Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska What should I be reading?

Looking for some book recommendations.

Mostly about Alaskan hunting, trapping, homesteading etc.

I was thinking Russell Annabel but there's a million and 5 different books listed with him on Amazon with prices all over the place. No clue what's good or not.

Wondering if there's something/someone else you recommend?

Me n Joe type hunting stories - no necessarily text books on living in the bush.

Appreciate it.

Check out your local library? Often they can also get loaners from elsewhere.

You don't have to necissarily buy.

title?
author?

Alaska Wolf Man,Trapline Twins,Chuck Keims books, Andy Naught book, that'll get you started!!!

Dean Wilson trapping book,,

One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey Paperback – May, 1999

by Sam Keith (Author), Richard Proenneke (Author, Photographer)

All of Rearden's books are worth the read.

Andy Nault's trapping partner is a very long-time friend and hunting/trapping partner of mine. He has some different recollections from Andy's. Interesting read still.

Thanks all - I have 3 books on the way and should be here tomorrow.

2 from RA -

High Road to Adventure
Adventure is in my Blood

And I also have

Pinnell and Talifson: Last of the Great Brown Bear Men

I think that should be a good start.

If you like RA you should also get "Return to Toonaklut"


https://www.amazon.com/Return-Toonaklut-Russell-Classics-Big-Game/dp/1571572503

Title? Author? Too many to mention. Do some alaskana research and take your pick. Stephansons early exploration was good. Bush Pilot by Bud Helmricks. His daughter wrote one about her and her new hubby's year far into the bush whether on her maiden name or not don't remember.

My landlord, Seth Kantner has several ( I really have to get around to working him for some autographed copies - then read them. Bastid is "vacationing" with his family at his cabin up the Kobuk until after freeze up, leaving me to mind the civilization.... He also has some really good photography for sale.

My personal favorite is "ecology and management of North American moose " published by Smithsonion Institute. Edited by Swartz and Franzman, both of whom I know. Probably want to get a library copy on this one. My copy cost $80. Probably should get it autographed....

Nick Jans published some good articles. Saw him last week on his way thru Kotz for Ambler, then on to join Kantner at his Kobuk site. Stayed overnight upstairs in Kantners apt. (That place is a revolving door- there's a long time itinerant Arctic Doctor up there tonight - just found out he and I been crossing locations for 40 years.... .

You just have to know where Kantner hides the key......

Jans rubs me a bit wrong in person but he writes well.

Alaska's Wolf Man by Jim Rearden (story of Frank Glaser)

Alaskan Yukon Trophies Won and Lost by G.O. Young. This one can be a little hard to find but is a classic.

Both men featured in these books are a different breed than today's hunter.

Nick Jans is a sad story of a great guy who found a bunny hugger wife and lost his soul. His writing is great but he doesn't hunt anymore because he is a friend to the animals.

Agreed Thomas

Really enjoyed Jan's earlier tomes his later stuff not as much.

Like many that achieve fame or success it's easy to detect a sense of arrogance about the guy,

Seth katner' book is laying by my bedside, it was ok but nothing that would make me say " hey you gotta read this

The book about heimo korth is worth a look, but sadly it does a poor job of describing the unique character heimo really is

One of my fave Ak books is Tisha it's at our cabin and I can't recall the author

Lots of great stories about life up here and some of them are in print

Sadly too few, the men and women that live here long ago, and the white folks that came here to open up this country were often interesting and most were hardy individuals

Hard to describe the true essence of Alaska, but you get whiffs of the essence of it from time to time

Gold & green in the hills currently, moose in rut, an age old cycle that still captivates and makes me so very glad to live here

"The Wilderness of Denali" by Charles Sheldon

Speaking of "whiffs of the essence" (though I couldn't resist including in the quote, the well-worded "essence" of what presently is), and with apologies for being as close to the story as I am, I have to say that the e-Book by Tom Yahraes: Yukon Muck, available on Amazon for only a couple bucks is worth a read if one has any interest in the paradoxes involved in Alaskan culture and change in the past couple of generations. And he certainly gets inside the minds of what many present-day 'adventurers' experience when they step into another culture, a culture that is very thick in the throes of change - for good or/and bad.

https://www.amazon.com/Yukon-Muck-T...r=8-1&keywords=yukon+muck#nav-subnav

Try reading, Hunts and Home Fires. By Dennis Pattern. Surviving 50 years of Alaska and other interesting things!

Thanks I need to add some of these to my collection.

Throw all the books out!......Rubbish!

Reality TV is where it's at!