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Wilderness Survival By Gregory J. Davenport. This is the book I recommend for basic wilderness survival skills (of the type discussed on this page), rather than wilderness living skills (such as you would want for a long-term stay in the wilderness).

With concise explanations (that is, he does not fill out the text much with stories and other non-essential information) and detailed illustrations, survival expert Gregory Davenport covers the five basic elements of survival - personal protection, signalling, finding food and water, travel, and health — providing the reader with complete information on how to stay calm and alive until rescue arrives.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Climates of the Globe; Weather; Gear; Survival and Medical Kits; Pre-departure Survival Plan; Three Steps to Wilderness Survival; Health; Personal Protection; Sustenance; Signalling; Travel and Negotiation; Improvising; Children and Survival; Index.

Reviews

"A must-read for anyone who goes outdoors. Informative and captivating. It covers the principles of survival better than any book I have read..." — Captain Scott O'Grady, Survivor, Bosnia.

Click here to purchase from Australia (Fishpond) $24.95 AUD

Participating in Nature: Wilderness Survival and Primitive Living Skills Thomas J. Elpel. This and the Ultimate Guide (below) would be the best two general wilderness living books that I have seen (and I have seen lots). While there is some treatment of emergency-style survival skills, the focus is on long-term living using (mostly) only what is provided by nature. This book is more nicely set out than the Ultimate Guide, and more interesting to read bits from.

Click here to purchase from Australia $38.99 AUD

Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living: Surviving with Nothing But Your Bare Hands and What You Find in the Woods, John & Geri McPherson.

In-depth instructions and step-by-step photos of real survival skills--exactly what one needs to stay alive in the woods. The book first covers immediate needs like starting a fire, erecting temporary shelter, and finding food. Then it goes beyond other survival books by explaining advanced techniques for long-term living in the wild -- using only those things found in nature. The authors show how to make tools by chipping stones, fashion a bow-and-arrow out of tree branches, weave baskets, fire primitive pots, build a semi-permanent shelter, and even tan hides. Finally, the authors explain how to bring all these skills together to live in the wilderness for days, weeks, months, or even years.

Click here to purchase from Australia $31.49 AUD

Naked Into the Wilderness - Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills, John & Geri McPherson.

I chose Naked Into the Wilderness on the basis of its detailed and very practical descriptions of the most important wilderness survival skills.

It is not a "pretty" book, the illustrations are generally much too dark, and the text is kind of "rough". It is not the most inspiring book in terms of romantic descriptions of a sacred, magical wilderness survival life (if you want that, Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival would be a better choice). It is also not a book that contains the absolute basics of wildnerness survival, such as that you can die in three minutes without air, three hours without adequate protection from the cold and wet, three days without water, and three weeks without food. I would (and will, when I get around to it) recommend other books for that kind of information.

NEW: There is a new version of this important wilderness survival book (listed above as "Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living"). If you have this book already, don't get the new one since its almost the same content. If you don't have it yet, the new one would be the one to get.

Primitive Wilderness Skills, Applied & Advanced (“Naked Into the Wilderness 2”), by John and Geri McPherson

The second volume is currently (at the time of writing this) out of print. I have placed a link to it at Amazon.com on the right of this page, where you can see the best available second hand price for it. If you can find it at a similar price to what it was worth new (about $25USD), it would definitely be worth getting, (although I would recommend other books ahead of it as a third essential book to get).

Emergency - This Book Will Save Your Life, Neil Strauss.

Terrorist attacks. Natural disasters. Domestic crackdowns. Economic collapse. Riots. Wars. Disease. Starvation. What can you do when it all hits the fan? You can learn to be self-sufficient and survive without the system.

This is more of an "entertainment" style book than most of the other books on this site, and one of the few that I do not own. It is a good read, though, and recommended if you are looking for a story that is interesting and easy to keep reading to see what happens next.

Click here to purchase from Australia $31.49 AUD

Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills, David Wescott (editor).

Awesome book. From a reader's review, “This is, in my humble opinion, the BEST single source for primitive skills out there — PERIOD. If you've ever looked through a scientific journal or periodical, that is the basic layout for this book: a compendium of articles, each one detailing a different tool, task, method, or application of a primitive skill. It isn't a high-cut book you need a PhD to understand. You can take this out in the backyard and follow right along, and succeed!” I would agree completely.

Click here to purchase from Australia $36.99 AUD
Purchase Wilderness Awareness School (USA) US$24.95

Primitive Technology II: Ancestral Skills - From the Society of Primitive Technology, David Wescott (editor).

Primitive Technology II: Ancestral Skills provides the guide to rediscovery of the skills and crafts that bind us all into this great human family. Contents: Food Sources, Containers, Projectiles, Buckskin, Transportation Back to Basics. A continuation of the book Primitive Technology, what has been called “the best single source for primitive skills out there — PERIOD.”

Click here to purchase from Australia $37.99 AUD

The Way of the Scout: A Native American Path to Finding Spiritual Meaning in a Physical World, Tom Brown Jr.

This can be a greatly inspiring book, if read in the correct way. Much of it appears to be at the least greatly exaggerated. However Tom Brown Jr does really know how to do these types of skills, and he must have learned them from somewhere. If you are not too concerned with strict accuracy, this is a great book. It is like Tom's other books — only even more so.

Click here to purchase from Australia $11.49 AUD

The Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook: Christmas by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht. This is a cool book that I bought cheap from a discount shop in Sydney a couple of years ago. (They are in an underground subway near the bus interchange between Central station and broadway if you want to look for it, but it was at least two years ago.) For more information on my site see the page "Surviving Christmas".

It would make an ideal present to give to anyone who is into "survival", or for anyone who is into survival to give to anyone they know.

You can get it very cheap from Amazon.com (new from about $3), or in Australia you can get it from "The Nile" (which will arrive more quickly, presumably, for people who are in Australia).

Click here to purchase from Australia (The Nile) $22.49 AUD