All Creatures Great and Small

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (August 1, 2004)
ISBN-10: 0312330855

Book Description

Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients.
For over thirty years, generations of readers have thrilled to Herriot's marvelous tales, deep love of life, and extraordinary storytelling abilities. For decades, Herriot roamed the remote, beautiful Yorkshire Dales, treating every patient that came his way from smallest to largest, and observing animals and humans alike with his keen, loving eye.
In All Creatures Great and Small, we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of veterinary practice in rural Yorkshire are very different from the sterile setting of veterinary school. From caring for his patients in the depths of winter on the remotest homesteads to dealing with uncooperative owners and critically ill animals, Herriot discovers the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary practice as his humor, compassion, and love of the animal world shine forth.

This book is not a book you feel like you can’t set down.

This book is not a book you feel you have to rush back to.

This book IS on the graphic side.

This book IS about a young man becoming a country Vet. in the 1930’s.

This book IS comical.

This book IS sad.

This book IS…quite extraordinary.

Young James Herriot not only impresses one as a young man who totally loves the profession he has chosen.

He is not only a man who works very hard, and cares about the animals very much.

He also cares about the farmers and their families who need his help.

Young James is also a very rare man…

He is a man who continually, takes a moment to stop and smell the roses.  He just doesn’t look where he is going…  he notices every path, the trees, the stones, the beauty of the countryside.  He continually realizes how lucky he is to have chosen his profession   and how lucky he is to be working “in the fields”..with nature and animals.

“ At times it seemed unfair that I should be paid for my work; for driving out in the early morning with the fields glittering under the first pale sunshine and the wisps of mist still hanging on the high tops.”

Were we all so lucky to be able to love something that much everyday of our lives.

Were we all so lucky to be able to see what is truly around us and enjoy the beauty of it all.

I do see why this book became a classic.  I do not know why I never read it before.  I have ordered the second book he wrote: All Things Bright and Beautiful…. because I am amazed that a young person stopped to smell the roses, when most of us don’t realize we haven’t until we are old, and then realized how much we missed.

Like I said, this is not a book that will make you rush through it.  It won’t even make you rush back to each chapter… but it will make you read every word that he wrote.