Klutz Book of Knots (*****)

In the outdoors, knowing and tying the right knot in the right circumstances can save your food, your canoe, your self respect and even your life. The "Klutz Book of Knots" is not the right choice for a sailor looking to win rigging contests. It certainly isn't the choice for someone looking to set records with the world's fanciest macramé creations. Nor is it appropriate for someone looking to begin a course in rock climbing. But it IS a superb primer of the very best set of basic and not quite so basic knot skills for someone who wants to develop an indispensable repertoire for use in the context of hiking, canoeing and backcountry camping - bowline, half hitches, tautline hitches, trucker's hitch, figure eight, double figure eight, figure eight on a bite, sheet bend and more.

You'll not only learn how to tie the knot but also how to tighten the knot and which context is correct for which knot. For example, you will learn that the choice between a bowline and two half-hitches depends on whether the rope you are working with needs to be snug to the attachment ring or post.

And what a brilliant idea ... the book's pages are made of heavy cardboard and are perforated so that the reader can practice with the supplied rope tying the knot to the page of the book directly over top of the illustration. Even a klutz can learn with great tools like that! Oh yeah ... I guess that's the whole point, isn't it?

And a bonus for those of us whose hiking boots or running shoes are constantly coming undone ... an absolutely bombproof way of tying up your shoes with a knot that simply will not loosen but is still a slip knot and comes undone with a simple one handed tug. I fell in love with that one! Highly recommended.