Burning Man in book form

"Inspired Madness, the Gifts of Burning Man," by Dale Pendell (Forg Limited,

Berkley, 110 pages, $15.95)

If you love or hate the Burning Man event on the Black Rock Desert at Gerlach, this thin book could be right for you.

If you enjoy the "alternate lifestyle" shennigans up there, he's a fellow traveler. If you hate them you'll find plenty of evidence to back up your views.

For the rest of us, it gives some insight into the action there that we may not have heard about before. Much of what is usually rumored about the event is reported here. Drugs abound, but alcohol may be more common. Sex happens, but sex happens just about everyplace anyhow. Art works of all kind are everywhere, and some of them have a lot to say. Relgions are common, some of them not very common in MIddletown USA.

And there is music, sometimes deafening in volume if not it artstry. Sideshows of all kinds exist, offering everything from palm reading the bellydance lessons.

As someone who has been to three Burning Mans, I can say everything author Pendell writes in this book is true, or at least should be.

" Sam Bauman, Nevada Appeal