Steven Rinella has taken the hunting world by storm. His show, MeatEater, is bringing hunting and fishing to a whole new audience on Netflix and themeateater.com. As a company, MeatEater is home to numerous personalities who are spearheading a new generation of outdoor entertainment. From the popular MeatEater Podcast to its sister podcasts like Bear Grease, Wired to Hunt, and Cutting the Distance, along with multiple shows on Youtube, Steven Rinella and company have become THE source for thousands of hunters and anglers both young and old seeking information and entertainment focused on the outdoor pursuits.
But Rinella is more than a tv and podcast personality. He is an experienced (and talented) writer. He has authored multiple books both solo and with additions from other members of the MeatEater crew. This post will break down those books and get you started with your study of Rinella’s work. Note, this blog does not include Rinella’s books that are cooking-focused. Those will be covered in a separate blog.
1. Meat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter
The book that started it all. This book is truly one-of-a-kind. It’s an autobiography. Rinella takes us through his childhood experience with the great outdoors and into adulthood where he found himself obsessed with the hunting while working as a writer and living in the concrete jungles of New York City. We also learn about his family, his close relationship with his brothers, and his complicated relationship with his father, who introduced him to hunting and fishing.
The book is also a series of entertaining and educational hunting stories. The kind of hunting stories you might hear being told around a fire at camp. Rinella does a wonderful job using scene discerption and internal dialogue to create the suspense that makes the reader feel as though we are part of the hunt.
Above all, the book is a study on the lifestyle of someone who hunts, fishes, and eats wild game in the modern world. In MeatEater, Rinella makes quick work of some of the more popular arguments against hunting and fishing. He gives the reader a fresh mindset on the sport and the courage to stand up and fight back against those who think it barbaric. He reminds us that there’s no need to apologize for the lifestyle. And there’s no need to hide it. He is a MeatEater, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Pick up a copy HERE.
2. American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
This is the book that introduced me to Rinella and got me hooked on his writing. American Buffalo is half epic tale of Rinella’s trip deep into Alaska to attempt to fill a tag for wild bison – one of the toughest tags to draw in the world. The other half of the book is the story of the bison itself.
The epic hunt in Alaska is a thrilling as it sounds. Rinella is dropped off deep in the Alaskan backcountry where he camped out in the harshest climate tolerable while in pursuit of wild bison. The cold, the hunt, and the ever-present threat of a grizzly bear attack make for an epic tale.
This story is told interchangeably with the story of the bison and keeps a certain level of suspense going in the background throughout the book. You’ll have to read the book to get the full experience, but you will not forget the part that details how Rinella ended up in pain more than a year after coming home from the trip.
The story of the bison is fascinating in a very different way. If you take a drive through Yellowstone National Park, you will inevitably see herds of wild bison roaming the valleys as if they’d been left there uninterrupted through the nation’s history. But that is far from the truth. In fact, had it not been for a couple of stubborn and forward-thinking individuals, the species would have been wiped out entirely by marketing hunting at levels that are hard to fathom. This half of the book tells that story. It also gives us a deeper understanding of the bison’s raw abilities as a hardy big game animal that once numbered in the millions.
Click HERE to buy to read a tale of adventure with a lesson on an all-American giant.
3. MeatEater’s Campfire Stories: Close Calls & MeatEater’s Campfire Stories: Narrow Escapes & More Close Calls
These audiobooks are comprised of a series of near-death survival stories told by the people who lived to see another day. They include a story from Steven Rinella himself, stories that take us into the mind of the severely hypothermic, and an unbelievable story about having to shoot your friend with a speargun in order to SAVE his life. Indeed, these are more than humdrum audiobooks. These books are packed with high-quality suspense driven campfire stories about near-death experiences that will keep you wide awake on the longest of road trips (no gas station coffee required).
These stories also serve as great reminders for anyone going into the wild. Through these incredible survival stories, we learn valuable lessons on being prepared, making the correct split-second decisions in tough situations, and what survival necessities we need to add to our pack. While not as in-depth as some other survival books, these audiobooks still provide tips and techniques that could save your life, just like they did for those in the books.
These two audiobooks are only available in audio format – and for good reason. The books are produced with background sound effects and ambiance that create a more life-like experience for the listener. If you need something to help pass the time while mowing the yard, driving to camp, or waiting in the airport, click HERE to download these audiobooks.
4. Outdoor Kids in an Inside World: Getting Your Family Out of the House and Radically Engaged with Nature
This book is obviously geared towards parents wanting a resource to help get their families more involved in the outdoors. If you fall into that category, this book is perfect for you. Look no further. Hit the link below to pick up a copy.
But others stand to gain from this book as well. As Rinella says in the author’s note: “This book is for anyone who feels responsible for the well-being of a child. Not only parents, but also grandparents, aunts, uncles, mentors, friends, and babysitters – caregivers of every stripe. Indeed, raising outdoor kids may well be impossible if attempted by parents alone.”
In this book, Rinella uses real-life examples from his own family to give ideas, tools, and techniques that he has discovered through trial and error that have helped him get his family more involved in the wild. Expanding on his own experience, Rinella looks at society’s view of family time in the wild and equips the reader with the proper mindset to get the whole gang away from the screen and more involved in the natural world around them.
To pick up a copy, click HERE.
5. The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival
As you can guess from the title, this isn’t the type of book that you sit down and read from cover to cover and then put away on the shelf for years. This is a guide book full of useful information that is meant to be read and referenced regularly as you prepare for various outdoor adventures.
This book has input from Rinella himself along with multiple members of the MeatEater team who call on their own experiences in the wild to help you discern what you need to do to be prepared in the wild, what gear you need to pack, and how you can help others get prepared. Overall, you will learn more than you can remember, even if you think you already know what you need to know to survive. That is why this is the type of book you want to buy and keep a copy handy to reference before you make a backcountry trip.
The book deserves a spot on the shelf beside the tried-and-true survival classics, if not outright replace some of them. After all, this guidebook has updated information about technology and research that was not available when those classics were written.
To get prepared for you next trip, click HERE.