Some time back I did some searching (and too much buying) to find a great book on map/compass/GPS land navigation. There are some pretty good ones out there, but the one that I really liked was "The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors" by David Seidman & Paul Cleveland.

Here's the Amazon.com link if that helps:

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Wilderne...6165&sr=1-7

What did I like? The descriptions of "how" are very well done - written in a nicely understandable way and realistic. I also think the coverage of techniques (what's covered) is excellent. It points out that the most important part of navigation is always knowing where you are on the map, and watching/remembering key landmarks. An especially important section describes in a pretty realistic way what to do when you realize you're lost.

I tended to find that many of the books focus on just map & compass navigation, which is important, but today the use of a GPS is a critical element too. Also, too many books focus on the different models of compasses - or GPSs - and are somewhat out of date at this point.