Living off the Land, Revised and Updated Edition: An Illustrated Guide to Tracking, Building Traps, Constructing Shelters, Toolmaking, Finding Water, Foraging For Food, and Much More [Paperback]

Christopher McNab (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2007

A comprehensive guide to surviving and thriving on various terrains

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Trained soldiers will tell you that the art of survival relies heavily on two essential skills: finding food and finding water. In any survival situation, it is vital that you adapt to your surroundings as quickly as possible and make good use of the sustenance nature has to offer.

 

Living Off the Land contains everything the survivor needs to know about thriving in nature, from making tools and finding water to eating plants and catching fish. With over 120 illustrations, this book is packed with practical information and insightful tips such as how to make a fire without the use of matches and how to master the art of making traps and snares to capture food. Later chapters adapt these principles to a variety of terrain, including the desert, the Arctic, and the jungle, with special chapters devoted to survival at sea and urban survival.

 

Because nature can be a dangerous place, the book also instructs the reader how to identify and avoid dangerous animals such as snakes and spiders, how to extract poison, and how to tell edible plants and fungi from poisonous ones.

 

This book will be an invaluable help to anyone who ventures into the outdoors. The information it contains might just save your life.

About the Author

Chris McNab is an experienced specialist in wilderness and urban-survival techniques. He lives in Wales, UK.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599210681
• ISBN-13: 978-1599210681
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #459,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A real joke!, May 29, 2009

By 

Outside - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living off the Land, Revised and Updated Edition: An Illustrated Guide to Tracking, Building Traps, Constructing Shelters, Toolmaking, Finding Water, Foraging For Food, and Much More (Paperback)

This book is a good looking disaster. While attempting to learn about the authors qualifications, I soon realized he has none thus the glaring lack of anything about him anywhere in/on the book. Who is Chris McNab? The content, other than the illustrations which are quite fine indeed (they were done by two illustrators named only in small print inside the book not on the cover) is lacking in so many ways. Page 89 has a picture of a man throwing a spear via a "spear thrower", not an Atlatle, merely a three foot long split log with a handle below and a groove on top in which to rest the spear. The launcher is thrust forward and down to send the spear on its' way. No mechanical advantage is gained, in fact much is lost. Hide tanning is covered in about seventy words and the bow and drill in four scant paragraphs...where does he get his information? Not worth the postage.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overly harsh review, March 30, 2011

By 

Midge (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living off the Land, Revised and Updated Edition: An Illustrated Guide to Tracking, Building Traps, Constructing Shelters, Toolmaking, Finding Water, Foraging For Food, and Much More (Paperback)

Although I have not read the book, I was stunned by the overly harsh review and the weak basis for that harshness. It should not matter what someone's background is or how many other books they have written. Nor should it matter who did the illustrations.

This really sounded like sour grapes from another author or someone who overrates their own capability as a critic.

The only thing that should matter would be the quality of the information in the book... and I did not hear anything that disputed the quality of the content. This author should not be criticized on the flimsy, nitpicking basis I saw in this review. It was just low down and unfairly critical without any basis in reason. That was just plain ugliness toward the author which was grossly apparent to anyone reading such comments obviously intended to break the spirit of the author by some sour grape wannabee who thinks others are beneath them.

I don't know the author but I was simply mortified by the unnecessary, irrelevant, petulant comments made toward him for no perceivable reason. As long as the author's information is valid, who cares who he is or who did the art work or how many books he wrote. Let us hope we see some reviews without blatant nasty attacks on the author with more helpful information about the content than the author's pedigree.