Sometimes the best way to launch yourself into a new activity is to sit down in a comfortable chair…and read a book. Here are the best canoeing books for the beginning paddler. We’ve got The Basics for people just getting started with canoes, Canoe Camping books for those readying for their first over-night trips, some Guide Books For That First Trip, and–to get you up out of that comfy reading chair–some books for Inspiration. We’ve also included some Magazines and DVDs you might want to check out too.
Check out Books and Media for Advanced Paddlers >
BASIC SKILLS
Introduction to Paddling: Canoeing Basics for Lakes and Rivers
American Canoe Association, Paperback: 32 pages $6.95
An easy-to-understand guide to flatwater and river paddling, tells beginning paddlers everything they need to know, from appropriate clothing to parts of the boat, correct strokes to proper safety. Good for instructors and those who like to teach themselves, this book is an important resource… BUY ON AMAZON
Canoeing Basics for Beginners
by Ray Ovington, Paperback: 224 pages, $2.80
Provides guidance on the selection, care, and repair of a canoe and describes the fundamental skills of canoeing…
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Basic Essentials® Canoe Paddling
by Harry Roberts, Paperback: 80 pages, $8.95
A compact and authoritative book on paddling technique for the recreational canoeist. Discover how to choose a paddle, outfit a canoe, and more. Learn how to: choose a paddle and outfit a canoe, launch a canoe safely, perform the basic forward, turning, and correction strokes, paddle in wind, waves, and moving water…
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Basic Illustrated Canoeing
by Cliff Jacobson, Paperback: 96 pages, $9.95
Richly illustrated and information-packed tools for the novice or handy reference for the veteran, BASIC ILLUSTRATED books distill years of knowledge into affordable and visual guides. Discover how to: Choose a tandem or solo canoe that’s right for you, select paddles, PFDs, and portage yokes…
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Basic Canoeing: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started (How To Basics)
by Wayne Dickert, Sprial-bound, $6.95
2003 National Outdoor Book Award Winner. Step-by-step photos on correct form and essential strokes. Illustrated guide to river maneuvers plus information on gear, safety, choosing a canoe. Essential river maneuvers–eddy turns, peel-outs, and ferries–are demonstrated by the Olympic paddling team of Wayne Dickert and Horace Holden, Jr.
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Paddle Your Own Canoe
by Robert Baden-Powell, Paperback Facsimilie: 164 pages, 1939, $80.00
Common Sense; Resourcefulness; Endurance; On Being Accurate; Patience; Gratitude; Courtesy; Goodwill; Honour; Keeping You Nerve; Courage; Keeping Your Pecker Up; Humour; Don’t Swank; On ‘Sticking it Out”; How To Be Fit; The Duty of Service; Helpfulness; Responsibility; Self-Sacrifice.
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The Canoe Handbook: Techniques for Mastering the Sport of Canoeing 
by Slim Ray, Paperback
Using proven teaching methods developed at the acclaimed Nantahala Outdoor Center, Ray presents the basic maneuvers for all canoeists.
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CANOE CAMPING
Canoe Camping: An Introductory Guide
by Cecil Kuhne, Paperback, 168 pages, $16.95
In canoe camping, knowledge, not ignorance, is bliss. Kuhne offers all you’ll need to know to enjoy wilderness outings by canoe with advice on gear packing, bear-proofing food, trip planning, and campsite selection. Additionally, eight pages of full-color photographs, lists of resources, recipes for sumptuous wilderness meals and Dutch-oven cooking, and tips on weather watching, first aid, safety, and traceless camping…
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Boundary Waters Canoe Camping (Paddling Series) 
by Cliff Jacobson, Paperback, 208 pages, $29.95
A heart-warming, thoroughly modern, marvelously illustrated guide, Boundary Waters Canoe Camping is aimed at paddlers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota and covers places to go, planning a canoe trip, navigating, selecting a canoe and rigging it out, selecting equipment, camping and cookery, traveling with children, and dealing with hazards–all brought to you by one of America’s most renowned canoeing experts, Cliff Jacobson.
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A Trailside Guide: Canoeing (New Edition) (Trailside Guides)
by Gordon Grant, Paperback, 192 pages $18.95
Smart, instructive, and beautifully designed, every book in the Trailside Guide series contains the essential information readers need to master outdoor activities and have fun in the process. Updates reflect the latest in gear technology, wilderness medicine, and first aid; and advances in techniques.
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FOR YOUR FIRST TRIP
A Wilderness Adventure: Canoeing, Camping and Fishing in Quetico Provincial Park
by William Monger, Paperback, 185 pages, $9.99
Have you ever been on a real wilderness adventure? Have you ever wanted to go but didn’t know where to start? Have you ever just been curious as to what it would really be like? Then this book is for you! Come along as the author, an experienced fisherman, but a canoeing and camping novice, joins three buddies on an eight-day odyssey, canoeing, camping, and fishing in the Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario…
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Boundary Waters 101: A Primer for America’s Favorite Wilderness
by Jim Rahtz, Paperback, 56 pages, $5.99
Starting in Northern Minnesota and spreading into Canada there are over two million acres of preserved wilderness just waiting for you. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and adjacent Quetico Provincial Park, known collectively as the Boundary Waters, may just be the finest place in the world to canoe, camp, fish, immerse yourself in nature, unplug and recharge. And the best part is that a Boundary Waters trip is one that nearly anyone can experience…
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Exploring the Boundary Waters: A Trip Planner and Guide to the BWCAW
by Daniel Pauly, Paperback, 440 pages, $18.95
Exploring the Boundary Waters is the most comprehensive trip planner to the BWCAW, giving travelers an overview of each entry point into the wilderness area as well as detailed descriptions of more than one hundred specific routes – including a ranking of their difficulty level and maps that feature the major waterways, portages, and the designated campsites.
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Paddling Northern Wisconsin: 85 Great Trips by Canoe and Kayak (Trails Book Guide)
by Mike Svob, Paperback
Expert paddler Mike Svob has been canoeing and kayaking the rivers of the Midwest for 30 years. He paddled more than a thousand miles to complete this book. A recently retired college administrator and teacher, he lives on the banks of the Wolf River.
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Paddling Southern Wisconsin: 83 Great Trips by Canoe And Kayak
by Mike Svob, Paperback, 180 pages, $49.95
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INSPIRATION
Gunflint Burning Fire in the Boundary Waters
2018 by Cary J. Griffith, Hardcover, 304 pages, $19.99 The story of the Ham Lake fire, at the time the most destructive wildfire in modern Minnesota history—the blaze, the firefighters’ battle, the human toll… Gunflint Burning is a comprehensive account of the dramatic events around the Ham Lake fire of 2007, one of the largest wildfires in Minnesota history. In sharp detail, Cary J. Griffith describes the key events of the fire as they unfold, transporting readers to the front lines of an epic struggle that was at times heroic, tragic, and sublime.
Read the Canoeing.com Book Review
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Canoeing with the Cree: 75th Anniversary Edition
by Eric Sevareid (Author), Ann Bancroft (Foreword), Paperback, 248 pages, $14.95
In 1930 two novice paddlers—Eric Sevareid and Walter C. Port—launched a secondhand 18-foot canvas canoe into the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling for an ambitious summer-long journey from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. Without benefit of radio, motor, or good maps, the teenagers made their way over 2,250 miles of rivers, lakes, and difficult portages. Nearly four months later, after shooting hundreds of sets of rapids and surviving exceedingly bad conditions and even worse advice, the ragged, hungry adventurers arrived in York Factory on Hudson Bay…
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Distant Fires 
by Scott Anderson, Paperback, 176 pages, $8.99
Details the adventure of two men who canoed 1700 miles from Duluth, Minnesota to the shores of Hudson Bay and discusses their battle with mosquitoes, their struggle with a tent that doesn’t stay up in the wind, and their diet of macaroni and cheese for countless breakfasts
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Daughter Father Canoe
by Rob Kesselring, Paperback, 212 pages, $14.95
Join author Rob Kesselring as he chronicles his 27-day canoe trip with his 14-year old daughter down the Snowdrift River in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Intermixed with the author’s reflections on wilderness living, bush flying, and teaching in the far north of Canada, this book is an exciting and insightful read. This new edition, printed in 2006, contains a map and is dedicated to best friend and famed bush pilot Merlyn Carter who was killed by a bear near the author’s cabin on June 15, 2005…
The Singing Wilderness 
by Sigurd F. Olson (Author), Francis Lee Jaques (Illustrator) Paperback, 256 pages, $15.95
The Singing Wilderness is Sigurd Olson’s first and best-selling book, with over 70,000 copies sold in hardcover since its release in 1956. “The singing wilderness has to do with the calling of the loons, northern lights, and the great silences of a land lying northwest of Lake Superior”, Olson writes. “It is concerned with the simple joys, the timelessness and perspective found in a way of life that is close to the past. I have heard the singing in many places, but I seem to hear it best in the wilderness”.
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MAGAZINES
Canoe & Kayak Magazine
Canoe & Kayak Magazine brings you the latest techniques, destinations, videos, photos and stories that inspire you to get on the water. Backed by 40 years of experience, Canoe & Kayak magazine is the world’s leading paddlesports publication. We keep it simple: Live, breathe, paddle. In oceans and lakes, in the surf and down the river. We provide the techniques, destinations, videos, photos and stories that inspire you to get on the water.
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Paddling Magazine
Paddling Magazine unites Adventure Kayak, Canoeroots, and Rapid into three main sections to bring you compelling adventure stories, expert buying advice, travel secrets, destination ideas, and the latest paddling news. Paddling Magazine’s aim is to the enhance the enjoyment of all facets of paddling – inspiring readers to try new adventures whether you love kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding or whitewater.
DVDs
Canoe Trips And Camping
DVD $9.99
Covered subjects, Selecting the right canoe and paddle, clothing and equipment, loading packs and packing the canoe, lifting and carrying the canoe on portages, selecting a campsite and setting up camp, food and cooking on a canoe trip, using map and compass to stay on track.
Chased by the Light – A Photographic Journey with Jim Brandenburg
by Aurora Pictures, DVD, 60 min, $9.99
Desperate for personal and creative renewal, internationally acclaimed nature photographer Jim Brandenburg broke the rules. For 90 days, he challenged himself with an unprecedented personal assignment: capture the spirit of Minnesota’s rugged north woods, yet limit himself to only one photograph a day. The result: a life-changing experience and 90 astounding images.
Bill Mason’s Path of the Paddle Series
Retail $29.95
This DVD combines Bill Mason’s classics – Path of the Paddle Whitewater and Path of the Paddle Quietwater. Both of these classics are meant for beginner to intermediate open canoe paddlers. Page down to read more specific descriptions. Naturally, there are bonus features including a biography of Bill Mason.
DVD: The Forgotten Skills (Video)
by Cliff Jacobson (DVD, 90 min) $19.95
Cliff Jacboson has spent most of his life mastering the fine points of wilderness camping. In this video, you will learn the forgotten skills that have kept him warm and dry on his many wilderness trips. You’ll learn how to tell a good tent from a bad one, and to make any tent more resistant to wind and rain. Discover how to: Tie essential knots, Rig single and double rain tarps, Choose and use edged tools, Make a one match fire in the rain and more!
