What's the best all inclusive survival book?

Okay, I found this posted as a review at Amazon. Does anyone have other, better suggestions for survival books?




If you're like I was, you're looking through the various disaster preparedness books wondering which one is best. I have worked my way through 7 of the most popular books and offer a shared review of all of them here. I hope this comparison helps you make a decision.

Book 1: Crisis Preparedness by Jack A. Spigarelli
Like many of the disaster preparedness books, this one begins by answering the question, "Why bother being prepared?" It also outlines a framework for being prepared that includes accumulating supplies, getting mentally and physically prepared, and having your finances in order. One thing I particularly liked was the emphasis on the importance of knowledge. It wasn't just about what items you need, but also what skills and knowledge you should develop. But this book is mostly about food preparation for a major disaster, with emphasis on having a year's food storage, milling your own grain, growing sprouts, home canning, dehydrating, freeze-drying, etc. There are detailed tables showing the calories of various foods including their protein, fat, and carbs. The final third of the book offers advice on other topics, including weapons, hand tools, clothing, energy, medical, sanitation, transportation, communications, and home preparation. The book concludes with a list of recommended books and a brief listing of companies that sell disaster preparation items. Overall, this is a very good preparedness book. I probably should have given it 5 stars, but I thought it went a bit overboard on the food plan. That said, it is the most comprehensive of the preparedness books.

Book 2: Preparedness Now! By Aton Edwards
This is another thorough disaster preparedness book, one that focuses more on emergency situations (fire, chemical attack, etc.). It is organized into brief chapters (some only a few pages) on a variety of important topics, including: water, food, shelter, sanitation, communication, transportation, and protection. It is also filled with many packing lists detailing what you should get in preparation. It introduces the e-kit (a very lightweight kit to keep with you) and grab-n-go bag with more extensive items. Final chapters of the book discuss various possible disasters, including earthquakes, tsunami, infectious diseases, chemical and bio warfare, crime, fire, and extreme weather. Some of the commentary is a bit questionable, but the technical content is good. Note the deficiency with this book is that it does not offer any detail on food storage.

Book 3: Disaster Preparedness for Dummies
First of all, this isn't a book. It's a DVD video. I wasn't paying attention when I bought it, and was a bit surprised when it arrived. I generally like the Dummies series. They are well researched and serve as a good summary. This DVD offers a lengthy video discussing many disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, etc.), briefly outlining how you might prepare for them. It also has an overview of how you should react in case of a terrorist attack (nuclear, chemical, and biological). But the advice is all very general, and is more like what you'd expect to hear from your local weather station. For example, the video repeatedly advises you to "stay calm" and "evaucate in an orderly fashion." The videos are high quality, but don't expect detailed outdoor survival tips or food storage suggestions. Everything presented is relevant and useful, but it feels more like a FEMA public service announcement.

Book 4: Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton
This book is broken into six main sections. The first section offers decent but very incomplete summaries on preparing for short-term emergencies. The second section discusses how to store and purify water. The third part talks about the logistics of setting up a food-storage program, and has some suggestions on how to store food. The fourth section details what types of foods you should store. The fifth section has blank inventory planning pages. And finally the last section has some recipes. About half of the 285 page book is either blank planning pages or simple recipes. The first half of the book is pretty good stuff, but I found this book to be incomplete. It does however offer some good advice on food storage.

Book 5: Organize for Disaster by Judith Kolberg
This book goes an entirely different direction than the other preparedness books. Emphasis is on understanding the federal resources (i.e. FEMA, Red Cross, etc.) available, creating a personal intelligence network, organizing essential documents, maintaining insurance coverage, listing a home inventory, preparing your house for disaster, basic first aid, and having a good family communication plan. There is also a good list of necessary items to have on hand that would suit many common disaster. I recommend this book for its common-sense look at disaster preparedness. However, it is not the only book you would need, because it doesn't detail food storage, water purification, heating, etc.. That said, it covers some topics that the other books overlook.

Book 6: Making the Best of Basics, Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmage Stevens
This book is almost completely about in-home food storage and preparation. There is little discussion outside that (except for basic water issues). Many chapters discuss food in significant detail, to include things like grains, recipes, preparing sourdough breads/biscuits, dairy products, honey, sprouting, drying of fruits/vegetables. At the end of this book is a huge compendium of preparedness resources, telling where things can be purchased in every US state.

Book 7: No Such Thing as Doomsday, by Philip L. Hoag, revised in 2001
This book offers well-researched insights into disaster preparedness. Topics include water, food, heating/cooking, light, power, communications, medical, sanitation, and security. Those subjects are well done. However, much of the book reads like a bit of doomsday prediction, with many pages devoted to scaring the heck out of the reader... focusing on missile attacks, chemical dangers, nuclear war, radiation, decontamination, communist threat, etc. For me personally, I would have like to see more pages devoted to likely threats (e.g. hurricanes, floods, earthquake, blackout, fire, etc.). Also note that Amazon may not carry the latest version (updated in 2001), so you may want to buy directly from the author.

Overall, if you can only purchase three books, I would recommend Book 5, Book 6, and either Book 1, 2 or 7. With those three, you should have a balanced look at common sense organizing, food storage, and emergency items to have on hand. If you can buy only one book, I recommend Book 1.

I've created a useful disaster preparedness list for your automobile on my Amazon author blog (just click on my name above the review). Also, you'll find a link to purchase a fully assembled auto kit.

Written by Arthur Bradley, author of "Process of Elimination" - an intense thriller in which a martial artist, a greedy corporate attorney, and a conspiracy theorist try to stop a world-class sniper out to shape the next Presidential election.

Get this one:

[link to www.amazon.com]

and don't leave home without it!

You are assuming that the shit is going to hit the fan, and that if it does then its going to hit it in a way that will affect you so badly that your going to need a training course in SAS survival skills

FYI, OP, SHTF for years now....

Um no...not assuming anything. Just want to be better prepared. Piece of mind really.

SAS guide looks good.

there is a torrent called survival which is basically every decent book and military manual ever written on survival.

it's a download well worth spending time on.

Foxfire Books 1 thru 6.

I heard The Art of Shen Ku. SAys "Simple Enough
ForA Child Too Complex For A Genius"

Add The Boy Scouts Manual to your list, and the Military Survival Manual.

Then what about food? Huge problem, better have several books on hand for food storage!! No one could possibly remember everything there is to know about food preparation and storage.

Been collecting books for several years now, and I usually find great deals at used book stores!!

[link to www.thewayhomeorfacethefire.info]

Hoarding weapons and/or building bomb-shelters are not the preparations required for what is to come in this world. This, "The Way Home" is the ONLY Survival Plan that works.

Readers Digest "Back to Basics"

[link to www.equipped.org]

yes definitely, also the back to basics, boy scout manuals, older the better, google ragnar benson, and kurt saxon, both great

this is an incredible link from a glp'er:

[link to www.stevespages.com]

oops, also search everything here by the poster named "lester"

i have tons of links too, if you need them, so far you have about twenty years of reading :)

I have the SAS one and it covers everything. Also it talks about making use of wreckage and garbage and things that would be plentiful if the "shit hits the fan".

Paladin press may be worth a look. there should be at least one active(seeding) torrent available on Paladin Press.

I got the SAS Survival Handbook, it seems to be pretty good.

[link to www.amazon.com]

Go to www.ki4u.com and get the free download of Cresson Kearny's Nuclear War Survival Skills. YOU NEED THIS BOOK!

For best informative encyclopedia of facts try the $14 USAF Survival Handbook.

If you can find Life After Doomsday, and Mel Tappan's Survival Guns, plus Tappan On Survival; they are classics.

Kurt Saxons Survivor and Poor Man's James Bond, plus Grandpa's Book of Chemistry are amazing references, but lack a cohesive chapter by chapter development.

The early editions of The Mother Earth News from #10 to about #87 are EXCELLENT!

Checkout the Essential Skills and Survival Guns threads here on GLP.

Ron Hood has excellent info and a discussion forum on his www.survival.com website.


Your most critical needs are Food that stores well and is transportable and nutritious, the ability to purify water, Shelter, clothing-gear-equipment, and self-defense weapons and ammunition plus the skill to use them.

the bible is the only one i'm packing into the bush

ANY Boy Scout Field Manual any issue BEFORE 1941, Is a very good start. Then read Wilderness Living. Take the SAS handbook with you. Next a book on edible and medicinal plants for the region you live in. PRACTICE all means to make fire, catch fish using nets and traps. Practice all of the skills in Wilderness Living.
Prior planning and preparation and practice prevent Piss poor performance. Find some like minded people with complementary skill sets.

SAS survival guide by John Goodman. Best ever.

DARE TO PREPARE by HOLLY DAYO, its available through Steve doomtard Quayle on his website. It is an excellent book with about everything nonviolent you would want to know.

anarchist cook book

The Bible is the best all inclusive survival book. From Genesis to revelations.

+1

The Foxfire series was written based on real life. Not some survival scam artist trying to make a buck off of you.

These books will teach you how to live off the land, from real people, with real experience, doing it for generations.

I've loved that one since I was twelve years old
Very extensive

It would make good kindling, and would last quite a long time with all those super thin pages.

Les Hiddens for Aussies

Forget all the others - this is the best I've seen:
WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS by Matthew Stein.
[link to www.amazon.com]
He was told in a vision that he should write this book.


For survival books in general, English authors are excellent and American authors are terrible.