The Book of Drugs

From the highly regarded singer-songwriter and former leader of Soul Coughing comes a funny, haunted memoir of music, drugs, and self-reinvention.

“Sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll have never been deconstructed with such literary elegance and self-deprecating honesty . . . He had me from the first page.” —Rosanne Cash

Mike Doughty first came to prominence as the leader of the band Soul Coughing then did an abrupt sonic left turn, much to the surprise of his audience, transforming into a solo performer of stark, dusky, but strangely hopeful tunes. He battled addiction, gave up fame when his old band was at the height of its popularity, drove thousands of miles, alone, across America, with just an acoustic guitar. His candid, hilarious, self-lacerating memoir, The Book of Drugs—featuring cameos by Redman, Ani DiFranco, the late Jeff Buckley, and others—is the story of his band's rise and bitter collapse, the haunted and darkly comical life of addiction, and the perhaps even weirder world of recovery.

“The arc may be a familiar one, but as Doughty’s followers already know, his idiosyncratic verve and eloquence go a long way in making old things sound new.” —Time Out New York

“[A] funny, smart, and candid memoir.” —The Boston Globe

“It seems almost unfair that a talented singer/songwriter like Doughty should also turn out to be a good writer, but there you have it. The Book of Drugs is informative but not confessional, rock-snarky but tempered with a round of amends. It is also whip-smart and bitterly funny.” —Boing Boing