First, I’m pleased to say that my book, Shroomies, is now available for pre-order. This was a big surprise

Pre-Order Now

I’ve been writing this book for the past year, and it’s taken a lot out of me. I spoke to people who went through absolute hell, who lost jobs and found peace, and who were all changed by psychedelics. While I agree that psychedelics are not for everyone, they are definitely something we should all be exploring as we enter whatever dystopian age we’re living in right now, and I hope this book will be helpful.

Meet ParrotPod

My friend Mike Butcher was musing in a chat room about a service that automatically made a news podcast that gave you a digest of interesting stories on a daily basis. I thought about his request and told him I’d build it. Over the course of about two days I was able to cobble together a working MVP that essentially automatically generates an audio podcast every morning at 10am Eastern. It’s called ParrotPod and you can try it right now.

Try ParrotPod

It’s definitely not perfect and there are still things I’d like to fix but I’d love it if you could give it a try and let me know what you think. It’s a fun project and I’m curious to see what people think. If you try it, please send me feedback at john@biggs.cc.

And now, on to the books.

All Tomorrow’s Parties

William Gibson

I reread William Gibson every few years and mostly focus on the first two trilogies, the Sprawl and the Bridge. If you’ve never read Gibson, you need to start with Neuromancer, but I love this one, the last in the Bridge trilogy, for its mix of reality and sci-fi. The Bridge trilogy is all about how the digital becomes real, and this particular book focuses on what would happen if we could create digital life through nanobots. It’s way better than I’ve made it sound, and Gibson is a master of his craft.

The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes

Tom Parker Bowles

In this travel memoir, food writer Tom Parker Bowles sets out to understand why some foods are feared in one culture yet prized in another. Prompted by the food anxieties of friends, he spends a year traveling through Asia, Europe, and the United States seeking out meals that many people consider dangerous, strange, or extreme, including venomous animals, toxic fish, insects, organ meats, and hot peppers. It’s a cute, light book in the vein of Truffle Hound from January.

Such Great Heights: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion

Chris DeVille

This is a complete history of the “indie rock explosion” that covers the early years of NYC rock like The National and Interpol along with the oddballs like Neutral Milk Hotel and the Postal Service. If you had an iPod and an eMusic account in 2002, chances are you listened to these folks on repeat, and DeVille does a solid job of going down the list and talking about each band in plenty of detail. Well worth a read if you love this music.