hands on that mentioned or addressed tarantulas. I developed a passing ability to "sort of" read Spanish and French well enough to at least guess what the written works were about, although nowhere near good enough to actually translate them. I made a complete pest of myself to the few people I knew who COULD translate them. That phase took about 6 or 7 years to complete. G1 was published in the spring of 1984 by Sterling publishing.

G2 took even longer, partly because we were still haunting libraries, and collecting and collating information, partly because of sour economic conditions, but was published in 1998.

So, whether you love it or hate it, you're quite correct. We didn't intend it to be a casual flash in the pan or simply a means of separating you from your hard earned money. It was intended from the start to be "the" definitive work on tarantula care.

I will admit from the beginning that there is at least one aspect where G3 falls short. While it has a fairly good (we think) general discussion of breeding tarantulas, we'd very much like to see someone publish a book devoted only to describing the breeding of the various kinds.

Think about it: Some carry the eggsacs with them in their burrows. Others suspend them from the ceiling in little hammocks. Some build their nests high in trees and live and breed almost completely in a vertical environment. All this makes me believe that we've just touched the surface of describing tarantula breeding in nature and in captivity. As stated in G3, "Who will write THE TARANTULA BREEDER'S GUIDE?"
 

IrishPolishman

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 23, 2008
Messages
451
I own the latest copy at the moment and have read it front to back before I realized it. All I have to say is that the book is amazing and I learned a lot. I will definitely have to buy the newest one coming out. But for anyone who has not purchased any of them yet.....GO BUY THEM!!!! It will expand your hobby of keeping tarantulas and help you better understand proper care and real world situations.

so to sum things up....GO BUY THE BOOK!!!!
 

Eggy

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 2, 2006
Messages
137
Just orderd a bunch of books from amazon, inc the G2 and the G3, cant wait to get my hands on them.
 

DFox

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
82
I ordered from Barnes & Noble and they're not shipping until the 23rd. I am jealous you folks are already enjoying the book. I'll probably end up picking up G2 as well sometime as I don't already own it but I haven't yet found it at any of the book stores I've been to. (I'd rather pay for gas and see a bit of the city than pay for shipping.) :(
 

Stan Schultz

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Messages
1,677
... I'll probably end up picking up G2 as well sometime as I don't already own it but I haven't yet found it at any of the book stores I've been to. (I'd rather pay for gas and see a bit of the city than pay for shipping.) :(
Let your fingers do the walking [driving]. Call your local pet shops. If they don't have it they'll probably be able to order a copy for you.

If you finally decide to order over the 'Net, Abe Books (http://www.abebooks.com/) lists 33 hits, the lowest of which is $5.00 from Boise, Idaho.
 

JayzunBoget

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
331
Hi Stan! I can't wait to get my copy of the third edition. Are you going to be doing a signing/promotion tour in the States? Do we dare to hope Margurite will come too?
If you guys do come, please make sure to stop by Preuss Pets! I hope to see you then...:worship: :worship: :worship:
 

fartkowski

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2007
Messages
4,904
Hi Stan! I can't wait to get my copy of the third edition. Are you going to be doing a signing/promotion tour in the States? Do we dare to hope Margurite will come too?
If you guys do come, please make sure to stop by Preuss Pets! I hope to see you then...:worship: :worship: :worship:
How about Canada?:D
 

Stan Schultz

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Messages
1,677
Hi Stan! I can't wait to get my copy of the third edition. Are you going to be doing a signing/promotion tour in the States? Do we dare to hope Margurite will come too?
If you guys do come, please make sure to stop by Preuss Pets! I hope to see you then...:worship: :worship: :worship:
How about Canada?:D
We will be touring central Michigan during the middle of April. I'd love to set something up for a weekend at Preuss Pets. And, visiting Mississauga for a day might also be a possibility. Can you two E-mail me at the address in my sig so we can discuss details without boring everybody else to death?

Unfortunately, Marguerite had back surgery last April in an effort to stop a gradual deterioration in her ability to walk. She still hasn't recovered and can't walk. She's very much dependent on me for her care, so I can't be away from her for more than a couple of hours at a time. That's going to put a huge crimp in my ability to hold an all-day tarantula-fest. So no, unfortunately she won't be able to attend.
 

Loudog760

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
246
I'm very new to this hobby and I'm still looking everywhere for information. I very much look forward for this book to be released.
 
Last edited:

c'est ma

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2006
Messages
333
Unfortunately, Marguerite had back surgery last April in an effort to stop a gradual deterioration in her ability to walk. She still hasn't recovered and can't walk. She's very much dependent on me for her care, so I can't be away from her for more than a couple of hours at a time. That's going to put a huge crimp in my ability to hold an all-day tarantula-fest. So no, unfortunately she won't be able to attend.
So very, very sorry to hear that! I've had TKG2 since 2001 & have been on the list for the new one ever since I heard about it. I hope to actually meet you at Preuss, but immensely regret not having the privilege of meeting Marguerite as well! As a woman "of a certain age" (me, not M!), she's been one of my heroes ever since I learned about the two of you!

--Diane G.
 

DFox

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
82
I ordered the newest edition from Barnes&Noble.com and now they're saying they will not ship until March 23rd! I am way too impatient for that, I'll be calling a lot of book shops tonight to see if they got any in. Anyone get anything shipped already from any other online stores?
 

bugguy1

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
May 26, 2003
Messages
118
I am guessing the same is true with Amazon. I ordered it with 2 day shipping and if something is being released on a certain date I get delivery confirmation from them by now that it shipped. With 2 day shipping, in my experience, Amazon gets it to you no later than a day after it is released. This is frustrating...can the authors chime in on this (if they know anything)?
 

c'est ma

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2006
Messages
333
Just went to my Amazon acct, where I've had this on order since mid November. Under status it says:

Delivery estimate: We need a little more time to provide you with a good estimate. We'll notify you via e-mail as soon as we have an estimated delivery date. You can cancel at any time.
I wonder if current economic realities are slowing this down somewhere along the line?

--Diane
 
Top