Anyone have any suggestions on good novels to read that are in the vain of Louis L'Amour's Last of the breed or Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe ?

Swiss Family Robinson! I liked that one even better than Robinson Crusoe.

-Blast

Consider The Clan of the Cave Bearand/or The Valley of The Horses by Jean Aul - lots of very good stuff relative to survival, including firemaking, gathering, hunting, shelter building, etc., but (parental advisory) they are not suitable for children due to the sexual content. IMHO The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage aren't as good as the first two.

Frank2135

Thanx for all the suggestions, keep'em coming. I'll most likely read them all, i'm voracious when it comes to reading...

There are some good short stories in:

The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told
by Lamar Underwood (Editor)

It includes Jack London's "To Build a Fire" among others.

Alas Babaloyn by Pat Frank it's just been reprinted. and Lucifers Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell both are excellent books.

"Pulling Through" by Dean Ing and anything else he writes

A couple more came to mind, though a little off your original request:

Ice! and Adrift by Tristan Jones (or anything else he wrote, for my money). The first one is a tremendous true story of one of the most improbable arctic adventures imaginable. The second one is about urban survival, as told by a man who literally had been at sea for 30 years. If you find yourself having to survive in the arctic icepack with no food or in the Bowery in New York with no money, these are must reads.

Frank 2135

Into a Desert Place, by Graham Mackintosh.

True story of a guy from GB who is going thru a strange midlife crisis. Having zero camping/hiking/survival experience, he walks (in two stages) completely around Baja California, staying as close as possible to the shore. If nothing else, he becomes very good at getting drinking water from seawater.

Worldwalk, by Steven M. Newman.

This young guy decides to backpack around the world. By the time he has gone only a couple of days he pretty much ditches the solo survival backpacking idea, and becomes a world class mooch/bummer. He does prettymuch make it around the world, mostly by being taken in by friendly locals all over the place. It is interesting to see in which country he had the most dangerous encounter with locals...

Alive by Piers Paul Read and Survive the Savage Sea by Dougal Robertson are classic non-fiction, and are two of my favorites. I would also like to recommend a particular book about the Donner Party that I read years ago but I can't remember the author. I believe it was a woman. Any non-fiction about the Donner Party is going to be pretty compelling though.

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition available at http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shacklet...7654006-3230428

and

Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival available at http://www.amazon.com/Touching-Void-Stor...3295&sr=1-1

http://www.baproducts.com/patriots.htm

Patriots is a really good read and they explain alot of how to do things in it. Most of it is setting up a survival retreat including food/water/garden/power. Then it gets into the military aspect later. Probably the best all around readiness book written.

Wow....lots of good suggestions here..they all sound like good reads...good thing i have a barnes & noble discount card..

The Raft by Robert Trumbull

http://www.amazon.com/Raft-Courageous-St...9105&sr=8-5

Three naval aviators spent over a month in an open life raft in the Pacific in WW II. I first read this one in high school. True story that is easy to read and a great tale of survival at sea.

Lot of people don't believe 'The long walk' is a true story.
Simon

Thought i'd bump this old thread. I'm always looking for something good to read. I just read a couple of good ones, Rogue Male & The Road. Any other books out there that are in the vain of these two??

I'm getting those for my Kindle now.

It may be a children's book, in style and format, but as a teenager, the book that got me interested in the outdoors and survival was "My Side of the Mountain". If you had kids or young relatives you wanted to get interested in nature.

Out of the Ashes series by are pretty light light reading compared to The Road but they are somewhat entertaining. Don't expect to pick up useful tips about surviving from them.

-Blast

A great book, got me interested in the Catskill Mountains and while in College at SUNY Delhi, I remembered that book often. I didn't care for the movie.

Admit it, you secretly want to be "Ben Raines "

What years?

I was there 1973-1975 Vet. Sci.

Pete

Is there some grand concept or enlightened theme behind the book "The Road" that I am missing?
I had seen lots of mentions about how great that book was supposed to be; and I came away from reading it, very disappointed.
It just seemed like a long scavenger hunt with no real plot. The whole way through the book, I kept wondering "where is this going?", and when I made it to the end, I felt like the answer was "nowhere!".
I give the author credit for developing some interesting and disturbing images; but I expected more of a story line.
Maybe there was something else to "The Road" that was over my head? ... or maybe I just expected too much.

77-79 Hotel

World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler

and geared for young readers but still fantastic:

The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
The hole series is great!

Lon..thats why it was called the Lost Generation..

i look at Kunstler's website a few times a week.he seems to be a newer version of the "town grump"..just hankering after the old days when things were more to his likeing..his "eyesore of the month" gives you the idea of the guy wandering around town pointing out bad paint jobs..i know he writes for the New York Times and all that but if the system went right down the tubes and he could retreat into his private little Up State town he would be happy..

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (1949)

Sue

I never read "Hatchet" as a teen so I read it about a year ago. I liked it but there were some simple errors in it; one I remember was that cow moose have antlers?

My daughter then read the book in school and I tried to show her the errors in her copy. The strange thing was that in her book the errors were not present?

Mike