BOOK REVIEW - SLEEP CLOSE TO THE FIRE

SLEEP CLOSE TO THE FIRE
By Jim Allen

Trailhead Press
P.O. Box 4717
ELKHART, IN 46514-0717

128 pages softback, $12.95

The Best way to get to know the lay of the land is to climb a high hill and look around. This is known as perspective. Life’s perspectives only come to those with age and experience. In his book “Sleep Close By The Fire”, Jim Allen shares 20 years of experience as a hunter, trapper, fisherman, naturalist & wilderness skill instructor. Thru stories, poems, “How-To” articles, and humor, the author touches something deep within the heart of every outdoorsman: that desire to connect with Nature.

“Sleep Close By The Fire” is indeed a book with lots of common sense advise for backwoodsmen young and old alike; often quite hilariously written – I sure did have a good laugh at a number of places in the book.

The book, as far as I understand it, is an anthology, a collection of stories and articles that have previously appeared in the Backwoodsman Magazine, and other publications.

I especially liked the place where the author talked about how important it is for kids to be “gainfully employed in feeding the family” and how much this will increase their self-esteem. Jim is so very right there. I can vouch for that as I, as a six-year-old boy began earning money sharpening cutting tools such as knives and thereby helping to feed the family by earning money as well as by hunting and foraging to put food on the table. Being able to do that and being expected to do that made us little ones feel so important indeed.

I can recommend this book to anyone looking for a common sense book to read from which also to get some guidance and hints here and there.

© M V Smith, 2007