Survival聽doesn鈥檛 have to be this ridiculous overblown thing you obsess over:聽the best way to prepare for it is聽to build a solid base of fundamental outdoor skills, then to remain calm and confident if you ever do find yourself lost in the woods. Also: it helps to have something sharp with you.
Here are聽three books that will hopefully upend your idea of what聽effective survival聽skills聽look like, while also empowering you to better enjoy nature. That’s what they’ve done for me.
98.6 Degrees: The Art Of Keeping Your Ass Alive
Believe it or not, but it鈥檚 not going to be a bear that kills you the next time you go camping. It鈥檚 going to be getting too hot聽or too cold鈥攈ence the title. Here, barefoot hippie Cody Lundin breaks down the unsexy realities of the real risks you face outdoors, then teaches you practical, easy steps to defeating them.
The takeaway: Pull all the knives and guns out of your survival kit, and replace them with socks and iodine.
Come Back Alive
Written for the adventure traveler, by the ultimate adventure traveler鈥擱obert Young Pelton. Again, this isn鈥檛 the advice you鈥檙e used to seeing in survival聽manuals. Here, instead of learning to conjure fire聽by twirling two sticks, you instead learn how to confront practical risks like car accidents聽and hotel-room burglaries. This being Pelton, there鈥檚 also real world advice on surviving stuff like kidnappings, terrorist attacks, and plane crashes, drawn from his own experiences.
The takeaway: Ditch the tacticool beard and MOLLE-backpack if you want to blend in abroad.
Hatchet
Like me, you probably read this book when you were 12 or 13. Is it relevant to adults? Well, I鈥檓 including it here for a reason. This is the story of a 13-year-old boy who manages to crash land a bush plane when the pilot has a heart attack, then learns how to survival in the wilds of Canada through trial-and-error.
The takeaway: If a kid can do it, you can too. Read a copy, then pass it along to someone younger.