Life can present you with difficult situations or crises that will necessitate the use of some fundamental survival techniques. In fact, if you are a weekend adventurer who enjoys thrill-filled outings in the wilderness, you’ll agree that guidance from experts who have survived such expeditions will always be an invaluable companion. I’ve considered collecting my belongings and heading to the Himalayas to live in a lodge among the forest a few times only to be stopped by my subconscious mind. It always asks me how I will survive with no access to proper food and logistics.
When COVID-19 hit, we all realized that we weren’t as prepared as we thought we were for calamities and restricted access to needs. Everyone isn’t a Commando or an Eagle Scout. So, if you haven’t had any survival training in extreme weather and terrain conditions, studying a good survival guidebook should be your next best alternative.
We have enlisted the Best 10 Survival Books to be ever written for readers to guide them with survival skills for their next adventure trip. If you ever get stuck in extreme weather conditions, forest fires, and any pandemic, these books will be your ultimate survival companion.
Top 10 Survival Books
1. The Ultimate Survival Manual | Rich Johnson
Highlights
Author: Rich Johnson
Publication Year: 2017
Publisher: Weldon Owen
Description
Rich Johnson has served in the USA Special Operations forces as a paratrooper and explosive officer. This implies that he has knowledge or two about survival in natural calamities. He describes 333 key skills in his classic The Ultimate Survival Manual that can assist you to emerge through the extremities that nature or life can hurl at you.
Whether you need to traverse a strange territory when you’re lost, or you’re faced with the impossible challenge of crossing a fast-flowing river, you’ll find everything in this book. This will be your go-to handbook for dealing with and surviving deadly armed attacks, persistent assaults from nature’s forces like storms and floods. It will also guide you in handling intrusions by carnivorous wildlife.
It’s a good thing that the book is complemented by images and vivid illustrations for easier comprehension.
You can buy this book from here.
2. SAS Survival Guide | John “Lofty” Wiseman
Highlights
Author: John “Lofty” Wiseman
Publication Year: 2018
Publisher: William Collins
Description
SAS Survival Guide is a best-selling and highly dependable manual created by a veteran Special Forces survival expert. The book is a perfect resource for all types of survival situations, from camping in the woods to wilderness activities.
The manual provides trusted time-tested pearls on how to survive regardless of geography and weather on land or even at sea. Whether you rely on classic navigation instruments or cutting-edge GPS, John “Lofty” Wiseman’s considerable knowledge can teach you a lot.
The invention of weapons and armor, first-aid expertise, arm combat, and surviving severe climates in any conceivable scenario are among the topics covered. You’ll also learn to build a camp, gather and cook meals, read the weather, stay warm, administer first aid, and thrive in the absence of supplies.
Topics such as urban survivability and terrorism have been included in the texts in the latest editions to highlight contemporary survival concepts and techniques.
You can buy this book from here.
3. When All Hell Breaks Loose | Cody Lundin
Highlights
Author: Cody Lundin
Publication Year: 2007
Publisher: Gibbs M. Smith Inc
Description
When All Hell Breaks Loose is a masterwork by naturalist Cody Lundi. It’s bigger and more extensive, with a lot of emergency preparedness advice and crisis contingency plans.
It’s an urban survival book that covers everything from mobile drinking water to capturing rats for food to dealing with a dead body. This book has a wealth of practical survival advice. If the knowledge contained within isn’t enough, the story is told in an engaging manner, with memorable phrases peppered throughout the narrative.
The writer claims that disaster preparedness is primarily psychological, with equipment and skill accounting for only about 10% of the equation. Prepare yourself with useful survival advice for your home, office, and other places.
You can buy this book from here.
4. Bushcraft 101- A Field Guide to The Art of Wilderness Survival | Dave Canterbury
Highlights
Author: Dave Canterbury
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Adams Media
Description
This book is something you’ll definitely wish to have with you whenever you plan to go trekking or hiking. It is compact, at around 7 inches tall, so it’ll fit easily inside your bag for extended hikes or camping trips.
This is a survival book that tells you what to bring in your backpack for a trip into the wilderness. It also guides you on how to set up a camp for yourself, and how to establish your cooking setup. Since the book is authored by Dave Canterbury, a globally-renowned survivalist, you may rest assured that the knowledge included in the book has been thoroughly tested and proven to work. If you live in a wooded location, this is absolutely a survival guide you should have on hand.
You can buy this book from here.
5. Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt to Plate | John Kallas
Highlights
Author: John Kallas
Publication Year: 2010
Publisher: Gibbs M. Smith Inc
Description
One of the finest bushcraft books for locating edible greens in the woods is Edible Wild Plants. This book includes photographs of the numerous plants for easy identification, as well as information on their nutritional worth and cooking possibilities.
Because John Kallas is a nutritionist and a specialist on wild plants, the material is authoritatively written. He’s spent a lot of time foraging across North America And European continents. The book will describe how nutritious wild foods are, their nourishment value at various phases of growth, and how to effectively prepare them.
Rather than rushing through a large number of plant selections, he focuses on a few plants in order to provide in-depth information that is incredibly valuable.
You can buy this book from here.
6. When Technology Fails | Matthew Stein
Highlights
Author: Matthew Stein
Publication Year: 2008
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Description
When Technology Fails, Matthew Stein investigates how we can survive off the grid. He devises a modern survival mechanism for when we can no longer rely on the technological devices that have become an integral component of modern life and comfort.
When contemporary infrastructure collapses on a big scale, the economy collapses, the environment deteriorates, and society falls apart, and sustainability is the only viable option.
The book goes into great detail about how to survive when we are confronted with these modern-day disruptions. Fostering shelters, sterilizing water, exploitation, and installation of renewable energy sources, basic medicines, how to make garments, and increasing resilience and self-reliance are only a few of the topics covered. These will aid survival in the situation where the current socio-economic framework fails.
You can buy this book from here.
7. Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters | Ronald J Adams
Highlights
Author: Ronald J Adams
Publication Year: 1980
Publisher: Calibre Pr
Description
Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters isn’t a concept-based textbook. It is a product of true armed encounters involving over 400 police officers and armed assailants. The book examines many contacts between these cops in order to gain a better understanding of armed conflicts.
It carries upon the lessons acquired from those experiences, as well as how to be prepared for them. This book teaches you how to be street smart so you can be situation-aware and subsistence anytime dangerous encounters arise.
With it, you’ll be able to plan ahead of time and react appropriately if the situation becomes dangerous. The writer explores how to engage in high-risk scenarios while being safe.
He talks about how to gain an advantage over the adversary by using camouflage, unexpected shocks, and weaponry.
You can buy this book from here.
8. 40 Projects for Building Your Backyard Homestead | David Toht
Highlights
Author: David Toht
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: Creative Homeowner Pr
Description
From chicken barns, railings, hydroponic systems to solar and wind power, this handbook is all about constructing structures. It even guides you through basic plumbing and wiring improvements, such as ensuring that your water is freeze-resistant.
It includes step-by-step directions with photographs and measurements on how to build garden beds, shelters, beehives, roofs and even turbines in your backyard. The books guide you properly to make your product genuinely self-sufficient, especially for off-grid life and survival.
You can buy this book from here.
9. The Encyclopaedia of Country Living | Carla Emery
Highlights
Author: Carla Emery
Publication Year: 2019
Publisher: Sasquatch Books
Description
The Encyclopaedia of Country Living shows you how to live independently off the land. You can live in the woods, in a farmhouse and breed any domesticated animal with the help of this survival guide. Whether you wish to be an urbanized farmer or start a rural ranch, this collection will provide you with the resources you need.
The end result is a more sustainable way of life for a better future.
Animal and plant husbandry interests, such as rearing chickens, goats, lambs, and beekeeping, are among the topics covered.
You can buy this book from here.
10. 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive | Cody Lundin
Highlights
Author: Cody Lundin
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Gibbs M. Smith Inc
Description
Cody Lundin takes a unique approach to spread his survival lesson. In 98.6 Degrees, the director of the Aboriginal Living Skills School in Arizona offers some questionable survival advice.
His major argument is centered on the intuitive assumption that you have a fair shot if you can sustain your body temperature at 98.6 degrees. Cody says why maintaining your body’s core temperature is more vital than eating or drinking.
The author investigates how to keep your body temperature stable in a snowstorm or in the deserts in order to survive. The book is written with wit and comedy, and it includes strange pictures by a professional cartoonist, making it a much more entertaining read.
It is widely regarded as among the most famous survival books in modern times. If you appreciate Cody Lundin’s tv series “Dual Survival,” you’ll probably enjoy this book.
You can buy this book from here.
Conclusion
That concludes our list of the top survival books for the vast outdoors that you should read. As you may have seen, these survival guides are meant to be read in conjunction with one another rather than on their own.
There is no single book that can answer all of your questions or provide all of the knowledge you require. But they’re still a good place to begin, and if nothing happens, if everything stays the same, all you’ve accomplished is teaching yourself some useful skills and making yourself self-sufficient.
We hope you will read through these books and be prepared for any calamity you might face on your next adventure trip.
Comment down if you think we have missed something.
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