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February 24, 2014 8:33 PM   Subscribe

 


Note: This is not a "Little Golden Book". Although having a Little Golden Book about hallucinogenic plants would be totally awesome.
posted by hippybear at 9:00 PM on February 24, 2014 [12 favorites]


hippybear, that's what I thought, too. Apparently Golden Books are a series of reference books.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:03 PM on February 24, 2014


The Golden Guides were a fixture for me when I grew up in the 70s. I'd have loved this one!
posted by sfred at 9:32 PM on February 24, 2014 [2 favorites]


Instead of looking for interesting animals I might find, I could have spent car trips looking up plants to ingest.
posted by sfred at 9:38 PM on February 24, 2014 [2 favorites]


Woah. I've had this book and a couple other Golden Guides since I was about ten.

That seems weirdly revealing.
posted by cmoj at 9:49 PM on February 24, 2014


BRB. Fixing very large, strange salad.
posted by loquacious at 10:01 PM on February 24, 2014 [8 favorites]


How could they possibly overlook the distinctive Futura typeface! Verdana, seriously?
posted by crapmatic at 10:21 PM on February 24, 2014


So Bushmen invented the steamroller? Huh. *ffffffff*
posted by Taft at 10:41 PM on February 24, 2014


Golden Guides were everywhere for years. As a kid, I had the guide to fishes, and I remember seeing the hallucinogenic plant one on store shelves, although I was too young to be interested in such things then. There's a list, here, but I'm not sure if it's complete.
posted by dortmunder at 4:55 AM on February 25, 2014


Golden Guides are Good. I've seen many hikers and birders carrying the Golden birds volume in preference to one from Audubon or Petersen.
posted by jfuller at 5:07 AM on February 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


N.b the birds volume and several of the others were Golden Field Guides, a step up from the smaller series and and definitely in the Audubon/Petersen class for quality.

> Note: This is not a "Little Golden Book". Although having a Little Golden Book about
> hallucinogenic plants would be totally awesome.

Golden Press is, however, absolutely the same outfit that brought you The Color Kittens and The Pokey Little Puppy.
posted by jfuller at 5:18 AM on February 25, 2014 [2 favorites]


BRB. Fixing very large, strange salad.

You wouldn't be this guy by any chance?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:54 AM on February 25, 2014 [2 favorites]


I remember the first time a copy of this book floated into our bookstore. We all just....stopped.

"Is this real?"

"I dunno. It looks real."

"It can't be real."

"What year is it from?"

"1976."

"Yeah, it's real."
posted by mediareport at 6:50 AM on February 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Grew up with this on one of the family bookshelves, next to the other wildlife references. I turned out to be a responsible experimenter with respect for the power of so-called 'natural' substances. In a time before I had access to erowid, this book was a valuable guide. Dry enough to be trustworthy to a skeptical teenager, detailed enough to scare me out of doing anything Fucking Stupid.

Thanks mom and dad!
posted by Violet Femme at 7:44 AM on February 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Wasn't it Richard Evans Schultes who sent Burroughs up the Amazon in search of Ayahuasca?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:14 AM on February 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


I still have a copy of this from when I was a kid. I remember being fascinated by the descriptions of what people experienced.
posted by RowanYote at 9:15 AM on February 25, 2014 [2 favorites]


Obviously, the next step in metapsychedelics is to recycle this book for blotter paper.
posted by hanoixan at 9:26 AM on February 25, 2014


My husband collects Golden Guides. They're fun, little, beautiful, nostalgia-inducing, still useful, and go for about a dollar a pop at your local used book store.

Last weekend he was chatting with our Local Used Book Store Guy, and he asked if they'd ever gotten a copy of the hallucinogenic plants ones in.

"Yeah, a few times. We charge about a hundred fifty bucks and they last less than 12 hours."

(Alibris has the cheapest one listed for twice that, so I'm not surprised.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:33 PM on February 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Hey tchemgrrl, there's one on ebay for $75!
posted by stinkfoot at 5:14 PM on February 25, 2014


Erowid has been a valuable research guide for things I write (I've been told by users not to ever try myself, though). This looks like it will also be great for the same purposes, and I'd never heard of it.
posted by immlass at 5:29 PM on February 25, 2014




There is a bunch at Bookfinder.com starting at $77 but based on condition description the first one I'd buy, if I was buying, is at $116.
posted by mediareport at 7:03 PM on February 26, 2014


Just saw that this was my 600th post to the blue. Maybe I should do some 'shrooms to celebrate.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:09 AM on February 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


You wouldn't be this guy by any chance?

Neigh. But I'm pretty sure I posted that to the blue a ways back.
posted by loquacious at 5:49 PM on February 28, 2014


Visualizing Drug Experiences
posted by homunculus at 1:59 PM on March 13, 2014


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