Fall Book Review: The Complete Incense Book

Incense, likely destined to become more popular than candles, is the topic of our Fall book review. The Complete Incense Book by Susanne Fischer-Rizzi (Sterling 1998) is one of the few books being sold on the subject. It was previously published a few years earlier in the author’s country of Germany and thus had to be translated into English for the Western market. While certainly not complete, it is filled with photographs that can come in handy. While the same, if not better quality, photographs can be found in Aromatherapy books (as many essential oil producing plants can be used as incense) such as The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils by Julia Lawless, Rizzi’s book shows incense in the context of use. Chunks of resin such as Frankincense are show in a brass incense burner and numbers next to each item in the photograph leads to text telling you what is being shown. In addition to the photographs, each botanical mentioned has a drawing, to further help identify species in case you wish to wildcraft. The strength of this book is certainly its eye-candy, which at times includes maps.

This book is strange in that it doesn’t flow through each botanical like The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils does. Instead each chapter covers a country, such as India and Japan. This is likely due to a true lack of completeness when it comes to incense botanicals. Many incense ingredients are missing. The manner in which the book is laid out makes it very hard to use as a resource of any kind. Information on sandalwood is found in many chapters of the book, instead of in one place. While the book does have recipes, they are few and appear to be those from the author and not ancient blends. This has been a major complaint among incense enthusiasts. The tedious nature of the text ends up leaving one to simply abandon the book. Even though the information should be interesting, either the layout or the way the book was translated makes it boring. Another problem is the fact the author travels down the same old path of incense is only good for spiritualness mantra. She neglects to provide detailed information on the fact incense has played a major role in healing for thousands of years. Many believe it to be the first use of Aromatherapy. Due to real substances being used, when the incense is burned, it releases the botanical essential oils into the air. This is why Rosemary was frequently burned in sick rooms.

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