But Shaman, if the deer are blind, how can they read?

I have a Kindle Reader App installed on my Android phone. You would be surprised at the number of free and 99-cent books that Amazon sells.

For the past 40 seasons, I’ve kept a book handy during long sits in the blind. The only trick I can tell you is learning not to get too engrossed in the content. I read a page or so and then take a scan of everything around. What I have learned is that reading keeps me still, and I can remain attentive to sound.

A bit of light reading that has become a tradition for me in the stand is the Old Farmer’s Almanac

A handy tip: keep the previous year’s copy handy. It has the information from August thru October. It also makes great makeshift toilet paper. Don’t ask.

Don’t limit yourself to Kindle. There are worlds of free stuff out there.

There is Archive.Org. Look up Phillip Tome’s autobiography, Pioneer life; or, Thirty Years a Hunter, Being Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Philip Tome (1854).

Pioneer Life is a mostly autobiographical narrative of the life of Philip Tome. Tome was born in 1782 near present-day Harrisburg and lived on the upper Susquehanna for much of his life. He tells colorful (and mostly true) tales about his hunting exploits in the Pennsylvania wilderness, as he tracked elk, wolves, bears, panthers, foxes, and other large animals through the state’s north-central mountains, earning wide renown among his contemporaries. His stories contain suspenseful chase scenes, accidents, and narrow escapes, inviting the reader to view a still-wild Pennsylvania through the eyes of one who “was never conquered by man or animal.” Pioneer Life, originally published in 1854, has since been reprinted several times.



This classic hunting memoir includes the following chapters:

I. Birth and Early Life
II. Hunting the Elk
III. Capturing a Live Elk
IV. Face of the Country
V. Face of the Country — Continued
VI. Danger From Rattlesnakes
VII. Wolf and Bear Hunting
VIII. Another Elk Hunt
IX. Elk-Hunting on the Susquehannah
X. Elk-Hunting — Continued
XI. Nature, Habits, and Manner of Hunting the Elk
XII. Elk and Bear Hunting in Winter
XIII. Hunting on the Clarion River
XIV. Hunting and Trapping
XV. The Bear, Its Nature and Habits
XVI. Hunting Deer at Different Seasons
XVII. Nature and Habits of the Panther, Wolf and Fox
XVIII. Rattlesnakes and Their Habits
XIX. Distinguished Lumbermen, Etc.
XX.. Reminiscences of Cornplanter
XXI. Indian Eloquence

Another good source of free reading material is Babel.com. Check out Meshach Browning’s Autobiography

The granddaddy of them all is Gutenburg.org. I have been reading free stuff from them since the early 90s. Take this for an example:

For these last three, you will need a different APP for reading all the different formats. I would recommend FBReader . I’ve been using it for over a decade.

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