Murder at the Conspiracy Convention Book

This is a great collection of Paul Krassner writings, some of which have been turned into standup material on his recent CDs. While a number of the pieces in this book have been published elsewhere, this collecton is quite distinct from most of Krassner's other books, with the exception of a few stories that appear in different form in his autobiography (one of my favorite books of all time). I recently read Ronald Kessler's book on the "secret history of the FBI," and was disappointed that he missed some of the FBI dirty tricks recounted in the first section of Krassner's book, "The Federal Bureau of Intimidation." Other highlights of this book include the sections on Krassner's friends who have died (Jean Shepherd, Robert Spencer, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsburg, Anita Hoffman, Terence McKenna, and John Lilly), a section of articles on the "war on some drugs" and the section on "countercultural icons" (Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Garcia, Ram Dass, and Ken Kesey). Highly recommended.

On a side note, this book recounts a prank by Jean Shepherd that may have been the first instance of a "flash mob"