Elk and Elk Hunting: Your Practical Guide to Fundamentals and Fine Points Book

I live in Michigan, so a little West of this guide's intended range. I picked this guide because Michigan's lower Peninsula is ecologically similar to Pennsylvania, and I have been able to identify many species from this book.

Content
Russell laid this book out by season, which I think is brilliant. There are full color photographs at the end of each section, and the preceding pages contain the mushrooms' descriptions. At the end of the book are a few recipes involving wild edibles, which is a really nice touch. The guide only covers the most interesting macrofungi, which is either a good or bad depending on your burning desire to identify all those LBMs.

One thing that the book really lacked was a key; unless you know what you're looking for, the identification method required by this book is to flip though the photographs until you see something that looks kind of like whatever you just found growing. It is tedious, and -- because fungi bear fruiting bodies at different times of the year depending on the weather -- you may be forced to thumb from one season to the next to find your mushroom.

Format
I don't like the height of this book. It is 5"x8.5" and a little too tall to easily fit into a packed knapsack. The height doesn't really feel necessary either; the book's content's could have easily fit into a 7"x5" size. I also take issue with the material of the cover. Although it is technically paperback, this is the toughest, most inflexible paperback material I have ever come across. Depending on your preference, I guess this could be considered a good thing. For my money, though, I like a softer cover because it conforms more easily to the contents of my backpack when I try to cram it into an already-full pack.

Recommended Reading
For the amateur mycologist, I would recommend the following books in this order:
1. This one The Pocket Guide to Mushrooms
2. The Audubon Society Field Field Guide to North American Mushrooms
3. A regional guide, like Field Guide to Wild Mushrooms of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic