silver

So Sheldrake sneaks back after dark and steals a whole bunch of apples

Ugh. :( Yeah, this sounds very "rebel indiscriminately against anything that looks at all like authority!" Which is especially obnoxious if he's in a position where there isn't even any real personal risk involved.

There is probably a whole category of memoir/semi-fictional books that have been written about experiences like this, and I am sure lots of good art and literature can be made out of it

I haven't read any books specifically about mushrooms, but Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception comes to mind as an interesting autobiographical piece about psychedelic experiences on mescaline. But yeah, it definitely matters that he doesn't try to disguise the book as being about anything other than his subjective experience.

Like, based on your description, it definitely sounds like the mushroom book was meant to appeal to the shroomer crowd rather than to people who actually want to know more about the biology of fungi, but it also kind of sounds like it fails on both levels?

The second book sounds fascinating, and makes me wish I spent more time reading science books. Though I have to say, given how many people apparently find it inconceivable that we could be descended from apes, I sort of doubt having more lobe-finned fish around would really make any difference to how people feel about evolution...