Ron, Survival references are numerous, and with the wide variety of environments a collection is almost neccessary for full reference. If you have 3 good authorities agree that North is at the top of a map, then it's a fact you can rely on! but it's the obsolescent and downright erroneous texts that can KILL! I started out with How To Stay Alive In The Woods by Bradford Angier. I realized later that much of his material was plagiarized and anecdotal, poorly organized and sometimes dangerous! This book is still in print. Another pet peeve of Doug and myself is Doctor Bombarde. The good doctor made a solo 55 day raft trip to research marine survival in the mid 50's. His research is the basis for French Naval survival texts. One problem: He postulated people can safely drink small steady amounts of sea water. This 'theory' was further promoted by Thor Hyderthal during the Kon-Tiki expedition. I can assuredly state this doesn't work and people have DIED trying! There is also the issue of hidden agendas,egos and credibility among the 'experts'. I want information, not extreme politics, spiritual revelation or steely eyed Gurus . Maybe I should write a pamphlet, How to survive survival resources !LOL<br><br>

hahaha chris ur halariuos man :)<br><br><br>

How weird. I was cleaning out a bookshelf this weekend and ran across an old copy of a Bradford Angier book on backpacking. After scanning it briefly, I realized how out dated it is since I bought it in the early seventies. I decided to chuck it in the trash before any of my kids find it and try to read it. :-)<br><br>Incidentally, I also pulled out my old copy of the Boy Scout Fieldbook. It to is dated, but is still a useful reference and a very good read. The parts that are out of date are mostly "High" impact camping techniques, such as digging a pit for burying a "Bean Pot" pork and beans recipe. Scouts today practicing low impact camping would never dig such a pit. <br><br>The new Fieldbook is pretty good. It's up-to-date, but is not organized in an intuitive manner. It's also missing a lot of useful information. I was looking for plans for a reflector oven for our upcoming camping trip. It's in the old book but not the new one.<br><br>BTW, copies of the old Fieldbook can be found on eBay. The prices really fluctuate but I finally found one for $6 by being patient.<br><br>Willie Vannerson<br>McHenry, IL