Survival SkillsTop Stories

Best Survival Books With A Couple Of Free Ebooks

Survival Skills that everyone should know to increase their odds of survival in a SHTF situation. Basic to Advanced Survival books to help you prepare for a worst case scenario. Here are some of the best survival books. All of them were printed a while ago, but they are still relevant today.

Knowledge and skills are the key to surviving. In a perfect world we would all have these skill, but often our lifestyles and upbringing have sheltered us from the harsher and more elemental aspects of surviving in a crisis.

Prepare Yourself to Survive Any Disaster

Most people do not think or prepare for a disaster, earthquakes, storms, floods, pandemics, etc, until it actually occurs. A break down of society resulting from these disasters or other reasons (wars, politics, riots) can be just as devastating and yet, the majority of people are unprepared.

If you are here, looking for resources and knowledge. you have taken the first step to preparing yourself and knowing what to do in a crisis, and while knowledge is great. Make sure that you practice the skills you learn, prepare yourself, run drills, and examine what mistakes you made. What you could improve on, and what skills you lacked.

Learn First Aid From a Professional

Most skills require practice. Many such as First Aid should be learned from professionals in real life. The journey to self reliance is a long one, do not expect to master these skills overnight. But having them will better prepare you for the curveballs life throws at you.

Learning First Aid is one of the most important skills anyone should have. But having the skills without any medical supplies will not get you far.

Always have a First Aid, Ifak or Boo Boo Kit Handy Click the link above to find out the differences between a first aid kit, a boo boo kit and an Ifak.

Buy The RIGHT Books to Learn Survival Skills

I got my love of nature and the outdoors from my father, when I was young my father would take me hiking a couple of times a week. Having learned to catch snakes (pythons, vipers), scorpions, spiders and all sorts of little critters before I hit my teens. The next logical step was to learn navigation, situation awareness, primitive weapons skills, fire making, foraging, fishing and hunting.

The SAS Survival Handbook by John (Lofty) Wiseman

In my opinion, one of the best Survival Skills books out there is The SAS Survival Handbook by John (lofty) Wiseman. This book covers so many aspects of Survival, if you are only going to buy one book, this is the one I recommend.

John Wiseman is a master of his craft and a brilliant author. He explained everything in easy to understand terms. This book is THE definition of survival book. Every scenario you can think of is covered. From disasters. droughts to tsunamis, foraging to hunting, surviving in every environment from the desert to the polar region.

I loved this book, and spend many hours following the illustrations to setup traps, identify plants, etc.

The SAS Survival handbook laying beside a campfire that has been put out

Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival by Mors Kochanski

A book that is solely focused on wilderness survival skills, Mors Kochanski has covered all the basics of surviving in the outdoors, if you are an avid outdoors man, hiker or camper, this book should be mandatory reading.

The illustrations explain concepts so much better then the written word on its own ever could.

Be Expert with Map and Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook by Björn Kjellström

One of the most basic skills everyone should have is a basic working knowledge of orienteering and navigation. I know that most people have a mobile phone with GPS, and some people have dedicated GPS devices, but those require batteries. Need I say more.

A compass, map and some basic orienteering skills will get you where you need to go.

This easy to understand book will give you the knowledge, then all you need to do is practice what you learned.

The Survival Doctor’s Complete Handbook: What to Do When Help is NOT on the Way by James Hubbard

This is a great First Aid book, and is a good primer for you, before taking a First Aid course (which I highly recommend). Be aware, that any Doctor worth his salt will recommend that you seek medical care at the earliest opportunity, and this book is no exception.

That said, this book is written for the layman it gives solid First Aid advice that will help you out of all but the most dire of situations.
It does recommend you seek medical treatment many times over. Which does get a little bit frustrating, but then that is the best advice you can get. If you can, always get a professional to treat you. If not, try the first aid recommended in the book.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-to-Basics Guide by John Seymour

I loved this book, the illustrations were detailed, the ideas on how to be self sufficient on a smallish piece of land was just inspirational. I always had the impression that acres and acres were needed.

If you want to get started on being self sufficient, then this is the book for you, some of the information may be a little bit outdated, but its still a danged good book.

Bushcraft 101 by Dave Canterbury

An influencer in the bushcrafting and survival community, Dave Canterbury teaches how to survive in the outdoors. His clear and precise manner of writing makes this an easy to read book. Dave speaks from experience, it is easy to see that he lives what he preaches, and genuinely loves the outdoors.

The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Department of the Army

Recommending a good book on foraging is difficult. Most books on foraging cover a specific area, some books are text only, some have beautiful drawings of plants that while aesthetically pleasing make identifying a plant difficult. Those few that do have photos to help identify edible plants, often have blur images that do not inspire confidence in a novice forager. This book while not as good as one specific to your region, is a good general starting point.

It covers a range of edibles from a variety of locations, with passable images (not great, but better then some I have seen).

I recommend getting a book specific to where you live, or even better taking a course from a forager or university near you that teaches foraging. For those living in the US. Here is a decent list of where to learn foraging http://foraging.com/

FREE Public Domain Books

Deadfalls and Snares by A.R Harding

This is an oldy but goody , the traps are illustrated, well explained and easy to learn (with a little bit of practice of course).

Best of all, this book is free, it is in the public domain, the link is below.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34110

Shelters, Shacks and Shanties, by D.C. Beard

Solid Primer for those survivalists looking to build a temporary or longer term shelter in the outdoors, this book while not as detailed as some of the modern ones that give you floorplans, measurements of all the wood that needs to be cut, etc, it is sufficiently detailed to give you an idea of where to get started. The illustrations while basic are good enough to get the job done.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28255

The Best Survival Book of 2022, The SAS Survival Handbook by John Wiseman

My go to book that I have read multiple times and now use as a reference is The SAS Survival Handbook by John Wiseman, as I mentioned above, out of all the books I have listed here, if you are only going to get one, this is the one.

There are a multitude of GOOD books out there, the ones listed here are some of my favorites. What survival books would you recommend?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *