Book cover of Skeleton Key

Book description

For fifty years and more than two thousand shows, the Grateful Dead have been earning the "deadication" of more than a million fans. Along the way, Deadheads have built an original and authentic American subculture, with vivid jargon and rich love, and its own legends, myths, and spirituality.

Skeleton Key:…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Skeleton Key as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I find it a remarkable testament to the robustness of the Deadhead phenomenon that a 400-page book could be produced on the special vocabulary of this unique fanbase.

In the following book list, this one has the distinction of being the only one which was published while the Grateful Dead were still active. It is organized as a dictionary of phrases and terminology that have specific meanings in the Deadheads’ world and thus provides a great starting point for understanding Deadheads and their common perspective on the world.

I have gotten many a good laugh at finding entries for things…

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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