Staff at the Desert Foothills Library in Cave Creek, AZ have asked patrons to stop licking the psychedelic books, explaining that you actually won't get high and the act is just gross and super unhygienic.
The library posted cautionary messages on social media last week against licking Tom Wolfe's 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,' something long practiced by those looking to get a quick high before setting out to wander in the nearby Sonoran Desert.
"As we say about most things you come across in a library, whether it be furniture, microfiche machines, or Aldous Huxley's 'The Doors of Perception,' please refrain from licking."
Wolfe's book--one of the more popular titles of its ilk--is a 1968 new journalism nonfiction book about Ken Kesey's travels around the country on his bus with The Merry Pranksters, advocates of the hippie lifestyle and recreational LSD use.
The messages did not indicate how many people have been seeking highs by licking these books, but one no-nonsense librarian did catch several unwashed freaks licking the pages of the chapters dealing with the Prankster's "trip" in Mexico.
While the library did not deny that there might be benefits of using LSD, the Desert Foothills Instagram post did state that licking a public library book post-COVID is just "straight-up nasty." Not to mention the potential of ingesting other toxic substances when licking a book published in 1968.
Librarians have also warned that the growing demand for psychedelic books might also lead to the library becoming more of a hangout for beatniks, love children, and dopeheads than it already is.