Here are 100 books that Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 1 fans have personally recommended if you like
Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 1.
Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
Not only have I been a comic book editor for sixteen years and obsessed with indie comics for much longer, I’m also an avid camper who co-created and co-wrote a comic book series that exalts in the unique feeling of sleeping under the stars. As such, excellent comics about outdoor adventures have a particularly tender spot in my heart.
I love the way Lisa Hanawalt draws nearly anything, but I especially love the way that Lisa draws animals, the desert, and the West. If you’re a Bojack Horseman fan, you’ve already fallen in love with her innovative cartooning style (she was a Bojack producer and its production designer). Her work here is all absurd movement, perfect timing, hilarious expressions, and, oh, yeah, a main character that’s a horseback-riding half-coyote, half-dog, full of messy humanity—a visceral, subversive Western, as delicious and satisfying as sleeping under a starry sky.
Coyote is a dreamer and a drama queen, brazen and brave, faithful yet fiercely independent. She beats her own drum and sews her own crop tops. A gifted equestrian, she s half dog, half coyote, and all power. With the help of her trusty steed, Red, there s not much that s too big for her to bite off, chew up, and spit out right into your face, if you deserve it. But when Coyote and Red find themselves on the run from a trio of vengeful bad dogs, get clobbered by arrows, and are tragically separated, our protagonist is…
When Elliot finds herself dead for the third time, she can't remember her past, is getting the cold shoulder from her best friend, and has no idea why she keeps repeating the same mistakes across her previous lives. Elliot just wants to move on, but first, she'll be forced to…
Not only have I been a comic book editor for sixteen years and obsessed with indie comics for much longer, I’m also an avid camper who co-created and co-wrote a comic book series that exalts in the unique feeling of sleeping under the stars. As such, excellent comics about outdoor adventures have a particularly tender spot in my heart.
The immediacy of Whit Taylor’s work and its accessible, urgent symbology is especially poignant in this diary of her Montana road trip with her husband.
Diary comics are one of my favorite genres of graphic storytelling for reasons exemplified here: you are engaging with Whit’s experience with this sprawling, beautiful land and its brutal history alongside her. Big sky, to her pen, to your eyes. It’s an intimate experience, one that comics do best.
2021 Ignatz Award Nominee for Outstanding Minicomic 2021 PW Graphic Novel Critics Poll – Honorable Mention
Cartoonist Whit Taylor (The Nib, Fizzle) documents her road trip across Montana in this diary mini-comic, combining millennial humor with resonant observations about the state’s complicated history.
As she and her husband travel through semi-arid flatlands and sub-alpine mountains, Taylor reflects both on Montana’s breathtaking beauty and the enduring toll of Manifest Destiny on its land and people.
Balancing funny road trip anecdotes with thoughts on melting glaciers and the worrying prevalence of white nationalists, Montana Diary tells a slice of America’s story, knowing…
I have been passionate about making, reading, and studying comics for my whole life. When I first encountered autobiographical comics, they were all by women who I looked up to for their ability to tackle their lives with both words and images. This is a small list and biased towards the cartoonists I first encountered in the world of female autobiographical comics. There is so much more out there. I love how the flexibility and history of the comic form have allowed for so much blending of genres and styles.
This book is Eleanor Davis’s gorgeous travel documentary of her 2016 cross-country bike tour. Her lines are so vivid and alive, and her day-by-day recounting of the details of her body, her bike, and the country changing around her is both simple and intricate. All of her work is amazing, but this one is definitely a standout.
A two-wheeled journey across the landscape of America, and through the heart and mind of an artist.
Eleanor Davis’s bike tour from Tucson, Arizona to Athens, Georgia is a quest of epic proportions ― not just geographically, which it surely is, but inwardly as well. While facing off formidable headwinds, drivers with reckless abandon, and screaming knee pain, the author confronts an even greater challenge ― her own mind. Life on two wheels teaches her many lessons, and she narrates them with keen observation and self-deprecating candor through a series of funny, touching vignettes. Companionship from fellow travelers and the…
Kindle Book Award Finalist. Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Gotham Writers' YA Novel Discovery Contest Finalist. B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree
Brigit Quinn has always felt like an outsider. Growing up in a small town where her mom’s pagan practices are the stuff of local gossip, she’s spent her whole life trying…
Not only have I been a comic book editor for sixteen years and obsessed with indie comics for much longer, I’m also an avid camper who co-created and co-wrote a comic book series that exalts in the unique feeling of sleeping under the stars. As such, excellent comics about outdoor adventures have a particularly tender spot in my heart.
Luke Healey’s highly graphic, wonderfully expressive cartooning style is especially powerful in this memoir of his time hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. Through-hiking the PCH is an obvious physical feat in any circumstance, but it’s a deeply taxing mental one, and Luke’s reflection on his trip compels you forward.
You are next to him on the trail, begging the question repeatedly: how can we bear moving forward? How can we do this, day after day? You feel right there as Luke laces up his boots, takes a breath, and walks on.
The Pacific Crest Trail runs 2660 miles, from California's border with Mexico to Washington's border with Canada. To walk it is to undertake a grueling test of body and spirit... challenge accepted.
This intimate, engaging autobiographical work recounts the author's own attempt to walk the length of the USA's west coast. Healy's life-changing journey weaves in and out of reflections on his experiences in America and his development as an artist, navigating both the trail itself and the unique culture of the people who attempt to complete it.
I love playing with my kids. When my eldest was eight and we were sitting on the porch together he said, “On my last day of being playful, I want to play with you the whole day. I sure hope it’s on a Saturday.” My kids know that I turn most things into a game, that I’ll screech and stop for a tarantula on the road because it’s educational, that I'll get them to sing their quiz answers, and that I’ll sculpt a cake into almost anything for a school project. I believe learning should be fun, so we would drink lemonade out of measuring cups, guess how many hops from the bed to the closet, and have Whipped Cream Spray Wars every summer (outside, thank you). I also think families would spend more time together if they had a great collection of cool—and easy—stuff to do together. As a writer I’m creative, and never run out of fun ideas. Why not share them with the world?
This is the book that’ll definitely get ‘em laughing. I like the idea of camping at home—in your living room or in your back yard—as well as in the wilderness. And this book is fun to bring along. Camping and nature-themed riddles, silly jokes, games, and lots of interactive laughs. Good for all ages, too.
Hilarious Camp Joke Book for Kids!!
Hike right into the Wilderness with these LOL Camper-Approved Jokes that the Whole Family will Enjoy!
Funny Outdoor Jokes, Silly Nature Riddles & Punny Knock-knocks about Camping, Hiking, Backpacking, Bigfoot, Bugs, Wildlife, & Glamping!
Play the Popular Try Not to Laugh Challenge Joke Game!
A Really Fun Interactive Game for Kids, Teens & Adults!
OR
Read Jokes to Each Other While you Travel or Read This Book for Lots of Campfire Chuckles!
Great Activity for Summertime, Summer Camp & Camping Trips!
Put this Joke Book on your Packing List for Your Next Outdoor Adventure!…
I’ve been obsessed with apocalyptic and dystopian stories for over a decade. For me, they are the books that strike right at the heart of what it means to be human. Reading about characters facing the very worst scenarios possible brings love, resilience, survival, and hope into sharp relief. Not to mention that they are often the most powerful page turners—I have lost so much sleep over these cautionary tales, staying up until the early hours, unable to put them down.
The ending of this engrossing apocalyptic story is heart-stopping and so impactful. It left me in tears on public transport!
I found the depiction of motherhood powerful, with working mum Marlene taking her children for a camping trip and unwittingly surviving a devastating event that hits the UK.
The book has lots of the elements I love in this genre – such as abandoned places and a perilous journey. The way Marlene navigates the transformed landscape, trying to protect her children amid so much death, while dealing with her own guilt and struggles over being a mother, is compelling.
When a family camping trip takes a dark turn, how far will one mother go to keep her family safe?
Struggling with working-mother guilt, Marlene Greene hopes a camping trip in the forest will provide quality time with her three young children-until they see fires in the distance, columns of smoke distorting the sweeping view. Overnight, all communication with the outside world is lost.
Knowing something terrible has happened, Marlene suspects that the isolation of the remote campsite is all that's protecting her family. But the arrival of a lost boy reveals they are not alone…
An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction.
Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to…
Growing up, if I wasn’t good at something right away, I’d quit. I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of others. Because of that, I never experienced how great it felt to overcome obstacles, to succeed at something hard—until I played football. Girls Who Persevere is an important topic to me because so often, girls are treated as if they’re inferior or incapable. It’s ingrained in them that they shouldn’t try certain things (like football!), and if they fail at first, it must mean they can’t do it. I think it’s important to see strong girls doing big things, even when they’re hard. These books show just that.
This humorous and heartfelt graphic memoir is about Vera going to a Russian summer camp—an opportunity to fit in with other kids, especially since the American girls from school go to summer camp. I love this story because wanting to fit in such a universal experience, yet Vera’s experience is unique in many ways. Plus, I love a good summer camp story. After begging her mom to let her go, Vera ends up hating camp, but she sticks it out, makes real friends, and learns so much about herself.
All Vera wants to do is fit in - but that's not easy for a Russian girl in the suburbs. Her friends live in fancy houses and their parents can afford to send them to the best summer camps. Vera's single mother can't afford that sort of luxury, but there's one summer camp in her price range - Russian summer camp.
Vera is sure she's found the one place she can fit in, but camp is far from what she imagined. And nothing could prepare her for all the 'cool girl' drama, endless Russian history lessons, and outhouses straight out…
I was a goofy-looking kid growing up. My ears were so big that someone once said I didn’t need an alarm clock because I could hear the sun coming up. On top of that, I was also very average at everything I tried. However, I found that being funny made people like me. I also realized that, as long as God loved me and had a plan for me, I could be a superhero despite being average at everything. So when Focus on the Family asked me to start writing, I knew exactly what I’d write about…me! Average Boy!
I grew up way out in the country. We had to drive 9 miles before we got to something called “a paved road.” So I spent my childhood roaming the woods fishing, hunting and camping. Then someone gave me A Fine and Pleasant Misery.
This book combined my two favorite things-laughing and the great outdoors. This book is a collection of funny stories about Pat as he takes us all back to nature with a hilarious look through a kid’s eyes who had never seen a video game but did run into some strange creatures. (Spoiler alert: giant mosquitos)
“A hilarious compilation” (Los Angeles Times), A Fine and Pleasant Misery gathers twenty-seven witty, cautionary tales of the outdoor life from beloved humorist Patrick F. McManus in a collection edited and introduced by Jack Samson, long-time editor-in-chief of Field & Stream.
The great outdoors have never been rendered as hysterically as in the reminiscences―true and exaggerated―of Patrick F. McManus. If you’re thinking about getting back to nature, the surreal adventures chronicled here will make you think twice about giving it all up for a life of camping, hiking, and hunting.
I was not a born camper. I was afraid of bugs, allergic to exercise, and rather attached to my bed. In fact, it was not until my late twenties that I began to see the appeal of heading into the woods and sleeping below a starry sky. Past boyfriends tried to convince me that a camping trip would be fun, but a fear of the unknown and a general idea that it would be difficult kept me from giving it a try. Once I discovered camping, there was no turning back. Sex in a Tent is my way of inspiring others who need a little nudge to get out the door.
Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is a monumental undertaking for anyone—but trying to do it with your spouse takes it to another level. I love this memoir because it alternates perspective between husband and wife, revealing how two people can hike the same trail at the same time and experience the same things totally differently. I’ve often found that after a trip with my husband when we compare notes it can seem like we weren’t even on the same trip! It’s a great he-said-she-said tale of adventure.
On a 2655 mile trek through some of the most rugged and beautiful scenery in America, a young couple from the suburbs discover nature, push their limits and test their commitment to one another.
"A haunting YA mystery. Touching on everything from police ineptitude and community solidarity to the endless frustration of being patronized as a young person, this paranormal thriller confidently combines timely and relatable themes within a page-turning storyline." - Self-Publishing Review
"Biel's writing is fast-paced and sharp!" - author Christy Wopat…
I was not a born camper. I was afraid of bugs, allergic to exercise, and rather attached to my bed. In fact, it was not until my late twenties that I began to see the appeal of heading into the woods and sleeping below a starry sky. Past boyfriends tried to convince me that a camping trip would be fun, but a fear of the unknown and a general idea that it would be difficult kept me from giving it a try. Once I discovered camping, there was no turning back. Sex in a Tent is my way of inspiring others who need a little nudge to get out the door.
This book isn’t like the others on my list (it’s a how-to rather than a memoir), but I want to include it for a couple of reasons. First of all, if you want to have camping adventures you need to know some essentials about how things work in the wilderness, and Meyer broke the taboo around bodily functions and told campers, in plain and straightforward terms, how to do their business. The millions of newbie campers who bought the book, including me, are eternally grateful! Also, I have a personal soft spot for Meyer because I interviewed her for my book. I consider her something of a role model for being your true self, even when it’s not what others expect. And without the runaway success of her book, I’m not sure a publisher would have taken a chance on mine.
The definitive guide to eco-friendly outdoor defecation--fully revised with a new introduction by renowned author and environmental activist Bill McKibben.
More than thirty years since its first publication, Kathleen Meyer delivers an update to the beloved guide to relieving yourself responsibly. Meyer's delightfully shameless discussion of a once-secretive activity examines the environmental impact of too much crap (organic and otherwise) on our ever-shrinking wild outdoors.
With the rising popularity of hiking and off-the-grid backpacking as well as the current climate crisis, How to Shit in the Woods provides timely techniques for keeping trails, bushes, and wild waters clean and protected…
