With the debate about marijuana prohibition experiencing a resurgence, it is only fitting that a book appears which reviews the scientific research into this ancient intoxicant. Written in a clear but non-polemical style, Marijuana Myths… is not only accessible to the layperson, but perhaps even to politicians. Just to be sure, why not order a few for your elected representatives? With the publication of this book there is now no excuse for maintaining our cynical and hypocritical policies towards this plant. [New York: The Lindesmith Center]

This was one of those odd finds on a used book shelf, which then sat around my apartment for a year or two before I actually picked it up. It’s also one of those books that leaves you feeling a little paranoid about the invisible forces at work in the world. Extensive sections on crop-attacking microorganisms and fungal infections of the body provide ample material for an obsessive-compulsive disorder. But this is balanced somewhat by explanations of how molds sustain our diets, our medicine cabinets, our ecosystem, and even our industrial production. Anecdotes on the role these simple life-forms have played in human history were particularly enjoyable, as were the chapters on hallucinogenic fungi and ergot derivatives (LSD). Published in 1965, the book addresses the growing concern over the abuse of such substances, but without the moral indignation which subsequent demonizing of drugs encouraged. [New York: The John Day Company]

I really don’t know what to say about VALIS. The intersection of autobiography with science fiction; if you think about that it becomes unsettling. There are indications throughout this story that the events described occurred to and in the life of Philip K. Dick, the author. Well… who am I to say they didn’t? But what are the implications for the rest of us? [New York: Vintage Books]

It was a book that drew me to itself, quietly, lovingly. Morrow tells of her travels in the sands of Egypt, the land which called her over and over. She fell in love with this land and its people. And with its words. A lover and collector of words, Morrow holds them up as prisms for us, so the meanings fan out beautifully in a spray of color. In this light we see perhaps how the ghosts of childhood can find release in the desert’s ancient spaces. There is beauty in every detail of experience, rescued from oblivion by this woman’s careful pen. [Riverhead Books]

This book is about disappearance — of technology, of Nature, and ultimately, of the human. It is not a social commentary, not a nostalgia for better times. Nor is it searching for Utopia. Rather, through deep analyses of 20th-Century science, architecture, poetry, music, graphic design, and computer art, Hardison shows how history seems to point to its own disappearance. We are vanishing into our own creations. In its own right, this book is an excellent survey of leading-edge thought in Western culture. But it is the implications for the future of Humanity which kept me riveted, clinging to the curves of ideas Hardison traces, following them up and out of the skylight, to which we now seem so close. [New York: Penguin]