[.ca] Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms (ISBN 0671428497)

Very beautiful illustrations!:
Another guide written by Simon and Schuster, and another success. This mushroom field guide has a significant number of species listings for decent identification. Easily equals Audubon, Peterson, and other guides in detailed descriptions, photo quality, and abundance of species listed. Over 420 in all. Each mushroom is labeled with a botanical name, since beginners should stick with Golden Guides. The mushrooms shown are intriguing, and make you ponder eating them as the night's meal. The guide also explains the edibility, quality of it, and whether it is lethal. There are also descriptions of range and habitat. Habitat is indicated by a drawing on the bottom left hand of the species page. The redundancy of the Simon and Schuster system is indicated in the text, but this has never mattered, as the system is fine for expert field guide users. The underrated history of the book is unexplained, but should not have been so. The two press editions of the guide are different in a couple of ways. The older, Nature Series Press, has aged photos, which makes the photo quality darker. However, the brand new, revised press, done by Simon and Schuster themselves, is the best yet. The photo quality is also pristine. Any edition of this contribution to field identification will prove useful for mushroom hunters and plant experts alike.

Visually appealing:
In fact, I use this as a visual reference for drawing. It gives large, clear photos of each species, and hundreds are shown. I'm not sure how much this will help the amateur mushroom-hunter, though. It certainly won't do much for a pro. The description of each species is short and bland. The real strength of this book is the photos that show the unique features of each species, and even each specimen.

Not for beginners:
Execelent photos! However, the book tells you that it's o.k. to experiment with the amanita family-not a good idea when starting out or even for a pretty good mushroom hunter unless you want a one way trip through the great golden gates of heven!

Not as informative as i had hoped it would be:
I think that it is a great book but it is not informative about some of the common Psilocybe species it only contains one and it isn't the most common around southern states like California, Texas, and New Mexico... Etc... Etc. One of which is Psilocybe Cubanessis.

Excellent.:
I happen to love mushrooms and am very into identifying the ones that grow in my backyard. This book was a lot more helpful to me than any of the others I found. The beginning is extremely informative, and the species guide is huge-about 240 great pictures! No book can list every one, but this one covers a great many, especially common ones you're likely to see. Get it-it's a good buy.