The first two installments in a series of fun and enlightening books for both ultralighters and skeptics.

Next: A guide to ultralight backpacks. And after that, a book on shelters.

But right now let's check out the world of ultralight stoves...

Dave Sailer, a longtime hiker and convert to the light side has written a pretty darn complete guide to ultralight backpacking stoves that most every backpacker will want. He calls it Fire In Your Hand: Dave’s Little Guide to Ultralight Backpacking Stoves. (If you hadn’t guessed.)

At 326 pages, it’s longer than he planned, but also a lot more fun. It explains how fire works, how stoves work, and just what the heck ultralight stoves are. And how they work too. And how much fun they are. Did we mention fun yet?

Originally intended as a short guide to the subject, the book grew into an explanation of how the universe really works, from the perspective of an ultralight backpacker who is just trying to get a good hot supper.

The book has 32 chapters, which is a lot considering how small these stoves are. Nine chapters toward the end show the reader how to make and use a variety of stoves and accessories, and are illustrated. The less technical chapters up front end with challenging but mostly fun exercises designed to keep the reader’s mind honed to a fine point.

And for relief there are 26 stories, contributed by some alternate personalities that the author never had time to develop before now. Like Uncle Reinhold Pudzer, the crusty but kindly old hand. Cousin Citron Ella Schmelling, the level-headed, lovely, and yet gnarly and knowledgeable hiking babe. Joe ”Dirty Maggot” Periwinkle the theoretically minded, rodent-loving thru-hiker. And of course the ever-dangerous Aunt Lydia Pudzer who brooks no nonsense whatsoever and has much of the grace and all the generosity of a rock crusher.

But wait! There’s more! A spot-on forward by Bill “Pharting Bob” Johnston, yet another thru-hiker maybe quite a bit like someone you’ve met on the trail (and who is still looking for a winter hideaway). But a nice guy nevertheless. Even if he is imaginary.

And if that isn’t enough then there is a whole section on where to get more info in case you don’t quite believe what you read in this book. Yes, the truth is that there is a whole subculture of ultralight stove freaks out there, and you can check up on them yourself using the handy information from this section, which may be worth the price of the book all by itself.

All of this is followed by an unbelievably good 38 page lexicon of formerly obscure, esoteric and bizarre terms related to backpacking, stoves, and to burning things in general. For example, just to pick some terms almost at random from the lexicon, do you know how "evil", "eyebrow hairs", "fahr-sahkle", "fairy queen", "fat lighter", and "fauna" relate to ultralight backpacking stoves? Well they and many more terms are all explained at great length. You just may learn more than you can stand to know.

One click here will drop a warm and freshly printed copy into your shopping cart. The paperback price is $19.99, but a download in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format is also available for $11.99. Both versions include the full 326 pages of content. You will not be disappointed.

If you just want a simple guide to making stoves, buy a copy of Make Your Fire and skip the extraneous stuff.