Camping Books

The publisher takes a political liberty of reader consent to print this book without reviewing the "knee deep only" dimensions of the topics, the slight current reader interests or timeliness to the year 2001. Many of the articles, short and newsy as they might have once been, provide only brief historical interest to a small population of readers who might once have read the articles in a northern, small town, paper. Sorry. I was thoroughly dissappointed.

A classic, said Mark Twain, is a book which people praise but don't read. If Twain was right, the latest collection of essays by Michigan's talented Jerry Dennis will never be a classic, and we should hope not. This book will be read, again and again, by anyone who covets the aroma of tent canvas, the fit of elkskin moccasins, or the crisp solitude of an October morning on a remote northern lake or stream. Jerry's new book contains 31 sparkling essays on the merits of everything from iron skillets to Union Suits, from finely honed wooden paddles to the best wood for a campfire. Reflecting on years of gentle meandering, Jerry lovingly explains how tradition and quality dovetail to make outdoor pursuits more comfortable, and more comforting to the soul. There's a yearning in these descriptive passages, a questing spirit that sings, "There's still an hour 'til dark; let's paddle the north fork to see what we find." And you do, because for Jerry and his readers, adventure invariably lies around the next bend. "From a Wooden Canoe" is superbly illustrated by Glenn Wolff. The book makes me glad there's wild country to explore and perceptive, contemplative writers like Jerry Dennis to stir the campfires of my heart.

More of a gentle cruise than a furious whitewater paddle, "From a Wooden Canoe" is easily dismissed as superficial and irrelevant to modern times. Taking more than a casual glance, however, is worth the effort. Mr Dennis can write and, when he is tackling a subject dear to his heart, he achieves an apparently effortless grace. The topics here vary from the predictable (a woollen hunting jacket)to the eccentric (shuttle cars, for example) and cover concepts as well as items, outlining the delights of good coffee and a bright red union suit in a couple of pages of easy prose. There is little real depth of information, but it is important to consider that such is not the purpose of the book: this is a volume of memories and feelings, some explained and others merely invoked, pertaining to a life outdoors, away from the urban (and urbane, very often). It's simple, straightforward reading, perhaps best enjoyed in small sips rather than gulping swallows, much like camp coffee. The chapter illustrations by Glenn Wolff are on the whole nicely rendered and at times atmospheric, although he is clearly more accomplished when not sketching people.
In all this is an odd but worthwhile book, definitely more enjoyable to someone who has spent some time in the wilds, though.

I would mostly rather paddle than read about paddling, but when I can't, I like to read someone who can make pictures appear in my head. From a Wooden Canoe is my favorite Jerry Dennis book to date (along with It's Raining Frogs and Fishes). Jerry can evoke images of past river trips, even when talking about the archane Ohio Blue Tip Match or a rusty trusty shuttle vehicle.

If you like to paddle, read this book. If you want to see what it's like to be inside a paddler's head, read this book. If it's nice outside, go paddling instead.

From A Wooden Canoe wraps the classic tools of an outdoor life in a series of short essays that capture dew drops and mist, the water songs of dipping paddles and rain on granite. It offers a respite from tabloid news, cell phones, and microchips. The essays sting our eyes with woodsmoke then soothe them with starlight and wrap us safe in an old wool coat.

The book brought bittersweet memories of frosty camps, my father watching a snowy tree line, the sweet smell of cedar from a hundred swamps. It is cabined on a special shelf with Harrison, McPhee, McGuane, and Abbey.

This publication provides a good overall view. Unfortunately for my situation it did not address my power converter problem. Like most publications out there it concentrates more on the self contained RV or what I would call a Motor Home not the towable. I suspect this is due in part to the commonality of parts and variations in dealer provided options. It dosen't really explain how to test the converter/charger so for DIY it falls short.

This is a highly detailed book on RV Electrical Systems. If you are a little bit of a tec head this book may be for you.

This will teach most (non-electrician by trade) people many useful things that will make their trips more enjoyable.(reduce operator error).

The book is wonderful and easy to follow with good illustrations and photographs. It covers pretty much the gammut of electrical items found on an RV -- way more than I will probably need, but its good to know it's all there. The book was purchased used and the description stated in excellent condition, but when it arrived, it was not what I would call excellent -- dog eared pages and warped pages- like the top end of the pages had gotten wet. It is still very readable and usable, but I strongly disagree with the booksellers rating of its quality.

Bought book to help plan an RV electrical system upgrade and it more than met my expectations. Found the book fairly easy to understand with a wealth of specific information about the "whys" and "wherefores" of wire, fuses, circuits, batteries, battery charging, electrical loads, etc. Author also includes a wealth of technical info for tech types who want greater detail.

Literally cram-packed with suggestions that'll keep your coach on the road instead of on the mechanic's lift. This book outlines what one should do and the possible consequences if they don't.

I've been criticized for reviewing RV books on Amazon since I co-authored the book, RV. Sorry, but I disagree. If you've logged 120,000 RV miles as I have, please do review RV books and if you write an RV book, I'll buy it.

An indespensible guide to RV maintaneance and care. This book is especially good for new RVers since it goes into a lot more detail than the typical owners manual and covers a wide variety of vehicle types. Photographs abound so show you what looks like what. I'd reccommend it for anyone who wants more details on how to take care of their rig.

My wife inherited a 1988 Winnebago (31 foot, no slide-outs) and we've decided to bring it up to speed for beach trips. This is one of two books I have bought to get started, it is the lesser of the two but still useful.

RV Repair and Maintenance Manual: Updated and Expanded (RV Repair and Maintenance Manual) is absolutely one the best car maintenance books I have ever had the pleasure of using (I also have a 1964 MGB and related maintenance books). This other book is brilliantly organized, crystal-clear, and I especially appreciate the full-page trouble-shooting guide with symptoms and fixes in two columns.

If you want only one book, buy the other book. I am not unhappy with this Owner's Handbook, I use it for overview reading, but it is not anywhere near as good as the Trailer Life book in terms of detail and trouble-shooting.

This is very handy guide.

We keep it on our MH and it really helps if you are trying to troubleshoot a problem with, say, the electrical or plumbing system.

It goes in-depth into systems and concepts that we as first-time owners have no clue about.

There is an extensive troubleshooting section that has definitely helped us on the road (where we didn't have internet or access to the forums on rv.net).

One complaint is that it is very general and completely non-vendor-specific, so it might not visually depict the EXACT system on YOUR rig perfectly, but it does give an exceptional general description about RV systems that can really help in a pinch.

I would definitely recommend this book, especially to any new or first-time RV'ers.

We had NO idea how to set up our used camper...This book had a lot of basic info we needed...

I was very disappointed with this book. I felt the author had hastily put this together. Most chapters ended with the reader wondering what the point of the story was. I can't believe the publisher released this book. Worst of all, I can't believe I purchased it. I guess we all make mistakes.

I loved this book. As an avid hiker I'm always looking for good tent reading. Weird Hikes hits the mark. Each tale leads you to the next and makes you want to recount all of your own weird hikes. The stories are witty and engaging and they're even better when the pages are illuminated by a campfire or lantern.

I really enjoyed "Weird hikes" and would like to see Bernstein write additional books in the same style. The stories were all entertaining and I was continually looking forward to picking up the book and reading about his next strange adventure! The book also re-ignited the hiking bug in me!!

I just read and enjoyed Art Bernstein's "Weird Hikes." I found the book great fun and well written (for the most part), with an easy to read, intimate style. The stories "Mad Deer," "I Hear
Footprints," "On Beyond Bigfoot" and "Between Bears and Men," were intense, fast-paced, dramatic and very spooky. Other stories emphasized the weird aspect a little less and concentrated more on humor ("The Black Butte Miracle"), or on personal or spiritual insights ("The First Hike" and "Dream Trails"). I thought Bernstein achieved a pretty good balance.

Readers should bear mind that the stories are supposedly all true and all happened to the same person. I have no doubt that the author could write 14 excellent hiking stories about crazed vampires, vengeful cars that mysteriously come to life and start killing everyone, or young girls with the ability to psychically set people on fire. But those stories would not be plausible if passed off as true. The beauty of Bernstein's stories is that they are completely believable. Even "Mad Deer" and "On Beyond Bigfoot," strange as they are, could reasonably happen to anybody.

At the end of nearly every one of these stories, I found myself saying, "I can't believe he calls that a weird hike." It was usually his imagination rather than the actual events that made the stories weird. Nonetheless I kept reading. The author is almost a very good writer and perhaps with a constructive editor he would be so. Out of the 13 (or was it 14?) stories, about four of them were good. Two or three were totally boring and the rest were OK. As an avid hiker, I tentatively recommend this book. TIP: Don't expect the stories to be weird and you'll probably enjoy them more.

A lot of the information in the book can be obtained elswhere, however, the author makes reccomendations to particular sites and desirable areas in the campground, which I have found to be very helpful and accurate. These recommendations make the book priceless. There's nothing worse than reserving a campsite, and then finding out has no shade or has other issues.

This guide is my camping bible. I live in Orlando, and I like to go car camping often. And, since this is Florida, I often compete with the r.v. folks for limited space. And tent campers often do not dwell peacefully alongside the generators and sheer size of an r.v. This is the only guide I've reached for, time and again, which allows me to stay far from the r.v. behemoths to pitch my little piece of heaven and enjoy a small campfire.

The [limited] campgrounds listed here (more on that in a moment) offer details that enable a camper to choose the best site to pitch the tent and relax. There are also details about the activities of each campground, so campers who own a boat or kayak, bicycles or hiking shoes, can plan activities to begin the moment they claim their site.

All of that said, the guide does have its limitations. For example, there are literally hundreds of campsites in Florida that are not listed here. A Florida camper should not limit herself to this guide--check out websites of the national parks, state parks, and private campgrounds as well. Also, because of constant changes in the natural habitats of Florida (caused by hurricanes, brush fires, etc.), the guide is often a bit late with important information, e.g., a state park that's closed due to damage from a hurricane. If you want to camp in Florida, these are the challenges you'll face. So check the websites of each park before you book your campsite.

It's still the best guide out there. Nonetheless, potential campers in Florida should do their homework to check current conditions.

I use this book as a companion to "Florida State Parks" by Michal Strutin. The State Parks book has very good basic information about all the State parks but this book has the details about size, privacy, view, etc. that is nice to know about each campground. Unfortunately it does not cover all of the State parks. Most of the campgrounds are State parks but a few are State forests and National forests. I didn't find any private campgrounds listed.

The information is a little dated, particularly with regard to electric and water. Our experience is that the several State Park campgrounds we have camped in have water and electric in all sites now. This means there is more intermingling of RVs and tents, but the areas described as tenting areas in this book still hold pretty true even though there will be an occasional RV.

This book give lots of good information about the tent sites, which was the most helpful. I would have liked to have seen more consistency with what information was offered overall for each location.

This book is terrrible; I found same information on internet & in free Fla. State Parks booklet available at www.myflorida.com
SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!

I guess you could argue that some experiences are universal, and that covering one slice of the camp life covers them all. Maybe so. But this book is really about kids (primarily Jewish) living/camping in the Northeast United States. So the stories of the kids who were considered klutzes back in their own school but sports superstars at camp, for example, just may not resonate with everyone. The book is enjoyable to read, but it seems to leave out more than it covers. There are many types of camps, regions of the country, etc. but this book leaves many of them out.

In sum it is a interesting book to flip thru, but might primarily appeal to a narrow audience and not the general public the way the newspaper reviews I read (that prompted me to buy it) imply. Had I known their previous book was "Bar Mitzvah Disco" I would have been prepared for a book predominantly about one segment of the population.

Camp Camp is fun to read. Anyone who has gone to camp or is planning to go to camp can relate to the contents. Those who have not gone to camp can see what they missed.

"Camp Camp" pulls you back to your beloved camp days where your biggest worries involved looking good for canteen and the dance, waking up for morning line-up, and passing the deep water test.

A former camper can flip open to any page, read any passage and look at any grainy old Kodak photo and relate completely. If you missed out on attending summer camp, than this book will make you wish you had gone and had a story about making a slip n' slide on the bunk floor with your bunk 27 buddies using your counselor's shaving cream, body soap, and shampoo. As the saying goes, "A picture says a thousand words." Well, a camp photo is worth ten thousand and can also evoke tears, laughter and a host of other emotions.

Clearly, I am what many would call a, "camp person," having attended and worked at Camp Echo Lake for summers. Like another reviewer, my biggest disappointment with this book was the lack of my own camp's passage or photos; however I was extremely excited to read about the camp where I currently work, Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, http://www.campmkn.com/. A former camper, Todd, Rosenberg, the self-proclaimed, "Archer King," wrote a passage for the book discussing his glory days at Mah-Kee-Nac where he participated in an exciting archery competition which he thought about and worked on all year long with the thoughts of camp in mind. This book reminds you that you may leave camp, but it never leaves you, whether your hitting the books, sitting at your desk or just day dreaming. It encourages you to get back in touch with bunkmates and counselors. It is an absolute must for the "camp person," another way to relive those happy days.

"Camp Camp" is the ultimate camp book. As soon as you open up this book you are instantly brought back onto that yellow school bus as it passes under the large wooden, "Welcome to Camp" sign and you pull onto the bunk line. Those were the days where your counselors could act as goofy and foolish as they wanted and yet they were the coolest and biggest people on the planet. You could be the hero of the day because you won dodgeball for your team against the older kids and earned the nickname of, "Dodge" for the rest of the summer...only at camp!

I am a serial camper, having attended and worked at several camps mentioned in the book: Camp Danbee (www.campdanbee.com) , Mah-Kee-Nac, Winadu, Ramaquois, Winaukee, and Cobbossee. It was an instant pleasure to read excerpts given by campers from my former camps. This book reminded me of how much camp becomes a part of who you are and how much you miss it when you have left.

Having just sent my oldest child off to her first year of sleepaway camp, it was very tempting to stow away on the bus and relive my camp experiences of the 1970s. But with this book, I don't have to, and it's a whole lot cheaper than actually going to sleepaway camp. While I must admit that I did contribute a few photos and a couple of anecdotes, I had no idea of the scope of this book until I actually read it--it's as funny as successfully short-sheeting a counselor's bed (and then getting the kid in the bunk that everyone hates blamed for it). There's a depth of depravity here that even I'd never expected--it's so brilliantly outrageous that I practically peed in my pants I was laughing so hard. My wife thought I'd completely lost my marbles--but she never had the camp experience. This book was lovingly compiled by a couple of truly demented (in a good way) folks, and they have captured the spirit of summer camp in a way that I thought only I remembered. Obviously, there are many others out there--and they should all read this book. If not, there's a purple nurple out there with your name on it...

For those looking for a concise guide to map and compass use, look elsewhere. This book is rambling and wordy.

The relaxed, conversational pace of this book may appeal to some readers. It strikes me otherwise, and feels wordy, and in places little more than fluff. If the writing were tighter, the details would stand out better. Those details are there and worth getting. It is a good introduction in that sense. For some readers this may be enough. If you are inclined to read more than one book on any subject you're interested in, then this may be helpful as one of the first books on navigation you might read. But it is unlikely it'd be your last.

Great book. Read it before I went on a backpacking trip to Colorado. It taught me a lot about map reading, how to use a compass, and also how to be more aware of my surroundings. I would suggest this book to anyone who backpacks or does day trips.

This is a excellent book if you do not have a knowledge of the wilderness. I would recommend it highly

I have been using a compass for many years but I always thought there was much more than I knew. I went to using GPS for all my navigation a few years ago. I purchased 3 books on compass usage a couple years ago after my wife and I broke my GPS during a snowstorm in the mountains of Colorado leaving us in a bad mess.
I quickly ran through the other 2, and although they were good they were not as complete as this one. I have carried it with me for 2 years now. I find that what I think I have learned is easily wrong when out in the field so I now carry it with me and practice the stuff I am unsure of. Some people think this book is wordy but I find it fascinating. I reread certain chapters over and over, finding I have glossed over something that is more important than I originally thought.
If you want to trust a compass this is the book for you, but plan on spending some time with it.
I am buying this book for my son-in law as he relies exclusively on a GPS.
I guess the only thing I disagree with is a statement that a compass almost never breaks, as I have several that have been retired over breakage. I carry 2-3 with me now as I guess I'm not disposed to trust any one navigational instrument.

I had borrowed this book and knew I wanted to buy it for myself. It is very detailed and for a directionally challenged person like me that is priceless.

These state gazetteers make traveling the back roads a pleasure, and is a great value from Amazon.

We got the atlas for an 11-day trip to Minnesota, and ended up hardly using it at all.
I've used many road atlases, as I prefer them to folding maps, but this one was more of a nuisance due to its size and unclarity.
I also doubt its up-to-date-ness, as a couple of roads that looked promising in this atlas turned out to be non-existing or dislocated.
To me, the most undesirable trait was the fact that it was quite unfriendly - graphically-speaking.
Some main roads (and even freeways) were represented similarly to smaller roads (color and width), which required really exerting our eyes in order to figure out which is what.
We drove ~2500 miles in Minnesota, and after a couple of attempts, the atlas ended up on the back-seat, and we switched to the AAA map we had with us, luckily.
Disappointing.

I join the other reviewers in wishing there were more detailed city street maps in this series. As others have said if you are traveling from one city to another by major roads then you are better off with mapquest directions (as dodgy as they sometimes are) or the foldout highway map you can buy at a gas station. However, if you travel back roads, camp, fish, hike, canoe, etc., then this book is invaluable. I have relied on this book to provide us with out of the way camping spots and it's never let me down. Most state and national forest campgrounds don't appear on highway maps, but this book has them. It's also especially useful if you want to find alternative routes, scenic drives, or short cuts off of major highways.

I know that others have given high praise but I found the information to be very out of date, such as a bike trail that has been paved for over 10 years listed as crushed rock and a museum showing in the location it was over ten years ago. This 3rd edition has a 2001 copyright and I expect information to be fairly up-to-date. This was a very disappointing purchase. I am not using it because I doubt the reliability. It looks nice but is not a good reference for my needs.

This is a decent book, but it needs to be purchased before you buy an RV. We didn't need the first half because we had already purchased ours when we got the book.

I recommend this book for all who are considering joining the RV culture and those just starting out. It provides the basic 'get started' information you need and more. It's a quick, easy, and motivating read. Enjoy!

Before we purchased our first RV, I ordered and read this book. Just full of detailed, easy to understand, and necessary information. When we met with the sellers, I was able to grasp the basics of the many functions and systems of our new home on wheels and sound half way intelligent. Much of the information in the book was repeated to me by the experienced RV'ers.

There are instructions on how to use a shower faucet in this book. Specifically, how to pull up the diverter knob to make the shower nozzle produce water. Like what you do in your home bathroom every day. And instructions on how to use an ATM machine. I kid you not.
In its defense, it does give a general overview of black and grey water tanks and basics about hitches and the types of RVs that exist and I'm sure the authors meant well. But there are some really dumbed-down instructions about ordinary things you already know about. Its almost insulting. There are much better books out there that dont assume you are mentally challenged!

Very helpful and easy reading. Also purchase the RVer's Bible (by Kim & Sunny Baker) if you want to really be prepared with your RV!

I read this book before going to my first excursion and it was very useful. If you are a beginner, want to go to a light trip and know nothing about backpacking, setting a tent, cooking in the middle of the countryside, etc, this book is an excellent choice. If you are experienced, I guess that this book will be very basic for you.

Like the other reviews mention, there is a dearth of info here. The problem is that it's all very basic. If you're looking to upgrade your knowledge and have had nominal experience hiking or backpacking, then this is not a good source. However, if you've never been backpacking before and know nothing about wilderness survival then this is a great start.

Great book packed with color pictures and loaded with information about a myriad of things! I am highly impressed!

This book played an essential role in my team's confidence to hike up and down Pikes Peak.

IT ROCKS !! , every hiker , rock climber , or even backpacker wants this book , BUY ! IT