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The Little Book of Fungi
A charming, richly illustrated, pocket-size exploration of the world’s fungi
Packed with surprising facts, this delightful and gorgeously designed book will beguile any nature lover. Expertly written and beautifully illustrated throughout with color photographs and original color artwork, The Little Book of Fungi is an accessible and enjoyable mini-reference about the world’s fungi, with examples drawn from across the globe. It fits an astonishing amount of information in a small package, covering a wide range of topics—from morphology, diversity, and reproduction to habitat and conservation. It also includes curious facts and a section on fungi in myths, folklore, and modern culture from around the world. The result is an irresistible guide to the amazing lives of fungi.
Features some 140 color illustrations and photos.
Packed with surprising facts, this delightful and gorgeously designed book will beguile any nature lover. Expertly written and beautifully illustrated throughout with color photographs and original color artwork, The Little Book of Fungi is an accessible and enjoyable mini-reference about the world’s fungi, with examples drawn from across the globe. It fits an astonishing amount of information in a small package, covering a wide range of topics—from morphology, diversity, and reproduction to habitat and conservation. It also includes curious facts and a section on fungi in myths, folklore, and modern culture from around the world. The result is an irresistible guide to the amazing lives of fungi.
Features some 140 color illustrations and photos.
- GenresNonfictionScienceBiology
160 pages, Hardcover
Published October 22, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 13, 2026
Britt A. Bunyard opens his 2024 The Little Book of Fungi by providing a nicely clear understanding of what fungi are, with Bunyard scientifically soundly, academically but also concisely and with thankfully not too much biological jargon being textually used explaining how they differ from other eukaryotes, that fungi are much more closely related to animals than they are to plants (albeit especially mushrooms often physically look rather plant-like and also tend to exist in symbiotic relationships with plants, but that fungi like animals are never photosynthetic, that they are predators, decomposers or parasitic). And after the introductory words for The Little Book of Fungi, Britt A. Bunyard's text then continues by exploring the exact science of fungi, their diverse forms, their manifolded roles, functions, their strategies for survival, symbiosis, and threats in the future both to fungi and also emanating from them as well (and specifically concerning the impacts of these threats for humans and especially so regarding domestic crops), that the more we understand fungi the better equipped we will be to channel their unique properties to ensure that fungi as well as plants and animals (including us) both survive and also flourish, also thrive.
Furthermore, the opportunity for citizen science has greatly expanded in recent years with regard to STEM in general and actually specifically so concerning mycology, a fact Bunyard points out and regards as something all-round positive in and with The Little Book of Fungi (and which is equally so more than understandable given the shortage of trained mycologists and taxonomists that is mentioned on page ninety-eight). However, I do think that Britt A. Bunyard should also point out in The Little Book of Fungi that handling mushrooms can be dangerous and needs to be done prudently and with safety in mind (because of possible toxicity, allergic reactions, sensitivity etc.) and that improperly and ungently collected fungi can also be destructive not only for the organisms themselves but also for their symbionts.
Now while as already mentioned above the science in The Little Book of Fungi is presented clearly and succinctly so that even readers with little or no knowledge of fungi can thus quickly as well as easily become nicely and quite massively so enlightened, I do have to say that up to and including chapter eight of The Little Book of Fungi, Bunyard's featured text is rather dryly informative in scope (something that I personally do both enjoy and totally appreciate, but which some readers might find just a bit too academically oriented and themed for actual reading pleasure), but that yes, the final third of The Little Book of Fungi is indeed somewhat lighter in content, with Britt A. Bunyard exploring gastronomic options regarding mushrooms, including how to avoid toxic ones, the history of mushrooms in mythology, the psychedelic varieties to ensure vivid dreams and many other fun facts (and actually fungi facts for me, with a bit of a pun most definitely being intended and being tried here).
The Little Book of Fungi is nicely portable, fitting easily into a decently sized outerwear pocket, purse or knapsack while one is out and about looking for, exploring mushrooms and the like. However, said portability is also at least for me somewhat of a drawback, since in order for Bunyard to fit all of his interesting and expansive fungi-themed information and facts into the confines of a very small sized book, the presented font size of the given text obviously has to be quite minuscule, that while I have massively enjoyed reading The Little Book of Fungi and have also been appreciatively enlightened, I actually and indeed have majorly needed to use both a magnifying glass and very bright lights in order to peruse the words of The Little Book of Fungi with any kind of visual reading ease (and in addition to wearing my reading glasses). But be that as it may and the tiny font size of The Little Book of Fungi totally notwithstanding, The Little Book of Fungi certainly is an invaluable and textually delightful resource for when we are out exploring nature as well as for when we are reading at home (and with the combination of Tugce Okay's artwork and photographic images doing a lovely and visually charming job expressively mirroring what Britt A. Bunyard is verbally showing and telling). And yes, alongside a glossary and a detailed index, there is also a detailed bibliography being provided by Bunyard at the back of The Little Book of Fungi (with both up-to-date book titles and websites included to expand our knowledge of fungi and mycology, although and just a trifle annoyingly, there are in The Little Book of Fungi no notes, so that readers cannot really tell from which sources Britt A. Bunyard has actually taken the information he is presenting to us in and throughout The Little Book of Fungi).
Furthermore, the opportunity for citizen science has greatly expanded in recent years with regard to STEM in general and actually specifically so concerning mycology, a fact Bunyard points out and regards as something all-round positive in and with The Little Book of Fungi (and which is equally so more than understandable given the shortage of trained mycologists and taxonomists that is mentioned on page ninety-eight). However, I do think that Britt A. Bunyard should also point out in The Little Book of Fungi that handling mushrooms can be dangerous and needs to be done prudently and with safety in mind (because of possible toxicity, allergic reactions, sensitivity etc.) and that improperly and ungently collected fungi can also be destructive not only for the organisms themselves but also for their symbionts.
Now while as already mentioned above the science in The Little Book of Fungi is presented clearly and succinctly so that even readers with little or no knowledge of fungi can thus quickly as well as easily become nicely and quite massively so enlightened, I do have to say that up to and including chapter eight of The Little Book of Fungi, Bunyard's featured text is rather dryly informative in scope (something that I personally do both enjoy and totally appreciate, but which some readers might find just a bit too academically oriented and themed for actual reading pleasure), but that yes, the final third of The Little Book of Fungi is indeed somewhat lighter in content, with Britt A. Bunyard exploring gastronomic options regarding mushrooms, including how to avoid toxic ones, the history of mushrooms in mythology, the psychedelic varieties to ensure vivid dreams and many other fun facts (and actually fungi facts for me, with a bit of a pun most definitely being intended and being tried here).
The Little Book of Fungi is nicely portable, fitting easily into a decently sized outerwear pocket, purse or knapsack while one is out and about looking for, exploring mushrooms and the like. However, said portability is also at least for me somewhat of a drawback, since in order for Bunyard to fit all of his interesting and expansive fungi-themed information and facts into the confines of a very small sized book, the presented font size of the given text obviously has to be quite minuscule, that while I have massively enjoyed reading The Little Book of Fungi and have also been appreciatively enlightened, I actually and indeed have majorly needed to use both a magnifying glass and very bright lights in order to peruse the words of The Little Book of Fungi with any kind of visual reading ease (and in addition to wearing my reading glasses). But be that as it may and the tiny font size of The Little Book of Fungi totally notwithstanding, The Little Book of Fungi certainly is an invaluable and textually delightful resource for when we are out exploring nature as well as for when we are reading at home (and with the combination of Tugce Okay's artwork and photographic images doing a lovely and visually charming job expressively mirroring what Britt A. Bunyard is verbally showing and telling). And yes, alongside a glossary and a detailed index, there is also a detailed bibliography being provided by Bunyard at the back of The Little Book of Fungi (with both up-to-date book titles and websites included to expand our knowledge of fungi and mycology, although and just a trifle annoyingly, there are in The Little Book of Fungi no notes, so that readers cannot really tell from which sources Britt A. Bunyard has actually taken the information he is presenting to us in and throughout The Little Book of Fungi).
October 17, 2025
Really enjoyed it. Some great writing and lovely facts about fungi. Certainly learned a lot
January 12, 2026
pretty good book, a very easy read for the most part. although there is a glossary and index at the back of the book there are a lot of biological terms and processes that aren't explained at all in the book, I found myself having to google what certain words or phrases meant in order to understand the book. the pictures are super high quality and the chapters are nice and short for an easy little read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews