I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t this… everything it covered was interesting, yet at the same time I was just bored with it. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood. Who knows. 

My thoughts from throughout…

- 3% penicillin is a compound that defends fungus from bacterial infection happens to defend humans as well. “This is not unusual- although fungi have long been lumped together with plants, they are actually more closely related to animals”. “At a molecular level, fungi and humans are similar enough to benefit from some of the same biochemical innovations”. 
- As a vegetarian, the idea of that slightly freaks me out. 
- 10% I was expecting this book to be more just straight up facts and less prose about the beauty and mystery of fungi. I certainly did not expect to hear about the author taking LSD to better understand the fungi. 
- 16% it might be the GIS nerd in me, but I wonder if anyone has ever done a geographical study of truffles? Using a highly accurate gps to pinpoint the location of found truffles for multiple years, while noting various potentially relevant aspects of where it was found, to try to create a model to predict the location of truffles. 
- 42% this is the part I was most excited for. The fungus that control insect minds
- 44% THE LAST OF US! 
- 55% My hold for Iron Flame came in. My desire to read this book has died but I know I need to finish it before my loan runs out
- 62% I like his comparison of how humans work with other species such as horses or even yeast to advance what they could do. “Humans and their nonhuman partners redefine their possibilities.” Those relationships are similar to plants and fungi 
- 65% I love the idea that these plant/fungus relationships could be studied and utilized in a way that would potentially replace the use of fertilizers. I think it is absolutely worth studying. They say that the fungi won’t always help with crop yields- some may have the opposite effect… but the same is I am sure true for chemical based fertilizers. We have just taken the time to learn that helps and what hurts. I think it is absolutely worth the time and investment to research and figure out this organic approach to improving crop yields. 
- 74% I’m starting to think that the reason this book has received any attention at all is because it has a pretty cover and The Last of Us inspired fungus fascination. 
- 90% and now he is brewing alcohol with random strains of yeast, including one he got from a library? First of all, that seems sort of unsanitary/unsafe. Second, if the library brew turned out good, can you imagine the marketing potential for that? Literally the essence of musty old library turned into alcohol. The booktok girlies would go insane. 
- 91% I love how they can divide cultures into those that love and/or worship mushrooms and those that feared them. Idk why I find that so funny
- 92% I’ve actually found a stinkhorn (a stinky squid stinkhorn to be specific) before while hiking. It was really neat looking, and I can confirm that it smelled like rotting flesh
- 99% “Composers make. Decomposers unmake” ummmm why have I never put 2 and 2 together that a composer is a composer because it’s the opposite of decomposing?!? 
- 100% the fact that he wants to make a beer out of the decomposed pages of a copy of his book seems slightly unhinged