Survival books - Knife books!

Diomedes Industries

Diomedes Industries

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Mar 19, 2007
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I need your help.

I am a professor at Cy-Fair College in Houston TX and I am doing research on Survival (Non-Fiction and How-To) and I would like your suggestions.

I usually get on a topic and end up doing a lot of research on it to find the best books and resources to advise our library (both public and college) to purchase.

So - hit me with your picks for best:

Non Fiction Survival Tales (books like 'Into the Void', 'Adrift' and the like)

How To books (Books like the 'SAS Survival Handbook', Tom Brown's guides and the like)

I would also like one or two good books about selecting a good knife, sharpening, and maintaining a good knife or knives for Survival purposes (if you suggest other good books about making knives and other types of knives that would be fine too!)

Heck - hit me with your best fiction of Survival (books like 'White Fang' and the like.

Help me make this section of our library top notch!

(I will post this in the Knife Review Section as well - Thanks!)

TF
 
Mors Kochanki- Bushcraft

Larry Dean Olsen- Outdoor Survival Skills

Anything by Ray Mears

Jean George- My Side of the Mountain (Juvenile)

Cody Lundin- 98.6 The art of Keeping Your Ass Alive

Jack London- To Build A Fire

do you read French? Anything by Andre`Francois Bourbeau
 
You would be remiss not to stock the Late and missed Texan Dave Alloway's classic desert survival book on the Southwest Desert first and foremost. Survival isn't just 'get yourself two sticks and rub together ' but should, and do cover the psychology of survival and many myths often perpetuated in other books. If you have a video library there are several excellent collections too. www.equipped.org/books.htm lists the best with short reviews. Be VERY carefull of some so called 'classics' Brad Angier's How to Stay Alive in the Woods was compiled by countless unchecked sources and never checked for accuracy even when current.
 
You mention "Adrift", and I assume you mean Steve Callahan's book. If you'd like another on liferaft/marine survival, check out Survive the Savage Sea. I once had a guy tell me here on BF that asking what kind of knife would be sturdy enough for butchering sea turtles was some kind of fantasy. I think Dougal and family ended up catching 4 or 5 during their 37 days adrift. Avoid "66 Days Adrift" by Butler... boring. :)
 
Kav - I have ILL'd (Inter Library Loaned) EVERY book on the Equipped.org site and have read about 4 and have enjoyed them immensly. Thanks for the list.

FHA:

I was meaning Callhan's book and I think that the book your recommended was the book he had in his survival kit. Thanks for reminding me!

Horse,

Sorry - no French. Do you know any written in Attic Greek? ;)

Thanks for the suggestions - KEEP THEM COMING!

I will give a list when I am done of what I ordered.

TF
 
Look up works by Thomas J. Elpel. Out of everything I've read on the subject his material and approach has influenced me the most.
 
These are all good recommendations, as well as Greg Davenport's books. Check out Wilderness Survival. It is excellent and written so anyone can understand it.
 
FoxholeAtheist said:
You mention "Adrift", and I assume you mean Steve Callahan's book. If you'd like another on liferaft/marine survival, check out Survive the Savage Sea. I once had a guy tell me here on BF that asking what kind of knife would be sturdy enough for butchering sea turtles was some kind of fantasy. I think Dougal and family ended up catching 4 or 5 during their 37 days adrift. Avoid "66 Days Adrift" by Butler... boring. :)
Click to expand...

"Survive the Savage Sea" was a great tead. They really did pretty good for themselves considering how many of them were crowded on a small dingy. Came through in good condition. I guess turtle meat is good rations!
 
Read any and all Calvin Rutstrum. I absolutely agree on the David Alloway book- It is a great one.
 
I highly recommend Deep Survival - Laurence Gonzales under the non-fiction catagory.

Brome
 
Wapiti - Reading Deep Survival right now - as well as the SAS Handbook - and 'Into Thin Air'.

I know... I know... I read for a living so three at once is okay... ;)

TF
 
Swedish books by Survival Instructor Lars Fält.
Uteliv ISBN: 9789146171348
Friluftsboken ISBN: 9789146183389
Överleva på naturens villkor ISBN: 9789153419778
Swedish military survival manual "Handbok Överlevnad" http://survival.tigerteam.se/pub/h_overlevnad.pdf
There is a pocket reference guide called "Fickminne Överlevnad", try to mail exp-k3@mil.se (the swedish survival training school and the para regiment) and they might send you one. They might also be able to help you even more.
 
Thomas Elpel: Participating in Nature and Primitive Living.
Christopher Nyerges: Guide to Wild Foods, and How to Survive Anywhere.
John and Geri McPherson: Primitive Wilderness Skills, and Naked into the Wilderness.
 
Raymond1000 said:
Xenophon’s Anabasis.

Well, it's a survival book of a sort. He did get back to Sparta.
Click to expand...

Good Call... Good Call...

I suppose you could call 'The Enchriridion' a survival manul as well... As it was issued to all Roman soldiers in Marcu Aurellius's time. But that is in latin. ;)

TF
 
A short non-fiction list here. These aren't straight-forward books on survival (ie: one person against the wilderness, or coping with a disaster) but nevertheless very informative (and good reads) about people living through hell on earth.
1. Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum. Thirty million people lived (and died) in the Soviet forced-labour camps while they existed.
2. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. A survivor of the Nazi camps, who is a psychiatrist, discusses how some people find the spirit and energy to keep going in horrible circumstances.
3. The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228 by Dick Couch (a former SEAL) and Cliff Hollenbeck. Couch provides his perspective on the physical and mental rigours of the modern-day Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL course.
4. The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer. In this memoir a child-soldier of mixed French-German parents recounts his harrowing experiences fighting and surviving with the Wehrmacht on the eastern front in world war two.
5. Anything about the Rwandan genocide. Two good ones are: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch and Shake Hands With The Devil: by Romeo Dallaire.
 
The shackleton story is pretty amazing, though not a survival manual per se.
 
How to Shit in the Woods, a funny title with some humerous content, but a serious topic that is often glanced-over in other books.

-Bob
 
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