What do you look for in a bushcraft book?

[mace242]

Proof reading other people's work is fun! I've done a few things and even if you don't know the subject you can still deal with the grammar, spelling and punctuation (the last not being my strong point).
If a new bushcraft book were to be written I'd prefer to see one covering new ground - maybe different projects and tutorials rather than a 4th generation re-hash of Lofty Wiseman

That's a good idea. A book that approaches bushcraft from the idea of projects. Chapters on food based around making a spoon, kuksa and hobo stove. Chapter on knife selection, care and usage based on the £5 sharpening set and how to sharpen. So each section is things to make and use. I suppose you're more likely to do bushcraft if you've make the kit yourself. It'll be a load cheaper too. And kind of fits the 'bushcraft ethos' (if there's such a thing).

 

[IntrepidStu]

Id buy the FIRE book (if it was well researched and written). Indeed I think that is the best idea ive heard for a long time.

 

[Wayland]

Agree with much that has been said here already and that is the problem with many of the "Bushcraft" titles out there. Same thing again.

I read a lot of books on my different interests and what I notice is that my reading becomes more specific as I go on.

There is not much point reading another book of basics when you've read several already. The returns of "new information" diminish as you progress.

What I tend to look for now is more detail on specific topics, so the advice above to pick a topic and specialize is very sound.

 

[kentynet]

I am in the process of writing and book, and had a quick thought "what would the people who bought this book like to have information on" So basically thats the question?

What do you want to have more information about in a bushcraft book/ or think that people would want to know if they have no previous knowledge of the subject?

This is what i have writenon so far:-


1. Shelter – natural, artificial and experiences (hammock ‘getting wet’)
2. Fire – how to light a fire, types of fire, types of tinder, clearing away a fire
3. Water – how important it is, how to find it, collect, it, make it safe
4. Knife – types/ looking after, using it
5. Axe – types/ looking after, using it
6. Saw – types of blades/ saw (folding, bow), using it
7. Trees – Oak, Ash, Elm, Beech, Birch, Chestnut, Uses
8. Cooking – Dutch oven, pots types, tri pods, etc, Bread,
9. Clothing – different times of the year
10. Rucksacks – day sack, walking, expedition
11. Cordage – types of trees that can be used, lime tree, stinging nettles
12. Woodcraft/natural resources – carving (spoon, mug, etc), birch bark uses/birch tar, stinging nettles, birch polypore, King Alfred’s cake (cramp ball)
13. Navigation – natural, compass, watch, GPS
14. Tracking – deer tracking and encounters
15. Emergency Signaling – Mirror, Torch, Radio, fire
16. Knots, timber hitch, half hitch full hitch, bow line, sheep shank, etc


Any information will help and advise is very much appreciated.

Adam Giles

Well to be perfectly honest, I like bear and ray, but I avoid their books like the plague! I think their books talk too much about their adventures and not actually how to do certain skills as much. Sorry if I offend anyone, but its just my opinion.
I look for skills books only. I don't want to hear about what ray did in Oz or When Bear ate that camel. I see their programmes enough and want to learn skills myself, not just read about someone else! When I want to hear other peoples stories I read the blogs and forums on this site. Much more intresting!

I've got Bushcraft Skills and How to Survive in the Wild book, It's good and provides easy instructions on how to do certain things, although the language is quite dull. Why not do something like it?

Here's the link:
http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAnd...ow+to+Survive+in+the+Wild+-9781844762705.html

Good luck with the book. Oh yes and having to log ins is a bad decision on most forums.

 

[Daegurth]

some of ray's books are more anthropologic/travelogue, and some of them are more instructional. walkabout/telemark belong to the former, and bushcraft survival/essential bushcraft to the latter.

as for grilled bear lol: who came up with that?), i don't fancy taking instruction from anyone who chooses quick danger over methodical safety, batons with a folding knife, and ties his knife to the end of a stick as a fishing spear. i don't even need to go into hotels and faux-SAS credentials with that.

personally i think the detailed book is the way to go. maybe it could end up being a series, covering individual aspects of bushcraft in lots of detail in each book.

good luck, anyway. in the modern book market, you'll need it.

 

[Tiley]

As so many have pointed out, the book needs to offer something new and fresh if it is to succeed at all. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't have a go but I would offer as a caveat that ALL your material has to be pin sharp in terms of accuracy and, ideally, beautifully and meaningfully illustrated.

Heading down the more specialist fields of fire, shelter or "fungi-that-you-can-find-on-the-22nd-October" immediately limits your readership. Equally, writing a beginners guide will also limit your market because Ray and Mors and Richard Graves already have their books on the shelves.

Personally, I think one of the most influential "How to" books was written by Yvon Chouinard about ice climbing. For me, the secret of his success lay in the personal anecdotes that finished off each chapter. Almost more than the extremely good instructional elements, these made the book readable and gave the distinct impression from the failures, more than the successes, that Chouinard was human and had done a huge amount of ice climbing - and loved it. If you can get that aspect across in your book, you might be on to a winning formula.

On a more prosaic note, keeping the techniques relevant to the temperate zone in which we live and in which we practise the majority of our bushcraft skills would be a bonus.

I was surprised to see the vehemence with which this thread was started. I hope that, for all parties concerned, things have been ironed out.

 

[demographic]

Is this the way to the massive overreaction thread?
Looks like it is.

Cikey, was anyone hurt by someone posting a fairly simple question?
No deaths?
Famine created?
No?
Having two accounts is a little cheeky but its not up there with raping someones cat is it?

Anyway, I digress, the book.

Just copy most of the stuff in The SAS Survival Handbook, get rid of the military bits, mention a lot about being in tune with nature to please the yogurt weavers.
Talk about "Leave No Trace" but don't push it too far otherwise people might work out that cutting down saplings in someone elses woods to make shelters is slightly at odds with that ethic.
Don't mention anything about escape and evasion cos thats totally out of fashion now and don't forget that anything thats even faintly weapon like gets called a tool, if you must have spears in the book its best to cal them by some almost forgotten tribal name and don't even think of calling them a spear.
Also big fKoff knives should be called Kukris or Parangs.


Have a big chapter about making your own "tools" but don't mention that when you have made them they all add upto such a weight that you would need to be Arnie to carry them about and a house with a garage to keep them in.
Mention lots about wanting to get back to nature and how the old ways were more enviromentally friendly but promote the book heavilly on the internet and don't mention that if everyone did it the land prices would shoot through the roof and the current population would struggle to survive.


Think I have just about covered it, whens it for sale?
50% of my post is joking by the way, your task is to work out which 50%

 

[Bernie Garland]

I don't bother with books,i just ask on here

 

[andy_e]

...50% of my post is joking by the way, your task is to work out which 50%

I reckon it's the vowels, do I win a signed copy of the book?

 

[demographic]

do I win a signed copy of the book?

Dunno, you will have to ask one of the two blokes writing it

 

[andy_e]

Dunno, you will have to ask one of the two blokes writing it

True, though I reckon one of them is a ghost writer

 

[Graham_S]

You ask what I look for in a Bushcraft book?
I look for an author who has been there, done that.
Real Practical Experience. Years of it.
Look at Ray, Lofty, Mors.
What do they have?
A proven track record.
Do you have that?
If so, well done.
If not, Go get some, then write the book.