>I ended up getting Ed Wood's "Classic Sourdoughs", which is very
>interesting, Dan Lepard's The Handmade Loaf, which has wonderful
>pictures and recipes I am very interested in trying out, and The
>Laurel's Kitchen Bread book, which I haven't looked at.
>Russ

Just so you know, Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book is a great reference for baking with whole
wheat in general, and some of her stranger recipes (whole wheat black bean bread anyone?)
are very tasty.

But I would not recommend any of her advice on sourdough. I've made the Desem bread per
her instructions, primarily for a review I'm working up, and though it's a lot of fun seeing the
10 lbs of flour erupt into a mini-volcano as the stiff dough underneath develops and
expands into a starter, it's a lot of effort (and flour) for very little payoff, I think. If you want
to make the desem bread, it's much easier to take a starter you've already got, make it stiff,
and then feed it in the cellar where it's cool.

--
Jeff