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Camping through Reading: 8 Books to Bring on Your Next Camping Trip

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2021-11-16

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Camping tips

Picture this - A small, secluded piece of a pine wood forest just above the shoreline. You can hear the seagulls and distant murmurs of the sea. You have just stretched your hammock just the way you like and are getting comfortable in it. You have your favourite beverage at hand and a great book you’re about to start reading. Now if that isn’t Heaven in 4 sentences, I don’t know what is.

You can easily find campsite and get comfortable, and we have prepared a short list of books to enjoy on your vacation.

Enid Blyton: Five Go Off to Camp

Most of the Millennials were practically raised on Enid Blyton’s series of book featuring the (in)famous Five. In this book, while on camping trip with Mr. Luffy, a master at boys’ school, the kids and their dog hear about a mysterious "spook trains" and of course, investigate the matter in their own unique way.

This book has been made into two TV series, and though it’s a children’s book, it is also a great way for adults to go back to their youth and enjoy a bit of a mystery.

Stephen King: The Body

If you’re more into adult mystery, here’s a treat (like everything King has ever written): a novella called “The Body”. Using camping as an excuse, three friends set out on a quest to find out what happened to their friend who disappeared and is presumed dead.

The novella was slightly changed and adapted into 1986 film “Stand By Me”.

Jack Kerouac: The Dharma Bums

A 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums features the author and his friends represented by characters in the book, reminiscing life and ideals, relationship to the outdoors, hiking, mountaineering, and hitchhiking through the west US. It also depicts protagonist’s relationship with Buddhism.

Jon Krakauer: Into the Wild

If Kerouac is a bit too classical, we suggest a modern non-fiction that turned classic especially after the film of a same name released in 2007.

The book follows its author Jon Krakauer who retraced Christopher’s McCandless steps into the Alaskan wilderness.

Major themes are pursued of enlightenment, coming of age, one’s relationship with society and it very much keeps the reader’s attention grasped tightly into the mystery.
While reading the book you can play the movie soundtrack made by Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam.

Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

We couldn’t not mention Mark Twain’s famous Huck and his adventures his way to adulthood. Set along the Mississippi River, the book depicts a society long gone. It has often been criticized for its coarse language, and even though the book itself is anti-racist, for supporting racial stereotypes.

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings

Which fantasy fan doesn’t remember the camping near Whether Top and drawing ring-wraiths to Fellowship which resulted in Frodo’s wounding?

Now, we have selected Tolkien’s work as an example (because who is more deserving), but if you think about it, many fantasy books involve camping – as they are set in a similar-to-medieval world, most characters travel on foot through the wild and are basically setting camps all the time.

Mary McCoy: Camp So-and-So

While talking about fantasy fiction, allow us to introduce you to Mary McCoy and her novel Camp So-and-So. It’s a fast-paced about twenty-five girls who received letters and brochures inviting them to spend the summer at Camp So-and-So. They’re divided into 5 cabins, and each has its own unique quest, ranging from dangerous camp Olympics, escaping from a murderous former camper to breaking an ancient curse regarding a cave monster.

Jojo Moyes: The Giver of Stars

Jojo Moyes, the author of “Me Before You”, has another amazing novel – set in the Depression-era US, the story follows five extraordinary women on their journey through the Kentucky mountains. A fresh, inspiring story based on true events, is a camping novel that stands out.

"Two of life’s greatest pleasures, by my reckoning, are camping and reading – most gloriously, both at once."

Michael Finkel