A date when i finished this book? I never have. I bought this book when I was getting ready for my first job and have never "finished" it. After graduation i stumbled into a teaching post in Malawi and this book was one of the resources I took with me. It has bene with em ever since and deep in the British Peak District I still turn to it almost on a weekly basis...there will be something, some antelope, a reference to a monkey, a thought of elephant-shrews and Haltenorth and Diller still serve the goods