This is not a book about how to make fire in the sense that you get directions on how to make a bunch of primitive fires. It’s way more than that. It’s a book that helps you understand what fire is, and what it needs to catch and grow, knowledge that is not that common anymore. The author gives an example of campers trying to place full-sized logs in a campfire pit and lighting them with a match. This won’t work.

The book goes into detail on how to begin building your fire. Campfires are probably the way that most of us would use this skill, but you can apply these same principles to building a fire in a woodstove or fireplace too. The author, Nate Summers, begins by explaining why we need to start with the small stuff, kindling and tinder, before we can add big logs. It seems basic, but most folks don’t live as close to the land as our ancestors once did, so we have lost this kind of wisdom. Maintaining a campfire is not a skill that most of us use often enough to have developed proficiency with it, so this book fills a niche in the literature on that account.

There is a whole section on what kinds of wood are good to make fire, broken down by region. You also learn many different styles of fire. Who knew there were so many? If you were ever to get lost in the woods, this skill would certainly come in handy.

I enjoyed this book and learning the different techniques for making and maintaining a campfire. I will be able to put this learning to use this summer when I go camping, I hope. It is a useful book and one that outdoorspeople will find useful to have on their shelf.

Geared more toward learning to start and maintain fires in the great outdoors than in a conventional fireplace, it's an intuitive, well-edited, and educational guide with considerably good presentation.

To judge the book purely on its own goals (Summers states early on that he just wanted to issue a worthwhile guide that would allow people to gain and retain some knowledge about fire), it's a success. it knows what it is, and gives you more resources should you be further interested. In this day and age where obtaining a free instructional video is only a few clicks away, Summers intelligently makes a good case for his book being equally valuable to have on-hand.

It's established early on that to author a book about building fires out and about is practically impossible due to regional variances, and in that might lie a shortcoming of this work for some as it might make this feel incomplete, but, truthfully, there's only so much that Summers can do to help a reader ready to light a fire. You gotta get out there, link up with someone familiar with your local area, etc. in order to get that experience.

It's a good introduction, and especially so if you're rolling on through to any of the listed resources (i.e. the "further reading").

Many thanks to NetGalley, Rowman & Littlefield, and Falcon Guides for the advance read.