5 books to read while camping

I read everywhere… so reading while camping is a given. Here are a few of the books that I think make great camping reads, mainly because you can pick them up and put them down again without losing your place.

This week’s topic: 5 books to read while camping

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – I’m currently reading this book as one of my summer reads. The subject matter isn’t camping related, but it is a book that is easy enough to read that you don’t feel overtaxed while attempting to enjoy yourself out in the wild. It’s thought provoking enough that you won’t get bored, but you can still put it down when you need to do something else, like swat at a mosquito.
2. We Are Not Eaten by Yaks by Alexander London – This book is all about adventure, and if you are doing camping right, then you should be having an adventure. The main characters of this book want nothing to do with all the outdoor craziness that they have been dragged into, so this is the perfect book for those of us who may not appreciate the wilderness as much as others.
3. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – If you are going on a long trip it’s best to be prepared with some seriously dense reading material, and if you bring the Narnia collection with you it should last at least a few days. I love the early stories in this collection and think it is important for people to read the whole series to really understand many of the stories that make up a huge part of Narnian history.
4. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe – If you camp like me, then crazy survival skills aren’t exactly necessary (giant tent, lots of food, sometimes a TV) but it’s always good to read a few classics to learn the basics. If nothing else, when you lose cell service in the middle of nowhere, you can relate to a character who was cut off from civilization for years before finally seeing another human being.
5. The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens – This one is a new addition to survival story literature, but I think it does a great job of showing how staying calm and thinking things through when the odds are against you is incredibly important. And the sacrifices the characters in this book make for each other will remind you how silly it is for you to get angry when your significant other is stinking up the tent with baked bean farts.

Do you have specific books you like to read while camping? Do you like scary stories, or something light to keep you laughing?