This Bong Hit's For You, China.

The People's Republic of China had never really done anything for me until this week.

But then, man oh man, did they make up for lost time!

They refused to do the binding on my upcoming cannabis book, The Little Black Book of Marijuana, thus starting a tsunami of publicity that money couldn't have bought for the tome.

Thank you, China!

The Atlantic Wire: Chinese Censors Prohibit Printing of U.S. Pot Writer's Book

Seattle Weekly: China Censors Seattle Weekly Columnist Steve Elliott's New Book, Throwing Off Worldwide Distribution By Weeks

The Weed Blog: China Censors The Printing Of Marijuana Activist Steve Elliott's New Book

Little Black Book of Marijuana Rises 600,000 Spots Overnight At Amazon

I'll take it as a good sign that my book The Little Black Book of Marijuana: The Essential Guide to Cannabis, which prints Monday, August 1, 2011, rose 649,000 spots on Amazon's rankings overnight.

(First screen shot above, taken the night of July 30; second screen shot taken the morning of July 31.)

The book ranked #692,613 on July 30, and had risen to #43,694 on July 31.

Grab it at Amazon, at BarnesandNoble.com, or at your favorite local independent bookstore -- it's available worldwide. If they don't have it, they can get it!

Six Weeks Until 'The Little Black Book of Marijuana'

My book, The Little Black Book of Marijuana: The Essential Guide to the World of Cannabis is coming out in August.

As listed in the current catalog of Peter Pauper Press:

This concise guide to cannabis provides the essentials of cultivating, using, and cooking with weed; identifying the many varieties of pot; and understanding legal and health issues. This Little Black Book also delves into pot culture and history, from Herodotus to the hippies, from the rise of the medical marijuana movement to decriminalization. Includes full-color photographs of marijuana varieties. Steve Elliott is a journalist and editor of the Village Voice Media blog Toke of the Town: Cannabis Culture News and Views.

What I have to add to that is that, given the size constraint of 20,000 words, I packed in as much cannabis lore as I possibly could! And had a great time doing it.

You can pre-order The Little Black Book of Marijuana at Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, and just about every major retailer, as well as at your local independent bookstore.

My New Year's Eve Appearance On John Doe Radio