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What's the easiest way to read a book in a tree in a saddle?

Fuse Dude said:
That can be pretty tough on my eyes! I was thinking actual paper or kindle options. I got a lazy eye that hasn't had motivation for decades!
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I understand. I usually use the kindle app on my phone. It works well because I always have my phone anyway and it's pretty small and easy to hold while in the saddle. During the rut I'll bring a charger so I can juice it back up if needed. I don't always do it but I do enjoy getting in some reading while I'm on stand if I find a book I'm into.
 
BTaylor said:
I just do not understand and honestly feel sorry for folks that need to carry alternate entertainment into the woods while they hunt. There is so much to see and learn all around us in creation and have never left the woods bored.
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I used to agree with you. But...

I'm blessed to be able to spend way more time in nature than most folks. Right now I'm "working" and looking out the window at a tidal lake filled with life. Red maples, spuce, white oaks, tupelo, cypress, yaupon, sumac, beautyberry, mountain laurel, and water lilies predominate the flora. From up on the bluff I live on I can also see down into the water and observe schools of shad and the spotted gar stalking them. I can watch bluegill hit the surface early in the morning. There's a pileated woodpecker hammering on my poor fence post, and earlier today a mangy little fox slipped down a trail paralleling the river in my backyard.

It's great, I love it. I made a choice and paid the very real price (less contact with friends and family and reduced earning potential) to live the pastoral life. Nature watching isn't an occasional thing for me, it's almost constant.

Hunting and fishing puts me even closer to even more wildlife, but if I'm being honest it's the walking in and out and scouting around that really lets you look and learn. Staring at the same 20 acres from dawn to dusk, sometimes multiple days in a row during a rut stakeout, is a little too zen for me some days.

I could read 24/7 for the rest of my life and never read all of the really good and important books we've produced. Not every time, but some of the times I'm in the woods, it's a better use of my hourglass sands reading/listening to a good book and keeping an eye/ear out for anomalies in the ambience.

I've entered the predator's trance for hours. I've meditated. I've listened to audiobooks. I've read the classics. I've taken naps. And I've killed more deer doing those things than most hunters. Have I missed a few because I wasn't paying attention? Yep. Have I stuck around through the midday lull and killed deer I wouldn't have if I'd have headed out early? Yep.

You can't trump time in the woods. Buying a house adjacent to a WMA, choosing to hunt in a comfy saddle (or pacseat), carrying a paperback and bone-conduction headphones, packing a hammock, or bringing a bass rod to pass the midday lull all keep you in the game.

Anywho, practical advice for the poor souls who can't stay enraptured by the beauty of the natural world:

  • Think about which sense you're relying on the most. If I'm hunting thick cover, autumn leaves, or flooded woods and will hear a deer before I see it I bring a book. If I'm hunting a large clearcut with a rifle, I'll listen to an audiobook.
  • If you use your phone or an e-reader, bring a battery bank. Cold weather kills batteries quickly.
  • Bone-conduction headphones are the cat's-azz. You can hear the woods and the audiobook simultaneously.
  • Have a plan to set the book/phone/e-reader down quickly and transition to go-mode. I like a big cargo pocket on my jacket like you see on the M-65 military models. Keep the pocket open and tuck the flap inside the pocket so you can shove whatever is in your hands in there instantly and by feel.
  • This is just personal taste, but I don't like to bring novels/drama with me. I like books on science (particularly biology and neuroscience), religion (particularly world religions), philosophy, and poetry. The woods are for contemplation, the village for drama. Both are great and you should enjoy them to the max, which I think is best accomplished in their respective settings.
I feel sorry for anybody who hasn't read Paradise Lost or the Bhagavad Gita 30ft up in a tree on a hilltop overlooking a few hundred acres of riverbottom as the sun rose. Lofty heights for body and mind!
 
Nutterbuster said:
I used to agree with you. But...

I'm blessed to be able to spend way more time in nature than most folks. Right now I'm "working" and looking out the window at a tidal lake filled with life. Red maples, spuce, white oaks, tupelo, cypress, yaupon, sumac, beautyberry, mountain laurel, and water lilies predominate the flora. From up on the bluff I live on I can also see down into the water and observe schools of shad and the spotted gar stalking them. I can watch bluegill hit the surface early in the morning. There's a pileated woodpecker hammering on my poor fence post, and earlier today a mangy little fox slipped down a trail paralleling the river in my backyard.

It's great, I love it. I made a choice and paid the very real price (less contact with friends and family and reduced earning potential) to live the pastoral life. Nature watching isn't an occasional thing for me, it's almost constant.

Hunting and fishing puts me even closer to even more wildlife, but if I'm being honest it's the walking in and out and scouting around that really lets you look and learn. Staring at the same 20 acres from dawn to dusk, sometimes multiple days in a row during a rut stakeout, is a little too zen for me some days.

I could read 24/7 for the rest of my life and never read all of the really good and important books we've produced. Not every time, but some of the times I'm in the woods, it's a better use of my hourglass sands reading/listening to a good book and keeping an eye/ear out for anomalies in the ambience.

I've entered the predator's trance for hours. I've meditated. I've listened to audiobooks. I've read the classics. I've taken naps. And I've killed more deer doing those things than most hunters. Have I missed a few because I wasn't paying attention? Yep. Have I stuck around through the midday lull and killed deer I wouldn't have if I'd have headed out early? Yep.

You can't trump time in the woods. Buying a house adjacent to a WMA, choosing to hunt in a comfy saddle (or pacseat), carrying a paperback and bone-conduction headphones, packing a hammock, or bringing a bass rod to pass the midday lull all keep you in the game.

Anywho, practical advice for the poor souls who can't stay enraptured by the beauty of the natural world:

  • Think about which sense you're relying on the most. If I'm hunting thick cover, autumn leaves, or flooded woods and will hear a deer before I see it I bring a book. If I'm hunting a large clearcut with a rifle, I'll listen to an audiobook.
  • If you use your phone or an e-reader, bring a battery bank. Cold weather kills batteries quickly.
  • Bone-conduction headphones are the cat's-azz. You can hear the woods and the audiobook simultaneously.
  • Have a plan to set the book/phone/e-reader down quickly and transition to go-mode. I like a big cargo pocket on my jacket like you see on the M-65 military models. Keep the pocket open and tuck the flap inside the pocket so you can shove whatever is in your hands in there instantly and by feel.
  • This is just personal taste, but I don't like to bring novels/drama with me. I like books on science (particularly biology and neuroscience), religion (particularly world religions), philosophy, and poetry. The woods are for contemplation, the village for drama. Both are great and you should enjoy them to the max, which I think is best accomplished in their respective settings.
I feel sorry for anybody who hasn't read Paradise Lost or the Bhagavad Gita 30ft up in a tree on a hilltop overlooking a few hundred acres of riverbottom as the sun rose. Lofty heights for body and mind!
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I'm sure if we traded places for a couple months both of our opinions would be concretely confirmed. Being firmly entrenched in town definitely influences my desire to soak up all that I can of my time in nature. But I need and love my wife just fractionally more than I need to live in the country so here I sit. ;)
 
Nutterbuster said:
I used to agree with you. But...

I'm blessed to be able to spend way more time in nature than most folks. Right now I'm "working" and looking out the window at a tidal lake filled with life. Red maples, spuce, white oaks, tupelo, cypress, yaupon, sumac, beautyberry, mountain laurel, and water lilies predominate the flora. From up on the bluff I live on I can also see down into the water and observe schools of shad and the spotted gar stalking them. I can watch bluegill hit the surface early in the morning. There's a pileated woodpecker hammering on my poor fence post, and earlier today a mangy little fox slipped down a trail paralleling the river in my backyard.

It's great, I love it. I made a choice and paid the very real price (less contact with friends and family and reduced earning potential) to live the pastoral life. Nature watching isn't an occasional thing for me, it's almost constant.

Hunting and fishing puts me even closer to even more wildlife, but if I'm being honest it's the walking in and out and scouting around that really lets you look and learn. Staring at the same 20 acres from dawn to dusk, sometimes multiple days in a row during a rut stakeout, is a little too zen for me some days.

I could read 24/7 for the rest of my life and never read all of the really good and important books we've produced. Not every time, but some of the times I'm in the woods, it's a better use of my hourglass sands reading/listening to a good book and keeping an eye/ear out for anomalies in the ambience.

I've entered the predator's trance for hours. I've meditated. I've listened to audiobooks. I've read the classics. I've taken naps. And I've killed more deer doing those things than most hunters. Have I missed a few because I wasn't paying attention? Yep. Have I stuck around through the midday lull and killed deer I wouldn't have if I'd have headed out early? Yep.

You can't trump time in the woods. Buying a house adjacent to a WMA, choosing to hunt in a comfy saddle (or pacseat), carrying a paperback and bone-conduction headphones, packing a hammock, or bringing a bass rod to pass the midday lull all keep you in the game.

Anywho, practical advice for the poor souls who can't stay enraptured by the beauty of the natural world:

  • Think about which sense you're relying on the most. If I'm hunting thick cover, autumn leaves, or flooded woods and will hear a deer before I see it I bring a book. If I'm hunting a large clearcut with a rifle, I'll listen to an audiobook.
  • If you use your phone or an e-reader, bring a battery bank. Cold weather kills batteries quickly.
  • Bone-conduction headphones are the cat's-azz. You can hear the woods and the audiobook simultaneously.
  • Have a plan to set the book/phone/e-reader down quickly and transition to go-mode. I like a big cargo pocket on my jacket like you see on the M-65 military models. Keep the pocket open and tuck the flap inside the pocket so you can shove whatever is in your hands in there instantly and by feel.
  • This is just personal taste, but I don't like to bring novels/drama with me. I like books on science (particularly biology and neuroscience), religion (particularly world religions), philosophy, and poetry. The woods are for contemplation, the village for drama. Both are great and you should enjoy them to the max, which I think is best accomplished in their respective settings.
I feel sorry for anybody who hasn't read Paradise Lost or the Bhagavad Gita 30ft up in a tree on a hilltop overlooking a few hundred acres of riverbottom as the sun rose. Lofty heights for body and mind!
Click to expand...
All good thoughts that I wish I could mirror in multiple ways, however when I read and get really into something, my other senses "turn off" and I get so zoned in that I don't even hear people calling my name over and over (it's caused some.. issues at home before lol) , I worry the crunching of leaves would be even easier to miss, and the book is one more thing in my hands to deal with. I suppose I should try it though before opining too much more online...
 
BTaylor said:
I just do not understand and honestly feel sorry for folks that need to carry alternate entertainment into the woods while they hunt. There is so much to see and learn all around us in creation and have never left the woods bored.
Click to expand...

Reading when I hunt isn't about boredom in the woods, it is about a great opportunity to read what I love. While reading I can hear everything around me, any my book is hands free so i can turn and look around however I need to. I generally read a page and scan the woods, and repeat. It passes the time, but more than anything gives me the opportunity to read, that my busy life often tries to prohibit. I am OK that you disagree, but don't feel sorry for me. I am happier than a clam out in the north woods with frozen toes and an erotic novel...
 
raisins said:
legend has it....he has wiped his booty on some of the greatest literary works of our time....he's also banned from his local library for similar reasons....
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My wife is a librarian and has heard of such a hunter of both deer and books. The ALA has put out a PSA, similar to the NYC nuclear attack, about such an individual...
 
redsquirrel said:
I understand. I usually use the kindle app on my phone. It works well because I always have my phone anyway and it's pretty small and easy to hold while in the saddle. During the rut I'll bring a charger so I can juice it back up if needed. I don't always do it but I do enjoy getting in some reading while I'm on stand if I find a book I'm into.
Click to expand...

Whoa whoa whoa.....I see the word STAND. Have we all been tricked by a RedHERRING all these years?
 
MJH said:
Reading when I hunt isn't about boredom in the woods, it is about a great opportunity to read what I love. While reading I can hear everything around me, any my book is hands free so i can turn and look around however I need to. I generally read a page and scan the woods, and repeat. It passes the time, but more than anything gives me the opportunity to read, that my busy life often tries to prohibit. I am OK that you disagree, but don't feel sorry for me. I am happier than a clam out in the north woods with frozen toes and an erotic novel...
Click to expand...
X2
 
BTaylor said:
Speaking of "didnt consider" I just had a thought that might kill 2 birds with 1 stone. If you have the inatuaralist app or similar where you can take a pic for plant ID, snap pics of stuff on the way in that you notice browse sign on or around that you arent sure what it is and once in the tree, run the id and read up on those things. Obviously wouldnt work going in before daylight but otherwise might have some benefit, esp when deer arent heavily focused on mast. I usually snap the pic and/or look that stuff up later once I am out of the woods but could be done in the tree if you have service.
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This is a great point. I also really like the Merlin birding app on my phone. It can identify birds in real time by their songs. It's a great way to learn more about nature while hunting.
 
Thanks guys, just ordered the kindle app for my phone and a couple books. I have been using a screw in phone holder for the last couple years. I find that requires less movement when using my phone. Which should be off and in my pocket,... but never is.
I can have issues staying awake, maybe this will help with that.
 
sdonx said:
Thanks guys, just ordered the kindle app for my phone and a couple books. I have been using a screw in phone holder for the last couple years. I find that requires less movement when using my phone. Which should be off and in my pocket,... but never is.
I can have issues staying awake, maybe this will help with that.
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Not that I wound EVER screw something in to a tree on public but... Erm... Tell me more about this phone holder dealio please? We talking camera arm style or something else?
 
HuumanCreed said:
Whoa whoa whoa.....I see the word STAND. Have we all been tricked by a RedHERRING all these years?
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HAHAHA. No worries, just a hold over phrase from the old days. Being on stand always meant being in the tree. And honestly before that I think it probably just meant actually standing at your spot. I can remember using the term on stand when we did some drives as a kid, you had the standers and the drivers and you were "on stand" if you were waiting for them to push deer to you.
 
I can honestly say that I don't think i've ever put a book in my pack for hunting. I would be more inclined to use the Libby or Kindle app to read or bring my Air Pods to listen to a podcast or something. I may pick a small book off the shelf to keep in my pack though for longer sits.
 
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