Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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133 of 143 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some Good Stuff But Needs Editing , June 24, 2008
I had high expectations for this book and perhaps that's why I am a little disappointed. I thought it lacked organization and editing and perhaps was a little heavy on the funky side.
* Replace some of the cartoons with more specific sketches
* Rate measures as to their effectiveness and difficulty
* Serve as a foundation
There were a lot of nuggets and reminders. One was that a .22LR is a lightweight rifle suitable for most small game and certainly effective in stopping another human that wants to cause harm if properly used. Ammunition is cheap and lightweight. It is all useless without practice.
The section on hygiene was great.
More guidance on threat assessment would be helpful as what's needed depends on the prospective challenges, goals and characteristics of the area. What are the worst case scenarios, would you need to leave the place where you normally live or live in-place without outside support and stuff like utilities. Are the natives friendly? What's the prevailing weather? What are the reader's goals - personal survival, family survival, help neighbors and family.
Perhaps the real answer is a bundle of smaller books including a pocket guide to handling medical problems and a survival guide to pack with the gear.
Fun reading but time invested is not adequately rewarded.
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62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good deal..., June 13, 2008
Having read Cody's "98.6" book, I was eagerly looking forward to this book. I'll say up front that this book's writing style isn't as good as 98.6 but it's a great value that I recommend.
Cody's strength is his experience and blunt comments that really try to get the message through. The book is vast in its coverage (450 pages) so you really get a great value for your dollar. I really like how the book covers non-obvious topics and gives you historical examples/studies where people learned the hard way to help reinforce the point.
Cody's weaknesses are that he comes across as more condescending than in 98.6 and often seems to repeat himself far too much. I sometimes think that Cody believes we are all scared little creatures psychologically incapable of surviving without his 80 page "yes-you-can" lecture. I don't mind some encouragement here, but it should definitely be scaled back as it isn't one of his strengths and shouldn't require so much text. And as for the repetitiveness, for example, by to 20th time you read about how worthless our government is, you feel like saying "I get it, Cody, preaching to the choir." There are indeed too many political, personal, and off-topic concepts in this book. Stick the meat of what the title advertises. Cut off the fat from this book and you'd probably arrive at about 300 pages of solid and wonderful content.
Enjoyed the coverage about water, food, sanitation, body temperature, etc. Well done and informative. The self defensive chapter was hugely disappointing. It seemed more suited for daily urban survival at the local bar and not for catastrophe survival. I agree with Cody that food and water are often greatly overlooked by the Gold/Guns crowd, but to have hardly any advice about firearms seems bizarre. I am not recommending to have guns out of fear but out of reality. Imagine if someone with a gun comes for your supplies or loved ones and the only thing you know how to do is close combat fighting. Guess who will control the situation? And know that guns were confiscated illegally by law enforcement during Hurricane Katrina from law abiding people.
Yes, there are times where it seems Cody may not have listened to his editors or earlier reviewers based on my comments above and a lack of 'polish' on the text. And yes, the cutesy drawings are out of place. However, despite my minor complaints, for a very low price you get such a wide range of very useful information. At minimum the book will make you think in more depth about the subject at large. Most likely though you will learn a amazing amount of survival information. Either way Cody may have helped saved your life someday.
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93 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good beginners book, March 8, 2008
This book is focuses on urban survival. I would recommend this for any person initially looking into the subject matter, but not to anyone that is primed already. Although well written, you will have to further your knowledge on certain topics with supplemental reading. I feel like I got a huge start with this book with a lot of direction on where I need to study further.
Written in an easy to read format, Lundin does a good job at grabbing you and keeping your attention throught the book. There are lots of silly figres with helpful tips, drawings and blocked out page sections further detailing subject matter.
The first 60 pages are dedicated to the psychological effects of a disaster and trying to mentally prep for survival. He then lays out a nice piority pyramid and starts getting into the meat of the matter, including transportation, lighting, first aid, communications, cooking, shelter, food, clothing, water, and sanitation.
Topics I feel I dont need to research further after reading this book include body temp regulation (he has another book more dedicated to this) and clothing, nutrition, water storage and sanitation, solar cooking, a preparadness "bug-out" kit, general hygiene and sanitation, lighting, and communications.
Topics I do feel I need to read more on are specific food storage, fire starting, more detailed first aid, shelter building, alternate energy sources, indoor shelter temp control, homestead and food storage defense, edible wild foods, trapping, skinning, tanning, meat curing and storing etc... In Lundins defense a lot of these topics are more for wilderness survival, and this was not really the focus of this book.
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