Could a book on fungus make you laugh out loud? If the book in question is Dr. Nicholas Money's wonderful The Triumph of the Fungi, it certainly could. I laughed the whole way through, starting with the subtitle - A Rotten History, and learned so much along the way.

Each chapter of the book tackled a crop I take for granted, describing how it gained prominence, revealing who it enriched, and delving into what fungus destroyed or has the power to destroy it. Dr. Money tied in the historical aspects of each mycological disaster, making the book easy going, even for a nonscientist. As an English major, I only took two semesters of biology, so it would have been easy to lose me in the details. The numerous real-life examples, comparisons, quips, and allusions, however, made what would have been dry and inaccessible material in another author's hands fresh and fun.

Before this book, I knew nothing about how dangerous monocultures are and how at risk current farming practices make us. I had only a glimmer of how complex the life cycles of fungi are. I certainly didn't realize how impossible it is for fungicides to keep up with the rapidity of evolution in the fungal world. And now I do.

It took me months to read this book because I'm a teacher and, during the school year, I only get to read in 15-minute "Silent Reading" intervals. This kind of interrupted reading makes even great books take a loooong time to finish. To Dr. Money's credit, the book was so well written that even a sporadic reader found it easy to pick up where she left off and forge on. It's a rare book that entertains as well as it educates; Triumph of the Fungi does just that.