North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible And Inedible Fungi (Falconguide) [ペーパーバック]

This is a good book in the right hands. If you are looking for the definative book on mushrooms, it hasn't been published. The closest equivalent to definative is the David Arora Mushrooms Demystified. This book by Miller is a FIELD GUIDE (and maybe 1/5 the size and weight of Demystified), it is very, very short on the number of species covered ('only' hundreds out of thousands). Do not use this book to decide if you have harvested an edible mushroom. There are a great many edible mushrooms that look like a great many inedible and poisonious mushrooms and YOU CANNOT DO IDENTIFICATION BY COMPARING PICTURES.

Understand I am not in any way dissing this book; Miller knew his stuff, and this is an excellent guide. I bought a copy when it was first available, and it has already seen several days in the field. I learned about it from a well respected expert who had also purchased a copy. But I also already had a well used copy of Arora, and I have been foraging for many years, and I have gotten instruction from people like Larry Evens, Gary Lincoff and David Arora, and I STILL MAKE MISTAKES. The critical feature of a field guide is the Key that walks you through the identification process. This book (Miller) has a somewhat simplier key, that I can run through quickly (and larger type which is nice for old eyes in the middle of the forest). I would never eat off the identification from this book or any other. I have already found semi-common specimens where I know the species, that Miller doesn't cover. It's a nice addition to a library that also includes something specific for your region, plus Arora's Demystified. I would take the time to put a plastic cover on it, and it is a good bit heavier than the Audubon guide. However, if it comes to it, I will be carrying this guide in my backpack rather than any of the others I own (and I own a bunch of mushroom books).

[A note on my perspective -- I'm interested in learning about, identifying and collecting all species of mushrooms, whether they're edible or not. This review is generally geared toward people like me, with a broad interest. If you just want to collect chanterelles and morels, there may be better options.]

I've been mushroom hunting for two years now and this is the fourth mushrooming book I've owned. I have looked at a number of other guides in bookstores and libraries. The first two books you should buy are "Mushrooms Demystified" (MD) and "All the Rain Promises and More," both by Arora. Demystified is the bible, and All the Rain is the pocket book that slips into your back pocket when you're out in the field. The two books are linked, e.g. "to learn more [about a mushroom in Rain] see MD pages xxx-xxx.

This Falcon guide is a good supplement, and has many more color pictures than either of the Arora books (which are fun to look at, but should NOT be used to identify mushrooms). There are two major upsides to this book:

First, it almost exclusively uses scientific terminology and names. If you look at enough books and talk to enough people, it's easy to get confused by mushrooms that have five different common names. Although the Arora guides supply the scientific terms too, he also uses common names a lot. The Falcon guide basically forces you to learn scientific names and terminology which is important to avoid confusion and possibly risky mistakes.

Second, the authors of the Falcon guide have personally collected and sampled a large number of the mushrooms featured in their book. They can provide a unique perspective about the edibility and habitat of mushrooms identified through the Arora books. Other than the mushrooms I'm already very familiar with, I'll definitely be using the Falcon guide to learn a bit more about any mushroom I bring home to identify.

Overall, this book is great for the beginner. It includes great color photographs of every mushroom covered. Though it contains only 180 species of mushrooms across North America, it is still a great field guide for the beginner. The book also contains a very easy and clear-cut method for classifying the mushrooms that you found. It is definitely good classification and identification practice for the beginner. Overall, it is a good field guide with nice color pictures.