Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Favorite childhood books?

Read Kipling's starting from the kids books on through the rest.

'The Drums of the Fore and the Aft' would cause current teachers and kid shrinks wet themselves and go catatonic, but is something that every boy should probably read.

Big fan of Kjelgaard's work as a kid.

"The yearling"...was the first piece of literature, that was emotional enough in content, at least to a boy,to make me cry as a young man.

I could never get through the book. Didn't seem to have the attention span for it---but the movie is a tear jerker. As I recall, the movie is not as good as the book though (what little I read.)

Wilderness Champion. About a field trial dog raised by a wolf. Checked it out of the library in grade school a couple of times each year. Need to find a copy for my kid.

As a young child I remember my favorite was "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" by Virginia Lee Burton, still have it.
I suppose around 8 or so I read many hand-me-down "Outdoor Life" and "Sports Afield", wish I still had those. Also Outdoor Life had a book club that I got a few books out of, some by Norm Strung, wish I knew what happened to those.
I remember reading "My Side of the Mountain", numerous "Lassie" books and a book called "Summerfolk"
In the middle school years my favorite was "Happy Hunting Grounds" by Stanley Vestal (penname of professor Walter S. Campbell). The illustrations in my hard cover copy seemed so authentic. Those familiar with Vestal know he was authority on western history. He's buried at the Custer National Cemetery.
Even at that age I thought that book would make a good movie, still do, that could have been my "Dances with Wolves".

I devoured Louis L'Amour when I was a kid. My Grandmother had almost every book he wrote. I read Zane Grey too but it wasn't my style.
This started before I was ten., By seventeen,I'm pretty sure I'd read over a hundred books by Mr. L'Amour.

where the red fern grows
my side of the mountain
hustler

Where the Red Fern Grows
Flicka
The Swamp Fox
Old Yeller
and many books about African Lion man eaters I can't remember the names.

I work on river boats where there is little entertainment, so I still read 3-5 books a week. The "classics" never get old even after several readings.

The Witchery of Archery.J Maurice Thompson.

Aesop's Fables - hands down.

summer of the monkeys by Wilson Rawls

I always thought I hit the jackpot when I found a stash of Playboy's...

Aside from that, was mostly into the Zane Grey and Louie L'Amour.

Anything by Zane Grey or Louie L'Amour that I could get my hands on.

All Quiet On The Western Front

Must have read it 20 times.

Started that Kipling piece the other night. Good story for sure!!!!

Tom Sawyer and Huck Fin

Call Of The Wild

The Mad Scientists Club
The Great Brain series
Encyclopedia Brown (when I was younger)

When I was a kid, I used to read a series of books about the early Kentucky frontier by an author named William O. Steele. They were written from a young boy's perspective.

"The year of the bloody sevens"
"The lone Hunt"
"The Buffalo Knife"

Seems like there were others, but I can't remember.