The other day while my cousin and Eric were broken down near Fort Bridger, Wyoming, we had the chance to talk about outdoor writing. Like me, Eric enjoys the creative process of writing and has actually published in the Traveling Wingshooter, which is printed by the same company that publishes the Pointing Dog Journal and the Retriever Journal. Eric’s article is on chukar hunting in Utah and I believe it was in the July, 2005 issue. As we talked, Eric and I both agreed that we would rather read a good story than a where-to/how-to article.

I promised Eric that I would provide him with a list of my all-time favorite hunting books, which I will do in the blog some other time, but I thought I would share a list of my top-twenty favorite hunting and fishing stories (in no particular order) which I compiled for Shawn’s Blog last year:

1. “My Generous Season,” Mark Jeffrey Volk (in The Upland Way).
2. “The Road to Tinkham Town,” Corey Ford (in The Trickiest Thing in Feathers).
3. “The Royal MacBob,” Robert F. Jones (in The Hunter in My Heart).
4. “The Intruder,” Robert Traver (in Trout Madness).
5. “The Christmas Gift,” Jerry Dennis (in A Place on the Water).
6. “A River Runs Through It,” Norman Maclean
7. “Volkswagen Cove,” William G. Tapply (in Trout Eyes).
8. “Gone Fishin’,” William G. Tapply (in Gone Fishin’).
9. “Ghost Grouse,” Burton Spiller (in Drummer in the Woods).
10. “The Poacher,” John Gierach (in Even Brook Trout Get the Blues).
11. “On the Divide,” Nick Lyons (in Full Creel).
12. “In the Buffalo Fields,” Jerry Dennis (in A Place on the Water).
13. “Herbert’s Helper,” Corey Ford (in Trout Tales & Other Angling Stories).
14. “Back Yard Trout,” Burton Spiller (in Fishin’ Around).
15. “Blizzard on the Race Track,” Steve Grooms (in Pheasant Hunter’s Harvest).
16. “Big Secret Trout,” Robert Traver (in Trout Madness).
17. “The Great Bream Expeditions,” James R. Babb (in Crosscurrents).
18. “Devil Water,” Mark Jeffrey Volk (in The Upland Way).
19. “Paid in Full,” Mark Jeffrey Volk (in Pages from a Mountain Journal, Vol. 2)
20 “Burt’s Gun,” William G. Tapply (in Those Hours Spent Outdoors).

You really can’t go wrong with any of these authors and their books. I’m sure there are other great stories out there that I haven’t read yet and I would love to hear about them. Just drop me a comment below.

I look forward to reading some more of Eric’s writing in the future. He is a great writer with a knack for telling a good story. Check out his blog at http://www.ericoutside.blogspot.com/.