Cabin: How to Build a Retreat in the Wilderness and Learn to Live with Nature

by Will Jones

A beautifully illustrated guide to building a cabin in the wilderness, packed with practical advice and insights into of the history of cabin culture around the world.
 
Throughout history, people around the world have built cabins as homes, retreats, and even follies. In recent times, many have been drawn to cabin-building by a yearning to connect with nature and spend time in the wilderness. From the homes of Indigenous peoples and the settlers in North America to contemporary Nordic summer homes and artists’ retreats everywhere, the emotive lure of cabin-building has deep roots and shows no sign of abating.
 
In 2010, journalist and author Will Jones gave up London life to move to rural Canada with his young family. His dream was to build a remote cabin in the woods that would be a silent retreat from the world. Cabin is the story of how he created the ultimate hideaway, inspired by cabin-building practices from around the world. In this book, Jones explores the history and romance of cabin-building and delves into the architectural styles, vernacular idiosyncrasies, and tools and techniques of historical and modern builders.
 
Weaving the personal story of his cabin build with illustrated practical know-how on everything from deciding on site and orientation to foundations and interior design, Jones’s essential book is full of inspirational ideas. The urge to escape the city and live in nature has never been stronger. Part story, part history, and part practical guide, this is the ultimate read for anyone dreaming of building a cabin of their own.
 
Includes Black-and-White Illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Lifestyle

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 17, 2023

Reviews

[Cilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me so jealous but also so inspired at the same time. Building my own little cabin in the woods to live in permanently is my dream life. Having helped my father build our family home, when I was rather young, this book really got me understanding the technical aspects of what we were doing at the time. If you are into construction, cabins, life in the wilderness, you will probably enjoy this book.

[Susan Kendrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept for a book! He combines very practical advice on building a cabin while throwing in bits about the history of cabins, how to identify plants and animals, cabin-advocates whose work he found compelling, just a little bit of everything. I thought the practical cabin building advice was a bit of a stretch - who is actually picking up this book as a DIY guide? But there were pictures so that was nice. Not sure that I would recommend it necessarily but also not sad to have read it so do with that what you will.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others have said, this is not actually a DIY guide. Maybe a few pages are worth re-reading for some insight. The philosophy section was interesting. The cross cultural review of indigenous homes was... unexpected. A lot of the pages are just snippets of paragraphs like a newspaper, absolutely absurd to put in a book like this. The images were all interesting and some of them beautiful. But so much of the writing is meandering and not very helpful. The final product, the authors cabin, was a good example of how to build a well insulated and weatherproof structure, and not an actual highly functional cabin. Very interesting background, and very surprising the authors cabin was not functional even though all their advice was supposedly guiding the reader to making a practical space.

[Max Wolffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a great time reading this book. I'll start by saying that the book is very beautifully bound and nicely illustrated, if you buy this, I recommend the hardback.

There are two distinct sections in this book, the DIY sections (in yellow paper) and the "narrative" sections, which read like a love story to cabins - Jones discusses cabins across cultures and people, as well as the story of his own cabin build.

The DIY sections were very approachable for a novice. Will you know how to completely build a cabin after reading this book? No. But if you're like me you'll know more about what goes into it and the terminology than you did before.

Highly recommend for folks who want to fantasize about owning / building a cabin.

[Arianna Keyser · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are expecting a DIY guide, you may want to reconsider. While there are many interesting sections on building a cabin, there are also a lot of essays that feel unnecessary to the building process. Overall this is a decent book with some interesting information, it just doesn't live up to it's title in certain places.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a detailed how-to guide for building a cabin in the woods. I have already built one cabin, but I found this very helpful were I to build another. I rather liked the mixture of philosophy found in this book.

[Jonny Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great story about one man building a cabin in the woods. Alternating chapters between practical, how-to and the history and philosophy of cabin building, I am inspired to go find some secluded land and start my own project.