What do you think?
Rate this book
Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms
An incredibly versatile cooking ingredient containing an abundance of vitamins, minerals, and possibly cancer-fighting properties, mushrooms are among the most expensive and sought-after foods on the planet. Yet when it comes to fungi, culinary uses are only the tip of the iceberg. Throughout history fungus has been prized for its diverse properties—medicinal, ecological, even recreational—and has spawned its own quirky subculture dedicated to exploring the weird biology and celebrating the unique role it plays on earth. In Mycophilia , accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century.
Engrossing, surprising, and packed with up-to-date science and cultural exploration, Mycophilia is part narrative and part primer for foodies, science buffs, environmental advocates, and anyone interested in learning a lot about one of the least understood and most curious organisms in nature.
Engrossing, surprising, and packed with up-to-date science and cultural exploration, Mycophilia is part narrative and part primer for foodies, science buffs, environmental advocates, and anyone interested in learning a lot about one of the least understood and most curious organisms in nature.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published October 25, 2011
194 people are currently reading
3348 people want to read
About the author
Eugenia Bone
17 books36 followersEugenia Bone, a veteran food writer who has published in many national magazines and newspapers, is also a cookbook author. She has contributed to many cookbooks and a few literary journals, been nominated for a variety of food writing awards and participated in radio, interactive and online interviews, in addition to appearing multiple times on television. Eugenia teaches and lectures about food preservation. She lives in New York City and Crawford, Colo.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 197 reviews
October 7, 2016
* - too 'populist' for my liking, but above all voicing dangerously unscientific opinions.
Eugenia Bone has written a book overflowing with enthusiasm for anything remotely related to fungi. It is easy to get carried along by E.B.'s enthusiasm, although I found the book to be fundamentally flawed on some important issues.
Let us start with the positives, though. I found two sections of the book interesting. The "scientific" part about mushroom biology etc (chapter 3 "Mutualists, decomposers, and parasites") and about truffle cultivation (chapter 6 "Truffles"). And to my surprise, the part about psychedelic mushrooms (chapter 10 "Shrooms").
I found the excruciatingly American style subjectively annoying, but not the main reason I rated the book as I did. But for instance the stories about mushroom hunts with a 100-something people running around in an enclosed area and subsequently getting prizes for largest mushroom. These amongst others were beyond my stuffy European cultural understanding.
So why did I rate the book as I did?
For instance in chapter 4 ("Hunters, gatherers, and thieves"), E.B. was appallingly clandestinely racist - "I could guess their race by their body types: sturdy, big-headed Mexicans and slender, petite Asians." And other more openly degrading remarks.
Then came chapter 9 ("Fungi that make you well and fungi that make you sick"), which made me seriously worried about the way E.B. voices her meagre knowledge outside her own field. Sentences like "Western medicine's approach is to react to disease, Eastern medicine (Traditional Chinese medicine) approach is to avoid disease". E.B. is evidently of the opinion that shamanistic rituals and centuries old 'traditions' are more useful in treating sickness than the approach of evidence-based medicine, which has given us antibiotics (derived from fungi), modern surgical techniques or cardiac arrest treatment algorithms. As a healthcare professional, it makes me incredibly annoyed when uninformed and uneducated individuals make statements deriding our Western medical knowledge. Since this knowledge is the only form of treatment that is both tested to be as safe as possible to the user and checked against rigorous standards to be as efficient as possible. A book like this, written by someone without the proper knowledge and understanding of medical science, depicts unscientific medical traditions in a romantic and optimistic way. This may misinform readers causing increased suffering and, God forbid, death.
Eugenia Bone has written a book overflowing with enthusiasm for anything remotely related to fungi. It is easy to get carried along by E.B.'s enthusiasm, although I found the book to be fundamentally flawed on some important issues.
Let us start with the positives, though. I found two sections of the book interesting. The "scientific" part about mushroom biology etc (chapter 3 "Mutualists, decomposers, and parasites") and about truffle cultivation (chapter 6 "Truffles"). And to my surprise, the part about psychedelic mushrooms (chapter 10 "Shrooms").
I found the excruciatingly American style subjectively annoying, but not the main reason I rated the book as I did. But for instance the stories about mushroom hunts with a 100-something people running around in an enclosed area and subsequently getting prizes for largest mushroom. These amongst others were beyond my stuffy European cultural understanding.
So why did I rate the book as I did?
For instance in chapter 4 ("Hunters, gatherers, and thieves"), E.B. was appallingly clandestinely racist - "I could guess their race by their body types: sturdy, big-headed Mexicans and slender, petite Asians." And other more openly degrading remarks.
Then came chapter 9 ("Fungi that make you well and fungi that make you sick"), which made me seriously worried about the way E.B. voices her meagre knowledge outside her own field. Sentences like "Western medicine's approach is to react to disease, Eastern medicine (Traditional Chinese medicine) approach is to avoid disease". E.B. is evidently of the opinion that shamanistic rituals and centuries old 'traditions' are more useful in treating sickness than the approach of evidence-based medicine, which has given us antibiotics (derived from fungi), modern surgical techniques or cardiac arrest treatment algorithms. As a healthcare professional, it makes me incredibly annoyed when uninformed and uneducated individuals make statements deriding our Western medical knowledge. Since this knowledge is the only form of treatment that is both tested to be as safe as possible to the user and checked against rigorous standards to be as efficient as possible. A book like this, written by someone without the proper knowledge and understanding of medical science, depicts unscientific medical traditions in a romantic and optimistic way. This may misinform readers causing increased suffering and, God forbid, death.
April 29, 2014
I've heard some criticism of this book, but to me it creates a complete view of mushrooms from one woman's personal experience and perspective. It may not be your own, and that's ok. As a mushroom enthusiast - not a scientist, not an expert, not a gatherer - I found the book truly fascinating. It gives a great base of knowledge in everything from history, to science, to culture, to future, to cooking. I'll be going back through and re-reading some chapters to further my understanding. Some parts of the book are memoir-esque and full of personal insight, experience, judgement, etc. - but I found that it only added to my enjoyment.
January 6, 2012
Eugenia Bone is, from what I understand, a food writer who got into mycology as an eater and ended up as the President of the New York Mycological Society. She wrote this book to chronicle her exploits.
For anyone who's studied mycology at all or even read a number of other pop-mycology books (Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds, The Kingdom Fungi, etc), this book will be old news. However, there are some rather nice aspects of the book. First of all, Bone has a fairly interesting personality and isn't afraid to let it come through in her writing - it's certainly not sterilized.
More importantly, she's done an awful lot of reading and searching in the primary literature for the book, and having all of that gathered into one place can be helpful and interesting. She's also included some of the most fascinating, up-to-date new discoveries, which I was unfamiliar with before. For instance, I was unfamiliar with the fascinating research being done on melanin as an pseudo "photosynthetic" molecule in fungi.
So yeah. It's always exciting to relive, vicariously, the discovery of the wonderful world of fungi (which is, of course, our own magical world). But there's nothing particularly special about this book other than its recent publication.
For anyone who's studied mycology at all or even read a number of other pop-mycology books (Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds, The Kingdom Fungi, etc), this book will be old news. However, there are some rather nice aspects of the book. First of all, Bone has a fairly interesting personality and isn't afraid to let it come through in her writing - it's certainly not sterilized.
More importantly, she's done an awful lot of reading and searching in the primary literature for the book, and having all of that gathered into one place can be helpful and interesting. She's also included some of the most fascinating, up-to-date new discoveries, which I was unfamiliar with before. For instance, I was unfamiliar with the fascinating research being done on melanin as an pseudo "photosynthetic" molecule in fungi.
So yeah. It's always exciting to relive, vicariously, the discovery of the wonderful world of fungi (which is, of course, our own magical world). But there's nothing particularly special about this book other than its recent publication.
August 31, 2020
DNF, my first in almost two years. I tried, I really did. I love mycology as a whole, but as I was reading this I started to be really disgruntled at the author's choice on what she wanted to cover. Trying to get through even to a quarter into the book was a slog. It was like 65% her bragging about all the places she could travel to be a foodie, how she felt she rarely fit in being a woman and how often she wore all black, 25% talking about mycologists and how she thought they were weird and eccentric, and 10% about actual mushrooms and fungus.
During all of this as well, a friend of mine who actually studied mycology recognized the author's name and told me she's known for having forced herself in mycology groups and forcefully became a president of a mycology group when she's only really there for the foodie aspect of mushroom eating. He mentioned, and I quote 'Her book is just known pretty well because it's usually easily found in headshops.'
Guess where I found my book? Here's a hint: Anytime I opened it, it wafted the soaked-in smell of incense because it had been in a said headshop for an obviously long time.
PS - apparently there's a pretty racist chapter. I'm glad I didn't get to that or I'd have thrown it across the room. Yikes.
During all of this as well, a friend of mine who actually studied mycology recognized the author's name and told me she's known for having forced herself in mycology groups and forcefully became a president of a mycology group when she's only really there for the foodie aspect of mushroom eating. He mentioned, and I quote 'Her book is just known pretty well because it's usually easily found in headshops.'
Guess where I found my book? Here's a hint: Anytime I opened it, it wafted the soaked-in smell of incense because it had been in a said headshop for an obviously long time.
PS - apparently there's a pretty racist chapter. I'm glad I didn't get to that or I'd have thrown it across the room. Yikes.
June 9, 2021
I am interested to learn more about mushrooms, so I put this one on my "to read" list as soon as I found it.
Author Eugenia Bone is a nature and food journalist, as well as a writer and speaker, whose writing is primarily about the connections between food, sustainability, and the natural sciences.
Eugenia Bone :
Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms was an interesting read. The title of the book is explained in the opening pages:
The beautiful Amanita muscaria:
Mycophilia mentions how ubiquitous fungi and their spores are:
Bone writes about groups of traveling mushroom harvesters here, referred to as "circuit pickers", who travel around the United States looking for morels. The better ones are followed by buyers:
Mycophilia also has some very interesting writing about truffles, vitamin D, Psilocybin, Amanita muscaria, Mycoremediation, and the human microbiome. The book's narrative alternates between the author's personal experiences, and the related relevant scientific info. It was a recipe that largely worked here.
Psilocybin, the "Magic" mushroom:
There was a small bit of incorrect and ill-informed writing in here, that dumps on modern "Western" medicine, while somewhat romanticizing "Eastern", or Asian medicine:
That small criticism aside, this book is full of informative and interesting writing. Author Eugenia Bone writes with an engaging style, and the book has a great flow.
I would recommend this one to anyone interested.
4 stars.
Author Eugenia Bone is a nature and food journalist, as well as a writer and speaker, whose writing is primarily about the connections between food, sustainability, and the natural sciences.
Eugenia Bone :
Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms was an interesting read. The title of the book is explained in the opening pages:
"MycophiliaThe book covers many mushroom-related topics in here. The author mentions early on that she became interested in foraging for wild mushrooms because she enjoys cooking with them and eating them. The book details many different fungi, interspliced with accounts of her travels to various mushroom festivals, and some of the people she met along the way.
From the Greek,
myco = fungus, philos = loving."
The beautiful Amanita muscaria:
Mycophilia mentions how ubiquitous fungi and their spores are:
"...It slowly became evident to me that fungi were everywhere: We inhale 1 to 10 spores with every breath, as many as 300,000 spores a day. They live on every surface, in every organism to some degree or another, and some can theoretically live forever. They function as a shadow immune system for all plants, a shadow digestive system for trees, and are the source of some of the worst plagues of man and animals and crops, and the best medicine we have. Fungi can decompose all sorts of organic compounds, even petroleum and sarin gas; and given enough time, they will likely evolve to recycle all the rest of our chemical inventions. Indeed, as the mycologist C. J. Alexopoulos put it, “scarcely a day passes when we aren’t helped or harmed by fungi.”Some more interesting factoids; morels are somewhat toxic when raw. Also, there is no "poop" on common button mushrooms; the fungus breaks down the organic material.
Bone writes about groups of traveling mushroom harvesters here, referred to as "circuit pickers", who travel around the United States looking for morels. The better ones are followed by buyers:
"...After an hour of labor, Andrew and I had collected about 10 pounds of morels.The morel:
All along the road back to camp, we saw the tents of morel buyers. The buyers tend to be independent contractors who work for one or more wild mushroom distribution companies. These companies may front substantial amounts of cash to the buyers who purchase mushrooms directly from the pickers, but most buyers finance their purchases independently. It is not uncommon for buyers to purchase tens of thousands of dollars worth of mushrooms a day. Prices depend on species; demand in the United States, Europe, and Japan; quality; and availability. If mushrooms are scarce, then the price goes up; if the mushrooms are prolific, then the price will be lower, but more mushrooms are purchased.
Indeed, wild mushroom transactions may be the largest legal cash-based commerce in the USA..."
Mycophilia also has some very interesting writing about truffles, vitamin D, Psilocybin, Amanita muscaria, Mycoremediation, and the human microbiome. The book's narrative alternates between the author's personal experiences, and the related relevant scientific info. It was a recipe that largely worked here.
Psilocybin, the "Magic" mushroom:
There was a small bit of incorrect and ill-informed writing in here, that dumps on modern "Western" medicine, while somewhat romanticizing "Eastern", or Asian medicine:
"...The Western approach to medicine is based on the notion of the silver bullet, the one shot that cures the disease, either by eradicating or relieving illness surgically or chemically. It is, according to Dr. Denis Benjamin, a “reductionist” approach.The terms "Eastern", "traditional", "alternative" or "Western" medicines are unscientific misnomers. There is no such thing as alternative medicine. There's only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't.
In contrast, Asian medicine promotes health, including improvements of a more general sort, like immune system enhancement and increased vigor.
You could say the definition of Western doctoring is to respond to disease and the definition of Eastern doctoring is to avoid disease..."
That small criticism aside, this book is full of informative and interesting writing. Author Eugenia Bone writes with an engaging style, and the book has a great flow.
I would recommend this one to anyone interested.
4 stars.
September 20, 2019
What if a narcissist was obcessed with mushrooms and wrote a book about it? You would get Eugenia Bone's book. If you're looking for a source of information about mushrooms - choose something else. This book is more centered around the author's experience, her food cravings for mushrooms and people who have found mushrooms to be their hobby. Half of the book is just 'me,me,me'. If it was a biography like 'Lab girl' I would have rated it higher.
March 25, 2014
For once I actually bothered to purchase a book and not just receive it free for review. Sadly, I wasn't thrilled.
What I expected out of this book was something much more science or even mushroom-oriented. Unfortunately, that was only about 20% of the total book's content. I put the breakdown at right about:
20% - Science, Cultivation and Habitat
30% - Personal anecdote and memoir
30% - Festivals, events and venues
20% - Cooking
In summary, I guess I should have expected some of this based on the description and the history of the author but really not my cup of tea. All that said, the author is witty turns a fine phrase but that doesn't help much when she's going on about exactly the wrong thing.
What I expected out of this book was something much more science or even mushroom-oriented. Unfortunately, that was only about 20% of the total book's content. I put the breakdown at right about:
20% - Science, Cultivation and Habitat
30% - Personal anecdote and memoir
30% - Festivals, events and venues
20% - Cooking
In summary, I guess I should have expected some of this based on the description and the history of the author but really not my cup of tea. All that said, the author is witty turns a fine phrase but that doesn't help much when she's going on about exactly the wrong thing.
April 23, 2023
This was delightful because it mixed science, history, logistics and personal anecdotes as Eugenia Bone starts a ten years journey into finding out everything about mushrooms. I really enjoyed it.
April 16, 2018
Interesting but a bit too personal
I enjoyed the book and feel I learned quite a bit from it about mushrooms, but I was quite put off by the overly-sharey feel to the book. I know this was written as a personal narrative, but the author can be quite snarky at times, which really was distasteful to me. Her impressions of other people took away from the really good information in the book and disrupted the flow of the narrative. I was left with an overall disagreeable impression of the author, although I appreciate the knowledge imparted about fungus.
I enjoyed the book and feel I learned quite a bit from it about mushrooms, but I was quite put off by the overly-sharey feel to the book. I know this was written as a personal narrative, but the author can be quite snarky at times, which really was distasteful to me. Her impressions of other people took away from the really good information in the book and disrupted the flow of the narrative. I was left with an overall disagreeable impression of the author, although I appreciate the knowledge imparted about fungus.
March 29, 2020
Person without a doctorate in the subject writes down everything she knows about the topic in hopes of an honorary degree.
This book seemed devoid of a filter, synthesis, or triage. I certainly know more about mushrooms than I did before—I also think that I now know more than could ever be useful.
This book seemed devoid of a filter, synthesis, or triage. I certainly know more about mushrooms than I did before—I also think that I now know more than could ever be useful.
July 13, 2017
A fun and thorough introduction to the world of mushrooms. I can tell a lot of research went into this book - at the same time, as another reader voiced, I didn't really enjoy some of the unnecessary details. Ex. the snipe about the Asian woman holding up the mushroom hunt with a persistent little smile seemed rude and unneeded. Still, a decent book to feed my love for mushrooms.
November 6, 2021
Oh boy, where to start. I should have heeded the Goodreads reviews on this one. I was glad that I was able to listen to this in double-time. I finished it because, well, I paid for it, and I wanted to earn the right to write this bitchy review.
The accessible science in this book is very interesting, but Bone's condescending descriptions of literally everyone who isn't her grew rather tiring, rather quickly. (It's actually possible to quote a person without saying what they look like, but Bone never does.) The descriptions of anyone non-white, Midwestern, or fat were especially condescending and unflattering. What a pity that all the people involved with mycology aren't white, thin New Yorkers like the author! The entirety of Chapter 4 was a racist mess that could have been omitted.
All of the stories about the author drinking wine and eating mushrooms and meeting fabulous people also could have been omitted.
Further, I've got a strong dislike for the author's repeated categorization of Americans as "mycophobic." I find mushrooms-as-food pretty revolting, but I can attest that they're pretty ubiquitous in American vegetarian food. Someone must be eating them!
Finally, the Audible edition of this book contained a number of simple, obvious mispronunciations, further increasing my irritation at this title. (How does the author not know how to pronounce "Illinois"? Maybe she should have asked one of the poor, pitiable, Midwesterners she met along the way!)
Maybe I'm just not the intended audience for this book. I am fascinated by fungi, but am so not interested in foodie stories.
The accessible science in this book is very interesting, but Bone's condescending descriptions of literally everyone who isn't her grew rather tiring, rather quickly. (It's actually possible to quote a person without saying what they look like, but Bone never does.) The descriptions of anyone non-white, Midwestern, or fat were especially condescending and unflattering. What a pity that all the people involved with mycology aren't white, thin New Yorkers like the author! The entirety of Chapter 4 was a racist mess that could have been omitted.
All of the stories about the author drinking wine and eating mushrooms and meeting fabulous people also could have been omitted.
Further, I've got a strong dislike for the author's repeated categorization of Americans as "mycophobic." I find mushrooms-as-food pretty revolting, but I can attest that they're pretty ubiquitous in American vegetarian food. Someone must be eating them!
Finally, the Audible edition of this book contained a number of simple, obvious mispronunciations, further increasing my irritation at this title. (How does the author not know how to pronounce "Illinois"? Maybe she should have asked one of the poor, pitiable, Midwesterners she met along the way!)
Maybe I'm just not the intended audience for this book. I am fascinated by fungi, but am so not interested in foodie stories.
October 27, 2021
This was the most obnoxious, elitist, pretentious diatribe on a subject I genuinely find fascinating and that is so disappointing. When she’s not bragging about her cabin in Colorado or living in ‘the city’ aka Manhattan, she actually has some interesting facts to give. But for the most part, I could do without her snide comments about the appearance of mycology experts or her utterly cliched experience of psilocybin mushroom consumption. Bone is cavalier in her treatment of migrant workers doing the grunt work of mushroom farming in the United States and she approaches mushroom hunting in a way that screams ‘rich white woman pursuing a passion project’. If you have a genuine interest in mushrooms and mycology, look elsewhere. This book will get you nowhere.
January 30, 2022
I don't care that the writer likes to wear all black, or that she weighs 127 lbs, or that she knows Very Important People On The Mushroom Scene, or that she goes to conferences about fungi all over the country.
I was promised mycological revelations and all I got was a reminder of why I don't particularly enjoy socializing with "city folk."
One extra star because mushrooms are indeed weird, and wild, and so so interesting, although you'd never know it from this book.
P.S. I have this thing about not finishing books I start... As in, I don't do it. This book took weeks and weeks to slog through, because I actively avoided it.
I was promised mycological revelations and all I got was a reminder of why I don't particularly enjoy socializing with "city folk."
One extra star because mushrooms are indeed weird, and wild, and so so interesting, although you'd never know it from this book.
P.S. I have this thing about not finishing books I start... As in, I don't do it. This book took weeks and weeks to slog through, because I actively avoided it.
July 3, 2012
Dense at times, heavy on the science, but the author's voice also came through the writing...which was sometimes good, sometimes bad. Bone is a pretty bougie Manhattanite, but can at times be fairly down to Earth (pun intended). Although I'm not planning to trip anytime soon, I admit that I found the chapter on psilocybin mushrooms most interesting, especially when Bone touches on the biochemistry & neuroscience behind the perception of religious/spiritual experiences. Altogether, an interesting although sometime slow journey through the world of fungi and the folks who love them.
March 3, 2018
One of those books on biology that spend 50% of the time talking about humans. I guess the idea is to make fungi interesting by turning the subject into a human interest story. Such little faith in the reader. I ended up skimming the parts about all the wacky characters. What I really wanted was to know more about mycology. This wasn't exactly the right book, but there are things I learned that made it a worthwhile fast read.
February 22, 2014
For anyone with a remote interest in mushrooms and the world of mushroom collectors, this book is for you. Although I found it informative, interesting, and well-written, I didn't connect to the author in any way (she seemed proudly self-centered at times), and that hindered me from truly enjoying the book as much as I could have. Certainly worth reading!
November 20, 2022
I think there was a great book hidden in this but it was a bit obscured by some downfalls. I really enjoyed chapters like "Shrooms" which goes into ethnomycology (seeing one of my old college Greek professors mentioned repeatedly for his weird theories on magic mushrooms was really amusing) and found some of Bone's anecdotes about mushroom festivals fascinating. Her healthy dose of skepticism and realism when it comes to medicinal mushrooms and mycotechnology is refreshing as well. She was able to depict what others believe and is respectful of them while still staying close to science and taking some claims with a grain of salt.
But, I think this book would've worked better as more of a memoir, as the distinction between Bone's personal life and actual science is kind of muddled. There's a lot of name-dropping and unnecessary detail about her dinners with mycologists can get somewhat tiring. And then, as other reviewers have pointed out, there's the overtly racist descriptions of mushroom pickers of Asian and Hispanic descent described in Chapter 4. It's hard to believe what she wrote was allowed to be published and wasn't cut by someone along the way.
I think this book had a lot of interesting information, but it was a bit too muddled by Bone's life to be a totally great source of information about fungi. I enjoyed it somewhat, but do think the negative aspects of this book subtracted quite a lot from it.
But, I think this book would've worked better as more of a memoir, as the distinction between Bone's personal life and actual science is kind of muddled. There's a lot of name-dropping and unnecessary detail about her dinners with mycologists can get somewhat tiring. And then, as other reviewers have pointed out, there's the overtly racist descriptions of mushroom pickers of Asian and Hispanic descent described in Chapter 4. It's hard to believe what she wrote was allowed to be published and wasn't cut by someone along the way.
I think this book had a lot of interesting information, but it was a bit too muddled by Bone's life to be a totally great source of information about fungi. I enjoyed it somewhat, but do think the negative aspects of this book subtracted quite a lot from it.
March 18, 2019
Very enjoyable read that lead to a much greater appreciation and understanding of nuance on the topic. Could have done with a little less fluff with the narrative passages and more meat on the subject.
December 13, 2020
This took me forever to get through, but now I sure know a lot about mushrooms.
May 8, 2021
This is a great book for someone who's brand new to the world of fungi. A really sweet, informative, and sometimes funny book that follows one woman's journey of discovery and delight.
Read
March 3, 2023I love mushrooms and had to read it just for that purpose. It was absolutely fascinating and I love mushrooms even more after reading this. There are edible mushrooms. Mushrooms that can kill humans but could still considered safe for animals. There are hallucinogenic mushrooms and also mushrooms for medicinal reasons. There are mushrooms for every need.
A must read for mushroom lovers!
Highly recommended.
A must read for mushroom lovers!
Highly recommended.
March 30, 2017
This book started off promising - I was riveted by the first 100 pages but then it dropped off into a list of potential uses for mushrooms to do x - chapter after chapter.
August 22, 2011
When I started this book, I was vaguely interested in mushrooms. I've always liked mushrooms from the culinary end, and I've taken photographs of mushrooms during hikes. But apart from that, I've never really given them a great deal of thought.
But this book has raised not my just consciousness into the wonderful world of mushrooms, but my level of interest as well. Who knew that mushrooms share about 80% of the same RNA as humans do? I certainly didn't. Or that the chiten that coats mushrooms so that they can push out of the ground without bruising themselves is the same thing that's found in crab shells and squid beaks? Or that mushrooms have more in common with the animal kingdom than the plant kingdom? I now know that there are mushroom conferences and mushroom hunting festivals around the world should I ever feel the urge to don a pair of wellingtons and root around animal dung or forest floors with company.
Apart from providing an indepth look at different mushrooms, both wild and farmed, their reproductive habits, their preferred habitats and how to hunt for them, I now know the symptoms of mushroom poisoning. I like the advice shared in the book about mushroom hunting ... just stand and take in the view. Especially in today's busy world, when we're all trying to multitask, just standing still, being quiet and letting our eyes take in the bounties of Mother Nature before us, is a task worth cultivating, and one that is bound to bring us a few moments of inner peace ... until we spy that one shy mushroom to leap upon!
If there's only one thing I'm taking away from this book alone, it's that I'm no longer going to be wasting my money buying expensive bottles of truffle oil. Want to know what? Read the book!
But this book has raised not my just consciousness into the wonderful world of mushrooms, but my level of interest as well. Who knew that mushrooms share about 80% of the same RNA as humans do? I certainly didn't. Or that the chiten that coats mushrooms so that they can push out of the ground without bruising themselves is the same thing that's found in crab shells and squid beaks? Or that mushrooms have more in common with the animal kingdom than the plant kingdom? I now know that there are mushroom conferences and mushroom hunting festivals around the world should I ever feel the urge to don a pair of wellingtons and root around animal dung or forest floors with company.
Apart from providing an indepth look at different mushrooms, both wild and farmed, their reproductive habits, their preferred habitats and how to hunt for them, I now know the symptoms of mushroom poisoning. I like the advice shared in the book about mushroom hunting ... just stand and take in the view. Especially in today's busy world, when we're all trying to multitask, just standing still, being quiet and letting our eyes take in the bounties of Mother Nature before us, is a task worth cultivating, and one that is bound to bring us a few moments of inner peace ... until we spy that one shy mushroom to leap upon!
If there's only one thing I'm taking away from this book alone, it's that I'm no longer going to be wasting my money buying expensive bottles of truffle oil. Want to know what? Read the book!
October 31, 2012
The book starts out very delightfully, with the author's mushroom-hunting antics. But, like most books about one topic, Eugenia Bone feels like she has to cover every facet of the mushroom's intersection with human life. For such a broad topic, it's a little too much. I felt there was so much more to each chapter and it might have been fun for Bone to research and write more in-depth pieces.
It seemed especially as though Bone (a food writer) should have expanded on the culinary use of the mushroom. After looking up other books in her bibliographic endnotes, it seems like there are already many books on edible mushrooms; perhaps her editor asked for something that also took into account technological uses of the mushroom? Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy reading about different ways to use fungi. It just felt like a too broad overview.
Another reviewer on Goodreads pointed out that Bones' book covered familiar territory, while giving us updates on the latest in fungi spheres. For the contemporary reader, this is probably thus a great recent introduction to the topic.
One other note: some reviewers here felt chapter four was racist. Bone seems like a nice enough lady. I think she did make note of the mushroom pickers' ethnic backgrounds and was quite inconsistent in how she approached that chapter. The one thing I was surprised was for such a foodie, she hasn't discovered the different Asian cuisines apart from the Japanese and their matsutake (talking about how much you love their food is always a good in when you meet people from different cultures) and felt distanced from her subjects. In fact, it's too bad she didn't delve more more into Chinese edible mushrooms. It would have been neat to find out more about wood ears, etc.
It seemed especially as though Bone (a food writer) should have expanded on the culinary use of the mushroom. After looking up other books in her bibliographic endnotes, it seems like there are already many books on edible mushrooms; perhaps her editor asked for something that also took into account technological uses of the mushroom? Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy reading about different ways to use fungi. It just felt like a too broad overview.
Another reviewer on Goodreads pointed out that Bones' book covered familiar territory, while giving us updates on the latest in fungi spheres. For the contemporary reader, this is probably thus a great recent introduction to the topic.
One other note: some reviewers here felt chapter four was racist. Bone seems like a nice enough lady. I think she did make note of the mushroom pickers' ethnic backgrounds and was quite inconsistent in how she approached that chapter. The one thing I was surprised was for such a foodie, she hasn't discovered the different Asian cuisines apart from the Japanese and their matsutake (talking about how much you love their food is always a good in when you meet people from different cultures) and felt distanced from her subjects. In fact, it's too bad she didn't delve more more into Chinese edible mushrooms. It would have been neat to find out more about wood ears, etc.
January 1, 2012
I read this book after seeing the review in the NYTimes. I'm a longtime mushroom lover (I'll never forget the crispy sweetbreads with morels at a riverside inn in Fontaine de Vaucluse) and buy mushrooms on nearly every shopping trip.
This book took a very long time for me to read, uncustomarily. Unlike some of the spellbinding fiction I read, this book can be easily put down for a game of Angry Birds, then picked up later. The author seems like a real character (I love her name, for some reason. I'd like to write a limerick...Eugenia Bone, won't you pick up the phone, a mushroom is calling and it's right in the zone...but I digress).
This lady is obsessed, to put it mildly. Everything you ever wanted to know about mushrooms is undoubtedly contained in this book. I've never hunted for mushrooms, but reading this made me want to go out there and find some deliciousness. Unfortunately, Montclair, NJ is not a great hunting ground, so maybe I'll take a trip to Oregon one of these days.
I liked all the information, and I liked her anecdotes, too, like interviewing a mushroom expert naked in a hot spring. Unlike some self-promoting authors I could name who seem to pick a subject that will win them a publishing contract, Ms. Bone is truly in love with mushrooms. Her love and respect comes through quite beautifully, if you can get through all the scientific stuff, and all in all, it's a very cool book.
This book took a very long time for me to read, uncustomarily. Unlike some of the spellbinding fiction I read, this book can be easily put down for a game of Angry Birds, then picked up later. The author seems like a real character (I love her name, for some reason. I'd like to write a limerick...Eugenia Bone, won't you pick up the phone, a mushroom is calling and it's right in the zone...but I digress).
This lady is obsessed, to put it mildly. Everything you ever wanted to know about mushrooms is undoubtedly contained in this book. I've never hunted for mushrooms, but reading this made me want to go out there and find some deliciousness. Unfortunately, Montclair, NJ is not a great hunting ground, so maybe I'll take a trip to Oregon one of these days.
I liked all the information, and I liked her anecdotes, too, like interviewing a mushroom expert naked in a hot spring. Unlike some self-promoting authors I could name who seem to pick a subject that will win them a publishing contract, Ms. Bone is truly in love with mushrooms. Her love and respect comes through quite beautifully, if you can get through all the scientific stuff, and all in all, it's a very cool book.
November 11, 2016
This was an unexpectedly awesome book. I'd picked it up for a bit of expansion beyond my usual fare and it was well worthwhile.
Bone writes it more as a personal journal and journey into a passion project stemming from her love of cooking mushroom dishes. But the book is completely stuffed with information, much of it scientific, some of it cultural, and I think there was more info than perspective, but it never felt that way.
And boy are mushrooms weird. They're more closely related to animals than to plants. Most are only available growing in the wild and the common mushrooms in grocery stores are almost all from a single strain that someone was able to artificially cultivate. There are forest with mushrooms all over that are actually just one organism spread over miles.
I recommend trying out this well done book if you enjoy micro-cultural-histories.
Bone writes it more as a personal journal and journey into a passion project stemming from her love of cooking mushroom dishes. But the book is completely stuffed with information, much of it scientific, some of it cultural, and I think there was more info than perspective, but it never felt that way.
And boy are mushrooms weird. They're more closely related to animals than to plants. Most are only available growing in the wild and the common mushrooms in grocery stores are almost all from a single strain that someone was able to artificially cultivate. There are forest with mushrooms all over that are actually just one organism spread over miles.
I recommend trying out this well done book if you enjoy micro-cultural-histories.
November 11, 2018
It is never a good sign when I have to renew a library book and feel like I have to buckle down and plow through just to finish it. Eugenia Bone does present some good information on mushrooms in this book and presents a wide range of topics, but this feels more like a woman's personal journey into the world of mushrooms, interspersed with rundowns of conferences and gatherings, big names in the mushroom world, and some research than it does a succinct book on revelations about mushrooms. There isn't a whole lot in here that can't be found in other texts, and it feels like she gets off track with unnecessary details. I struggled with my rating, oscillating between 2 and 3 stars, and would probably give it 2 1/2 stars if possible. But the Goodreads two-star "It was ok" tag really sums up my feeling on this one.
May 15, 2021
"Everything that lives is plural."
Absolutely delightful exploration of not only mushrooms but the people who love them. I appreciated her cautious but compassionate approach to some of the more controversial areas such as mycoremediation and medicinal properties. I see all these other reviews hating on the autobiographical aspects of the book but honestly those were some of my favorite parts; they mirrored my own rapidly growing obsession and I enjoyed living vicariously through her. They also really enhanced the ultimate message, that everything – from what we consider to be a single organism to the myco community to the entire world – is an entire ecosystem that relies on and is inextricable from relationships with others.
Absolutely delightful exploration of not only mushrooms but the people who love them. I appreciated her cautious but compassionate approach to some of the more controversial areas such as mycoremediation and medicinal properties. I see all these other reviews hating on the autobiographical aspects of the book but honestly those were some of my favorite parts; they mirrored my own rapidly growing obsession and I enjoyed living vicariously through her. They also really enhanced the ultimate message, that everything – from what we consider to be a single organism to the myco community to the entire world – is an entire ecosystem that relies on and is inextricable from relationships with others.
January 12, 2016
How much do you want to know about mushrooms? This is a wonderfully obsessive account of the author's obsession, which initially is just wild edible mushrooms to be found and eaten, but eventually . . . uh, burgeons, let's say . . . to encompass the social, the sexual (and asexual), the medicinal, the academic, and yes, of course, the psychoactive aspects of those not-quite-plants. More fungi fun that you could have imagined.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 197 reviews