Thanks end, I knew someone had shown me a link on chat one time; forgot it was you.

Many thanks again
-Untm

Trout's Notes on Some Simple Tryptamines can be ordered from the Entheogen Review. I'm not sure where to get the second edition of Sacred Cacti (I beleive that's the peyote one that you're looking for?). The third edition is more available, but it seems to focus on San Pedro and other species in the same genus (currently Echinopsis, formerly Trichocereus).

I completely agree about Rätsch. His Encyclopedia has a lot of pretty pictures, but the quality of information is extremely suspect. I'd probably put it about on par with Stafford's Psychedelics Encyclopedia... not a first choice for reference.

I'm curious about your objection to Ott though. His thorough citations and large bibliographies give the reader a good way to assess the quality of the information being presented. If something is hearsay, Ott's style makes that clear. He may get a little overzealous at times, so his eagerness to disagree with a source he finds objectionable may trump a rigorous attention to the facts of a situation... and as a result, I think it's important to examine the primary literature closer on aspects of a topic that he gets heated about. But overall, I find Ott's work to be outstanding. Pharmacotheon is written engagingly, and is one of the best guides to the primary and secondary literature on the subjects that he covers.

Yeah the second edition is the one I am looking for, I'm currently holding the 3rd in my hands; what a fascinating collection of knowledge.

A bit more on Trout's Notes...

The person known as "Keeper of the Trout" or "Keeper Trout" is an often underappreciated figure in the literature on visionary plants and drugs. Admittedly his books don't make for light reading; they really are reference books. But they contain a vast wealth of information, and are highly recommended reading material for the chronically curious. As Shulgin has said, "They would sell like hotcakes if they were known to be available."

Part of the problem is just how difficult it is to obtain his books. At present, you can only buy his two most recent volumes -- Some Simple Tryptamines, 2nd edition, and San Pedro & related Trichocereus species. If you're looking for anything older, like Sacred Cacti, 2nd edition, you're basically out of luck. Even if you want to buy a book that's still available you might run into trouble; when I went to buy Some Simple Tryptamines, I checked every link on both of Trout's websites and couldn't find a single bookseller in my country that still carried the book (Edit 14 Jan 2013: You can now order the book directly from his website).

When Trout's books go out of print, it's like they vanish from the face of the Earth. He has two websites (Trout's Notes and Largely Accurate Information Media) but they are not much help at all -- apparently his skill at crafting excellent reference works doesn't extend to crafting coherant websites.

I haven't even been able to find a list of how many "Trout's Notes" volumes have been written. But thanks to the magic of the internet, I used the Wayback Machine to crawl through old versions of Trout's website dating back to 2001, and compiled a list of every "Trout's Notes" title mentioned there over the past eleven and a half years.

So without further ado, I give you the (still incomplete but better than nothing) list of Trout's Notes! Any quotes that follow a title are excerpted directly from old versions of Trout's websites. On some of the entries, I have included my own notes on the availability of the title [in square brackets].

Excellent thread. Some more suggestions to keep in mind...

- I think Jim DeKorne deserves a mention here. Besides his work as editor of The Entheogen Review (1992-2008 ), the closest thing to the Nexus before we had the Nexus, I find his Psychedelic Shamanism (1994, revised edition in 2012) a very enjoyable read, and even if (acknowledged by the author) some of the information included about preparations and chemistry is outdated or incomplete, he discusses the main families of entheogens and puts together a great collection of essays about the psychedelic experience and shamanic practices.

- Magic Mushrooms Around the World, by Jochen Gartz. Nice guide about psychotropic mushrooms, lacking perhaps the depth of Stamets guide, but compiling good information about species, IDs, cultivation and a lot of references to worldwide uses. Foreworded by Ratsch.

And if I may sneak in a non-english book,

- Historia General de las Drogas, by Antonio Escohotado. For spanish readers, this is a must. First published in 1989, and re-edited multiple times (the copies I own are 2nd Edition and the extended 1998 7th Edition) this monumental three volume, 1,300 pages work is arguably the most exhaustive history treatise ever written about psychoactive substances. The spanish jurist, philosopher and sociologist does not address particularly botany or chemistry, but I have this General History of Drugs in my bookshelf right besides Ott's Pharmacotheon. Escohotado is an encyclopedically wise man, and also a pleasure to read.

Vosdel wrote:
Well said. My copies are in storage, disorganised and gathering mould.
Is there somewhere the entire 1992-2008 E.R. can be downloaded. It's ridiculous to have to pay for pre-Trout Entheogen Review. They should be in the public domain!
(And then I can hopefully find an article is one issue I seem to be missing )

Agreed. And it certainly can be found online for download with a bit of searching. I'd like to share my copies with everybody, but the PDF back issues collection is still on sale in a CD for $45 in TER website, so as you say it's not public domain.

I completely agree that the Entheogen Review deserves a place on this list, and there is a strong kinship between the sort of work that's being done on the Nexus and the work that was done in the Entheogen Review. As to the cost of purchasing those back issues, look at it this way: $45 for over 2000 pages of material is a pretty good deal.

You're right. $45 is not a lot to ask. Just already paid for most of them once! But it's good enough to support twice.

As Keeper Trout just posted in the [Literature] compilation thread, he recently made Some Simple Tryptamines (2nd edition) available for download as a PDF. You can find it here: http://www.largelyaccura...ationmedia.com/SST2.html

While you aren't required to pay for the download, please strongly consider it. If you find the book to be a valuable source of information, show it by supporting Trout. He's worked hard to put these references together, and he deserves the support of the community.

^ Totally agreed, it's definitely worth at least the $5 for the PDF. Do it, folks.