Fungi Books

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

Paul Stamets

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

More than a field guide to fungi 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book provides a wonderful look into the world of fungi and their properties. I bought the book after seeing the author in a video, and the book has fully lived up to my expectations.

Mycelium Running 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is an extremely easy read - with great examples on how mushrooms grow and how it can be commercialised. If you have an interest in this area, then this is the book to read. Would highly recommend it.

An amazing book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a book that should be on every gardener's bookshelf. You learn that there is far more to building soil than just adding compost. Inoculate the soil with mushrooms and you can harvest food while you improve your soil and everyone's environment. Get this book and don't just read it. Put it into practice and improve the world.

Editorial Review:

A groundbreaking manual for saving the world through mushroom cultivation! The science goes like this: fine filaments of living cells called mycelium, the fruit of which are mushrooms, already cover large areas of land around the world. As the mycelium grows, it silently breaks down plant and animal debris, recycling carbon, nitrogen and other essential elements in the creation of new soil. Read all about the newest trend in environmental science in Mycelium Running.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guides)

Gary H. Lincoff

Amazon Price: $14.25 List Price: $20.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Knopf Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $11.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Worst mushroom book ever seen 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Don't buy it, it's a useless book, why a book without scientific names can work, the paper look like a pocket bible, amazon put this book as it were important but shouldn't be there.

These things are addictive. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I love these field guides! The photographs are fantastic, and are easy to navigate for quick identification. We enjoy looking at these books even when we aren't out scouting for new things to identify.

Editorial Review:

With more than 700 mushrooms detailed with color photographs and descriptive text, this is the most comprehensive photographic field guide to the mushrooms of North America. The 762 full-color identification photographs show the mushrooms as they appear in natural habitats. Organized visually, the book groups all mushrooms by color and shape to make identification simple and accurate in the field, while the text account for each species includes a detailed physical description, information on edibility, season, habitat, range, look-alikes, alternative names, and facts on edible and poisonous species, uses, and folklore. A supplementary section on cooking and eating wild mushrooms, and illustrations identifying the parts of a mushroom, round out this essential guide.

All That the Rain Promises, and More ...: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms

David Arora

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

for westerners, a must-have 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I got this a few years ago at a class Arora taught in Ft Bragg. I keep it with my hiking supplies because I certainly can't carry Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi around with me. This one is a great read and is enough, with its fine photos, to do decent field identification.

I can understand that people in other areas might be disappointed in the western focus, but be aware that the 1986 MD has a broader geographic scope.

Don't think you can beat Arora for mycological knowledge and he communicates it very well with verve and humor.

An Excellent Hip-Pocket Guide and Nothing More. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I live in Minnesota and I bought this book in December. Obviously, I haven't had a chance to use it for its intended purpose but it looks extremely promising.
I purchased this book because I am highly interested in mushroom hunting and the like. This book is purely a hip-pocket (not hip as in cool, mind you) guide and completely supplementary to another book written by the same author, Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi. All That the Rain Promises does not go into extreme depth on all of the different types of mushrooms, rather it gives you an intimate portrait of each mushroom; where it's found, what it looks like, edibility and often anecdotes about the particular mushroom for the sake of identification purposes are included as well as color photos of mushrooms in their natural habitat. It references Mushrooms Demystified for further reading.
Really, don't buy this book without also buying Mushrooms Demystified. I wouldn't feel comfortable going on a mushroom hunt having simply read this book.

Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide

Paul Stamets

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Why this book is vital to humanity as a whole 5 out of 5 stars.
21 of 22 people found this review helpful.

So many people are utterly consumed with their work life that they are avidly avoiding a spiritual experience, which is at the heart of what is ideal. This book may help serve as a gentlemenly guide to embarking on an organized hunt for fungi and an organized understanding of how to incorporate them into personal experience. Although some may argue with me, I would say this is actually high level reading.
The book provides the following:
The effects of psilocybin mushrooms
How to identify them while hunting outdoors
Tips on ingesting them and experiencing them
Pictures and diagrams to help identify them
Individual species descriptions
Poisonous look alikes
Includes a forward by renowned physician Dr. Andrew Weil

There is a wealth of info in this book and it is the best book on this subject.

Editorial Review:

The only identification guide exclusively devoted to psilocybin-containing mushrooms worldwide, with detailed descriptions and color photographs for over 100 species.

A Field Guide to Mushrooms: North America (Peterson Field Guides (R))

Kent H. McKnight

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Still a standard field guide to fungi 5 out of 5 stars.
47 of 47 people found this review helpful.

This field guide is nearly twenty years old, but there are so few field guides to fungi that it still remains a standard reference. Like all Peterson field guides, it is handy and compact and can easily be taken into the field and pored over with the mushrooms in their wild habitat. The text is detailed and accurate and a "similar species" section is very useful. However, this guide uses painted plates whereas amateurs generally find it easier to identify fungi by photographs. I personally find photographs more accurate, but enjoy paintings in their own right. In this case the paintings are pleasing and quite faithful.

Although this guide should be on every mushroom enthusiast's shelves, a better beginners guide might be Roger Phillips' photographic book which has now appeared in a revised edition (on Amazon.com: ISBN 1554071151). Phillips provides 1000 photographs compared to this guide's 700 illustrations. However, Phillips is rather large to take into the field except in a backpack. Bear in mind that no fungus guide is comprehensive - each treats a selection of species - so it is wise to have a good selection in order to be in with a chance of correct identification.

So, until a compact photographic guide to fungi appears, this tried and tested Peterson guide will continue to fill a niche in the mushroom hunter's library.

Editorial Review:

More than 1,000 species of mushrooms described in detail. Over 700 paintings and drawings reveal subtle field marks that cannot be captured into photographs.

North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi (Falconguide)

Orson K. Miller, Hope Miller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not Practical for the Common Hiker 1 out of 5 stars.
15 of 30 people found this review helpful.

This book has three fatal flaws that should prevent it from being in the library of any person without formal training in botany and/or mycology:

Flaw #1: Exclusive use of scientific names (Latin). Common names get only a passing mention and are often not included in the index.

Flaw #2: Identification key is based upon spore printing. The ID key for this book requires spore printing for most mushrooms as a first step. This requires removing the fruiting body, e.g. picking the mushroom just to ID it. Except for purposes of consumption it is illegal to harvest mushrooms in most U.S. National Parks. This book should be illegal too. I hate following in the footsteps of people who harvest mushrooms for purpose of identification. There is nothing more annoying than to discover the sole specimen on an entire hiking trail has already been taken/picked/cut/spore-printed by some inconsiderate hiker. Books like this one which encourage such behavior have no place in our society.

Flaw #3: The book doesn't include the "lower order" of fungi such as Slime Molds and Encrusting Fungi. In my part of the world the Slime Molds and Encrusting Fungi are among the most prolific and interesting of all fungi. The book is worthless to me for identification of those.

Don't buy this book if you feel as do I that harvesting mushrooms for the simple purpose of identification is not an Eco-friendly behavior.

Taming the Truffle: The History, Lore, and Science of the Ultimate Mushroom

Ian R. Hall, Gordon Brown, Alessandra Zambonelli

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Whether the world's best truffles are found in Piedmont or Perigord inspires impassioned debate, but the effects of dwindling supply and insatiable demand for the elusive, ultimate mushroom are unquestionable: prices through the roof, intrigue and deception, and ever more intensive efforts to cultivate.

The secrets of when, how, and where to collect truffles have benn passed from generation to generation since ancient times, but artificial cultivation remains the holy grail. Here in the most comprehensive practical treatment of the gastronomic treasure to date, the art and science of the high-stakes pursuit come together.

Their enthusiasm and expertise leavened with wry humor, the authors explore the newest techniques; they describe the commercial species in detail along with their host plants, natural habitats, cultivation and mintenance, pests and diseases, and harvesting with pigs, dogs, truffle flies, and even the electronic nose.

Pursuit of the fungus that costs more than gold is not for the faint of heart nor for those in a hurry, as under ideal conditions, truffle production in artificial truffieres can begin after three years but results may not be seen until a decade after planting, and maximum yields not for another decade still. So there is time to read and prepare, and no better source than this one.

Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America

Roger Phillips

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The ultimate illustrated handbook on mushrooms.

More than 1,000 handsome color photographs by Roger Phillips illustrate this comprehensive guide to mushrooms and other fungi of North America, in all their astonishing variety.

Amateur collectors, expert mycologists and armchair naturalists will welcome the reissue of this valuable reference.

Each photograph has a neutral background to eliminate distractions. The specimens are arranged to show the cap, stem, gills, spines, and a cross section, usually in various stages of growth.

The information on each mushroom variety includes:

• Dimensions of cap, gills and stem
• Color and texture description of flesh
• Description of odor and taste
• Habitat and growing season
• Description of spores
• Categorization of edibility.

Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America also includes useful tips and helpful advice on collecting specimens and identifying them. This book is the ideal introduction to mycology.

(200601)

Mushrooms of Northeast North America: Midwest to New England

George Barron

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Motivating - my favorite 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I've had this book two years, and since that time have been hunting fungi to take pictures. They are interesting and make good subjects - and this book is motiviating with its beautiful photographs. A good 'guide' to read in the evening before going out the next day..

This is my favorite of a growing 'fungi guide' library, and the first I use when returning home from the field to look at my photos. [A bit tall for the pocket, but narrower than most field guides.] It does not cover everything I find, but neither do any of the others. You have to use multiple sources to get a feel for what you saw, and I now routinely collect a few specimens of the more common things I see to make spore prints to aid identification (but don't eat them!!). Being able to review your own photos helps. Different books have different pictures of the same species, and sometimes I think they look very different (not the same). That tells this newcomer to be even more wary of thinking I know what I'm looking at! Time and experience do make a difference, however, and as with any hobby one knows more as you go along. One thing I learned is to take a specimen of common things you find and make a spore print. This book sorts them that way.

I do like this book best for its treatment of edibles. It lists a dozen or so that are "easy" to recognize and not likely to confuse with dangerous species. Of course if you don't see one JUST like the picture AND matches the details of the description, beware. Other books may differ on the edibility of these, or even offer some that this book says to avoid. So one must start by assuming all specimens are dangerous. That whittles the amatuer's selection down to those half-dozen or so kinds that all the books agree on. Nothing wrong with that! as I've found several of these 'basic' edibles already (morels, black trumpet, inkycap, puffball).

I've recommended this book to friends, and now do so to you, too.

Editorial Review:

A full-color photographic field guide to mushrooms and fungi of the northern United States, from the Midwest to New England. Featured in USA Today, this must-have reference has spectacular photos and excellent species information.

Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanácatl: A Sourcebook on the Psilocybin Mushroom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Over 30 contributors share their expertise on the chemical, biological, cultural, psychological, and experiential dimensions of psilocybin mushrooms

• Describes in vivid detail the consciousness-expanding experiences of psychoactive mushroom users

• Provides firsthand accounts of the controversial Harvard Psilocybin Project, including the Concord Prison and Good Friday studies

Teonanácatl was the name given to the visionary mushrooms used in ancient Mesoamerican shamanic ceremonies, mushrooms that contain psilocybin, the psychoactive agent identified by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD. The rediscovery of these visionary mushrooms by the Mazatec healer Maria Sabina and mycologist R. Gordon Wasson ignited a worldwide mushroom culture that inspired the consciousness revolution of the 1960s.

This book describes in vivid detail the consciousness-expanding experiences of psychoactive mushroom users--from artists to psychologists--and the healing visionary inspiration they received. It provides firsthand accounts of studies performed in the controversial Harvard Psilocybin Project, including the Concord Prison study and the Good Friday study. It describes how the use of the psilocybe mushroom spread from the mountains of Mexico into North America, Asia, and Europe by seekers of consciousness-expanding experiences. It also details how psilocybin has been used since the 1960s in psychotherapy, prisoner rehabilitation, the enhancement of creativity, and the induction of mystical experiences and is being studied as a treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).