For your downtime…
The following book titles are recommended “favorites” collected from wildland firefighters on our Facebook page!
If you’re in the wildland firefighting game, you know there are plenty of “hurry up and wait” moments, long days in travel status, and an increasing need to decompress after tough shifts as you make your way through back-to-back 14-day assignments. Because of that, it’s customary for a novel or two to make its way around a crew during the summer — sometimes they are classics or popular fiction, oftentimes they’re fire related adventures, while still other times they’re just surprisingly good gas station finds. So, we decided to ask our wildland firefighting community on Facebook to share their favorites and we put together a great list from their replies!
Although we can’t recommend where to purchase these titles because we’re moving toward non-profit status as an organization, we are big advocates of shopping locally at independent bookstores, as well as borrowing from local libraries (though books can get pretty beat up on the fireline, so be careful if you do check one out on loan!).
Fireline Favorites:
- The Monkey Wrench Gang and Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
- Any book by David Baldacci
- The Last Season by Eric Blehm
- The Boys in the Boat or Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 by Daniel James Brown
- A Walk in the Woods, In a Sunburned Country, or any other book by Bill Bryson
- The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
- Watch for Me on the Mountain by Asa Earl Carter
- Shōgun by James Clavell
- Son of the Morning Star by Evan S. Connell
- Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors
- The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
- Deliverance by James Dickey
- A Bartender’s Tale by Ivan Doig
- Mindhunter by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
- Just a Few Jumper Stories: A Collection of Smokejumper Adventures by Rod Dow
- The River Why or The Brothers K by David James Duncan
- The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan
- The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko
- Nick Danger books by Firesign Theatre
- The Man Who Walked Through Time, The Thousand-Mile Summer, or The Man From the Cave by Colin Fletcher
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness by Pete Fromm
- The Roadside Geology Series by Geology.com
- Any book by John Grisham
- Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
- A Good Day to Die by Jim Harrison
- For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
- Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson
- Angel of Death by Jack Higgins
-
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
-
We Die Alone by David Armine Howarth
- Fire or Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
- The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
- Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
- Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
- Different Seasons by Stephen King
- The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
- Wall of Flame: The Heroic Battle to Save Southern California by Erich Krauss
- Any book by Louis L’Amour
- The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
- The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
- The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
- A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
- Ghosts of the Fireground by Peter Leschek
- Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson
- The Thirtymile Fire, Fire on the Mountain, or The Esperanza Fire by John Norman Maclean
- Young Men and Fire or A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
- 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
- Bust It Like A Mule by Caleb Mannan
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- All The Pretty Horses, Border Trilogy, or Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
- Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
- Basin and Range, or The Control of Nature, or Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee
- The Voice of Asia (see comments for order of series) by James A. Michener
- The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
-
Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation by Reed F Noss
- The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Anything by James Patterson
- My American Journey by Colin Powell with Joseph E. Persico
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or Lila by Robert Pirsig
- Hard-boiled: An Anthology Of American Crime Stories edited by Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian
- Fire on the Rim or any book by Stephen Pyne
- Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read
- Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
- Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
- Harry Potter (all of them) by J. K. Rowling
- The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War by Michael Shaara
- Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission or Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides
- Beyond the Hundreth Meridian by Wallace Stegner
- East of Eden, In Dubious Battle or Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
-
Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper’s Memoir of Fighting Wildfire in the West by Murry A. Taylor
- Any book by Brad Thor
- The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst by Nicholas Tomalin
- Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- In Search of Captain Zero by Allan Weisbecker
- The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
- Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- The Fire Outside My Window: A Survivor Tells The True Story Of California’s Epic Cedar Fire by Sandra Millers Younger
- A Peoples History of The United States by Howard Zinn
- Poetry by Robert Frost, Andrew Marvell, Robert W. Service, Walt Whitman
* Roughly ordered by author…
Have a favorite book that’s not listed here? Use the comments section below to let us know and we’ll add it to the list. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to like us on Facebook!
Comments
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Chris Sorensen
March 28, 2017
Colin Fletcher
The Man Who Walked Through Time
The Thousand Mile Summer
The Man From the Cave
and others…
While they are mostly out of print, they are readily available on the used market
The Smokey Generation
May 10, 2017
Got it! Thanks!
Chris Sorensen
March 28, 2017
The entire James Michner Asia Series. In chronological order:
There are references in each succeeding book to characters and events in the previous books so it is best to read them in order.
Shogun
Tai Pan
Gai Jin
King Rat
Noble House
Whirl Wind
The Smokey Generation
May 10, 2017
Added them. Thanks!
Bri
March 26, 2017
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
The Smokey Generation
May 10, 2017
Added it (and love it!). Thanks!
kelly@AnderssonPublishing.com
March 25, 2017
Watch for Me on the Mountain, Forrest Carter
The Smokey Generation
May 10, 2017
Added. Thanks!
Shea Weidler
February 3, 2017
All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
The Smokey Generation
May 10, 2017
Got it. Thanks!
Paul Head
January 17, 2017
The Killer Angels, A Good Day to Die, Sometime a Great Notion, Son of the Morning Star, Hitchhiker’s Guide, Monkey Wrench Gang, South, poems by Robert Service, Robert Frost and Whitman. Packed and traded these and other in AK in the 70-80’s. I
The Smokey Generation
May 10, 2017
Added them. Thank you!
Chuck McHugh
January 8, 2017
Basin and Range, In Control of Nature or Encounters with the Arch Druid; or any other book by John McPhee. Also check out Ivan Doig’s A Bartender’s Tale. When driving throughout the west “the roadside geology series” a must in the rig.
The Smokey Generation
May 10, 2017
Perfect. Thanks a ton!
Dave
January 7, 2017
Solid list! I would add:
The good earth by Pearl S buck
Steig Larsson’s series
1491 by Charles Mann
And anything by Bill Bryson, I particularly liked in a sunburnt country
The Smokey Generation
May 10, 2017
Added them. Thanks a ton!
Don Pyrah
January 7, 2017
Extreme Ownership . It’s a great tactical level leadership book.
The Smokey Generation
January 7, 2017
Added. Thanks a ton!
Dave Riess
January 7, 2017
Anything by David Baldacci or Brad Thor. Another good read is Under A Flaming Sky, by Daniel James Brown.
The Smokey Generation
January 7, 2017
Done! Thanks a bunch!
Scott Belknap
January 6, 2017
River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
Anything by James Patterson
The Smokey Generation
January 7, 2017
Added to the list. Thanks!!
C McCloskey
January 6, 2017
Fire, and Tribe by Junger
The Smokey Generation
January 6, 2017
Done! Thank you!
Daryl
January 6, 2017
Unbroken!
The Smokey Generation
January 6, 2017
Added! Thanks a bunch!
Eric Hagen
January 6, 2017
How about “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean, “Beyond the Hundredth Meridian” by Wallace Stegner, “Cadillac Desert” by Marc Reisner, and anything by Stephen J. Pyne?
The Smokey Generation
January 6, 2017
Added to the list. Thank you!
Zach
January 5, 2017
We die alone by David Howarth
The Smokey Generation
January 5, 2017
Added it. Thanks so much!
Rod Dow
January 5, 2017
“One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst” by Nicholas Tomalin
The Smokey Generation
January 5, 2017
Ohh – I love One Hundred Years of Solitude. I’ll have to check out the other… Thanks, Rod!
Josh
January 5, 2017
The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko
The Smokey Generation
January 5, 2017
Done! Thank you!
Wendy
January 5, 2017
You have Young Men and Fire by Norman MacLean, but I didn’t see Fire On The Mountain by his son, John MacLean, about the 1994 South Canyon fire (unless I missed it).
The Smokey Generation
January 5, 2017
It’s just right above!
Jimmy
January 5, 2017
I would also add “Forgotten Grasslands of the South” by Reed Noss
The Smokey Generation
January 5, 2017
Done! Thanks so much.
Tim Guartha
January 5, 2017
Great list! I’ll add a few that I really enjoyed in seasons past.
Different Seasons by Stephen King
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Deliverance by James Dickey
Hard-boiled: An Anthology Of American Crime Stories edited by Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian
The Smokey Generation
January 5, 2017
Glad you like it! I’ve added those additional titles. Thanks!!