Camping Books

Camping’s Top Secrets by Cliff Jacobson

An excellent read for new and old tent campers is Camping’s Top Secrets by Cliff Jacobson.   Its main selling point is its practicality.   The book is filled with great tips on all aspects of camping.   It is especially suited to tent camping as it looks into many of the common aspects tent campers utilize.

Mr. Jacobson covers topics like cooking, cleaning, camping equipment selection, animal interaction, safety tips, map tips, camping clothes, and other areas. He especially has some wonderful tips on how to keep your clothes dry and cooking ideas. In addition, he shows how to best use a map by waterproofing it and how to mark it so the ink does not run. Nuggets like these are throughout the entire book. However, the area I enjoyed the most was his discussion on structures, he shows how to make structures out of tarps, how to turn a canoe into a tent and what to look for in different tents. This gentleman is definitely old school in his advice and it works well when blending his insights with modern day technology.

If you have not had a chance to read one of his earlier editions, the third edition is definitely a good one to pick up.   It is put together well with an alphabetical listing of different camping tools and ideas and is under 300 pages.   This means you can easily finish the book in a weekend, write down the advice you want to remember and pass it on to a friend.   I believe that after you have read it, you will want to put some his secrets to the test.   I know I have and was impressed with the outcome.

*To read an excerpt from this book, check out weather forecasting.

**To see a review on a great book for cooking while camping, check out Roughing It Easy.