First, I think it's a great book. Partly because it's a book, and partly because he simply seems to want to hammer the core body temp point into your head, he goes into great depth on what goes wrong when you're "out there", how it goes wrong and why it goes wrong. That shows up on this site, but it's not delved into as deeply. Take matches for instance, Lundin describes how hard it can be to operate a match in freezing cold weather with your gloves off. I tended to carry matches in all my kits, but not flint starters which are much easier to use when your hands are basically frozen. The same message comes from here and Lundin's book (and other books), but it was Lundin's description that finally made it seem important to me to have multiple dissimilar methods of fire creation. I think my point is that I learned a lot on this site, and I learned a lot from his book. Having multiple sources fills in gaps that one source would have.
Also, I think Lundin's book is written to a very different audience. As a backpacker, I felt some of his kit ideas were a lot more applicable to me than something coming from a pilot. Pilots may think they are weight-conscious about gear, but backpackers turn it into entertainment, going through each others gear to point out where they could shave half an ounce. You take a different view of things when you're going to schlep it on your person for 5 double digit mile days in a row than when you're stowing it in a plane. I'm going out into the wilderness on purpose, not ending up there by accident. On the other hand I think a lot of backpackers (due to the gear-weight mania) neglect backups of important items.
I think the cost-consciousness has a benefit. ETS tends to the high-end, and Lundin's book tends to the low-end. Somewhere in the middle lies the path most of us will take. The benefit of the cost-conscious version is that for a few bucks you can have pretty much what you need, and then fill it in over time with more expensive stuff when the first stuff wears out or you decided to make another kit for another purpose, rather than spending a bunch and still feeling like you aren't quite prepared. Like you've never had a kit "accident" that ruined something inside? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
This might be horrifying to some, but on recent backpacking trips I ended up delving into the emergency kits for some day-to-day stuff. Stuff that either wasn't used up in the process, or that I had backups of backups of. The iodine bottle was one such item. One day we "slack-packed" (someone drives your heavy pack from trailhead-to-trailhead and you walk with a lighter set of essentials). We carry a filter with us every time we hike, but since I was slacking with a fanny pack in early April, I didn't have room for such a bulky item. Having a backup of tincture of iodine allowed me to leave the filter, but still be able to treat water inexpensively and practically. Opening the iodine tablets carries that risk they'll get damp and useless, but the liquid tincture is pretty much made for repeated opening and use. And completely off-topic, we made lunch for the day, but left it in the hostel fridge. Oops. We were prepared enough with other snacks, Clif bars etc that we were kind of comfortable even without lunch. My wife used to think I was a bit nuts with all the preparedness, that's until little things go wrong and we rely on what I've made sure we have with us. Nothing makes you look like you're not a nutcase than actual stuff going wrong. Even if it's just not going without lunch until you hit the trailhead and can grab some dinner.
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