''The Book of Drugs'' is a 2012
memoir by the musician and songwriter
Mike Doughty. The book details Doughty's struggles with
drug addiction, his musical career, both before and during his time with the band
Soul Coughing and during his solo career.
The book was noted for its acerbic take on Doughty's Soul Coughing bandmates, as well as its unflinching look at the damage caused by addiction.
The book covers Doughty's experiences growing up in a military family, his education, first experiences with drugs such as alcohol, his friendship with
Jeff Buckley, and his antagonism with his (unnamed) fellow Soul Coughing band members. It also covers his experience with
12-step programs
Twelve-step programs are international mutual aid programs supporting recovery from substance addictions, behavioral addictions and compulsions. Developed in the 1930s, the first twelve-step program, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), aided its members ...
, his travels to
Ethiopia and
Cambodia, his experience with
bipolar disorder, and his post-Soul Coughing solo career.
The book received a generally positive reception for its unflinching narrative and engaging writing. The ''
Village Voice'' review called it a "quickly paced, finely observed, and often mordantly funny read"—though some reviewers wondered, as Jay Trachtenberg of the ''
Austin Chronicle'' did, why "...if the atmosphere was so rancid, Doughty stuck around."
Memoir Suite
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Book of Drugs
Memoirs about drugs
Drug rehabilitation
Substance dependence
2012 non-fiction books
Music autobiographies
Da Capo Press books