Book Recommendations

Field guides and mushroom reference books are extremely valuable tools to the mycophile, but care must be taken to use books which are intended for your area. Misidentifications are common when using, for instance, a book produced in France or Britain in the identification of fungi in the Northeast of the United States. Descriptions of edibility, species and habitat can be quite different or wrong when taken out of geographical context. Take care!

Some General Books of Great Value For North America

Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms by Gary Lincoff---Undeniably the most referred-to field guide by mycophiles in our part of the world. The work Gary has done in putting this book together is amazing, and though throughout the years some of the names have shifted, and some of the photos could be better, this is the ideal text for comparing against other sources with good thumb tabs, descriptions, spore color charts and cross references. Compliments of Mushroom:The Journal of Amateur Mushrooming, Gary Lincoff's Online Key to Gilled Mushrooms of the Audubon Guide is available below:
    Online version
    Printable pdf version

Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora---An unbelievably comprehensive tome, this book, while concentrating more on species of the western half of the US, contains too much valuable information to be ignored. Arora's sometimes hilarious writing is astounding, and his references are first rate. This book includes references to everything from meanings of latinate prefixes and suffixes to predominate relationships between certain trees and various fungi---essential!

Mushrooms of North America by Roger Phillips--this book somehow includes more than 1000 photos of mushrooms taken in a studio environment, which eliminates the sometimes confusing problem of inconsistent lighting appearing in some other books. Roger Phillips packed a great deal into this book, and although he is from Britain, he is certainly one of the authorities on the similarities and dissimilarities between closely related species on either side of the Atlantic. The only problem with this book is that it is out of print and brings sometimes very high prices used online. The very good news however is that after experimenting for a year in the idea of selling subscriptions to a very comprehensive website of his work, including ID info and more than 3000 photos, Roger decided to offer the site for free. It is a tremendous resource from one of the very wonderful international experts on the subject. The site is at http://www.rogersmushrooms.com

Books Specific to Northeast North America

Mushrooms of Northeastern North America by Alan and Arleen Bessette and David Fischer -- Another really nice book with good references. The keys are well done and it has many photos, though they are a little bit small.

Mushrooms of Northeast North AmericaU by George Barron -- This book covers from the Midwest to New England in a field guide format. Although it does not cover as many species as some of the others, the photos are exceptional. It divides fungi into base groups, treating gilled mushrooms seperated into spore-colored sections.

Books Concentrating on Specific Genus

A Morel Hunter's Companion by Nancy Smith Weber -- This book is the morel enthusiasts sourcebook.  Although much of the data centers around Michigan and Wisconsin, there is much to be gleaned from this small book. It covers most of what you'd like to know about Morchella, Helvella, Gyromitra and other similar genus.

Cookbooks

The Edible Mushroom:A Gourmet Cook's Guide  by Margaret Leibenstein---Every once in a while I find a book by someone who not only has the passion for fantastic ingredients, but who also really knows how to cook. Margaret Leibenstein is one of these people. Although this book came out in 1986, it is still one of the most frequented books on my cookbook shelf. Widely available in second hand stores and well worth the search.

The Complete Mushroom Book:The Quiet Hunt by Antonio Carluccio -- This man has foraged and cooked mushrooms all of his life and he is an Italian-born chef to boot. Full of luscious recipes and photos, this book is full of knowledge equally valuable to the kitchen and the field.