Looking for survival guides.
June 16, 2013 8:57 PM

Recommendations for survival guides. How to build shelters, fires, foraging etc with little or no supplies. Preferably books. General guides = good. Specifically tropical regions = awesome
posted by HMSSM to Science & Nature (14 answers total) 38 users marked this as a favorite
US Army Survival Manual. Chapter 14 deals with tropical survival techniques.

Also available on Amazon.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:59 PM on June 16, 2013


Any of Bradford Angier's books will fit the bill nicely. Amazon has them, too.
posted by aryma at 9:07 PM on June 16, 2013


SAS Handbook.
posted by b33j at 9:07 PM on June 16, 2013


Little Dieter Needs to Fly is surprisingly informative.
posted by 445supermag at 9:29 PM on June 16, 2013


With respect to military survival manuals, "Quoting an anonymous Latin proverb two hundred years ago, Isaac D’Israeli wrote, 'Beware the man of one book.'"

Here's the National Geographic Society's collaboration with the Boy and Girl Scouts, the American Red Cross, and the U.S. Army: Complete Survival Manual.

A highly recommended second book: Where There Is No Doctor.
posted by paulsc at 10:08 PM on June 16, 2013


Foxfire
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:26 PM on June 16, 2013


  • When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You'll Need To Surive When Disaster Strikes by Cody Lundin focuses on urban/suburban survival. Because that's where most of us live.

  • Apocalypse Chow: How To Eat Well When The Lights Go Out. Disasters happen. Spam in your prep kit is a choice.

    • posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:50 PM on June 16, 2013




    Cool Tools recommends Hawke’s Special Forces Survival Handbook. The review is food for thought:
    Let’s get this straight: you will not have your wilderness survival guidebook during a survival emergency. That’s not how emergencies work. A great survival guide book will a) assume you won’t have it with you, and b) will prepare you to survive bookless by preparing you with real details beforehand. Out of the many dozens of survival guidebooks in print today, this is the only one that accomplishes this, and this is the only one that I would recommend. (This is not a Prepper’s guide, but focuses on wildnerness survival.) It can get you thinking about real solutions to real problems. Survival is all about priorities, and I think this book lines them up in the right order. It will still be up to you to rehearse them beforehand — you won’t have this book with you.
    posted by MuffinMan at 4:39 AM on June 17, 2013


    Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Lawrence Gonzales. Looks at the mental/tactical side of survival.

    Euell Gibbons is a classic in foraging, but I believe he mostly focuses on the temperate areas. However, if you can find his Beachcomber's Handbook, it looks like that one involves the tropics.
    posted by pie ninja at 5:33 AM on June 17, 2013


    Larry Dean Olsen's Outdoor Survival Skills is geared more for North America, but is still pretty complete.
    posted by plinth at 6:20 AM on June 17, 2013


    Doug Ritter is a well-regarded airplane rescue trainer/advocate. He has resources for books on his website. Rather than giving you specific recommendations, I'd suggest that you examine his reviews yourself.

    I've found his recommendations, particular for the first aid and medical books to be very useful.
    posted by bonehead at 11:50 AM on June 17, 2013


    A lot of the stuff mentioned above is great, but can be pretty technical. If you're looking for more general-purpose survival stuff, I heartily recommend anything Les Stroud has put out. His television show Survivorman is on Netflix Streaming, and he survives in just about every kind of element imaginable, and covers exactly the kind of things you're asking for.

    He also has a few books out; Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere - Alive is good and offers general advice. His more recent book, Will to Live, comments on a number of real-world survival situations people have gotten into, and explains what they should have done differently. Both are great reads.
    posted by Wrongshanks at 2:22 PM on June 17, 2013


    Where There is no Dentist. Haven't read it myself.
    posted by The corpse in the library at 1:35 PM on June 18, 2013


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