On April 26th we unveiled a new project at Erowid called The Erowid Review. It is a multi-contributor blog that will, on a regular basis, publish original book reviews on the topics of interest to Erowid visitors.

Books about every aspect of psychoactive plants, chemicals, technologies and related topics will be discussed-—cultural, spiritual, legal, medical, pharmacological and more. While books about psychoactives are our primary focus, we will also cover books about related trends in philosophy, science, medicine, religion and art. And we are not limiting the scope to recently published works; our intention is to also publish new reviews of older works to help characterize those works for contemporary readers.

Though the rise of the web has created an explosion of information available at the fingertips, the book remains a powerful form for conveying ideas—and great psychoactive-oriented books are published regularly.

Our goal is to publish new reviews two or three times a week, as well as to occasionally publish links to reviews or commentary published elsewhere. We hope to build a body of reviews from within the community, and occasionally highlight reviews by other media outlets for contrast.

There are a variety of ways that Erowid visitors and members can become involved:

1. First, we are on the lookout for regular reviewers—people willing to identify, read, and review a relevant book or publication once every 1-2 months. When a book is submitted for review by an author or publisher, regular reviewers will have the opportunity to receive a copy of the book that is theirs to keep after they have written a review.
2. We would also like to encourage the submission of individual reviews by anyone who has recently read a book they think Erowid visitors would be interested in—whether a newer or older title. We are more interested in non-fiction titles, though on-topic fiction will certainly be considered.
3. We are seeking editors who are interested in reading incoming reviews and preparing them for publication.
4. We are encouraging authors and publishers of relevant books to contact us about having their books reviewed.

Those interested in participating should email review@erowid.org for more information.

A secondary goal of the project is to begin work towards the development of a psychedelic canon: an annotated list of the top-recommended, defining books in the field. We hope to catalyze the creation of this canon by collecting high-quality reviews and ratings from those who have strong opinions about this field of study.

While it's fairly easy to find an online review or two for individual books, The Erowid Review will be the first place to aggregate and publish reviews primarily about psychoactive-related books. We believe this will become an invaluable resource and primary stop for those wishing to learn about the many varied works published in this field on an ongoing basis and throughout history.

We welcome your feedback about our efforts.