John McCann's survival kit article in November's Field & Stream has been discussed in a previous string.
For those who have read McCann's, "Build the Perfect Survival Kit" what do you think of the book? Is it worth the price? After all, Doug's articles are up to date, in-depth and cover about all the bases. I'd hate to purchase a book that's just a rehash of other's work.
Comments ???

Bought the book about two months ago (from Amazon.com; $9.50 + $3.50 shipping).

Expectedly, it contains information we?ve all seen elsewhere, but I wouldn?t especially characterize as ?just a rehash of other?s work.? Consider that among the most popular threads here on the forum are those discussing kits, their contents and methods of carry. I seem to learn something from every one of them. Same held true with this book, for me anyway (YMMV). No huge revelations, but I did learn a few things. It?s pretty well illustrated with B&W photographs.

The initial appeal was that the book focused soley on kits (from small- to vehicle-size), rather than lots of discussion on how to use the gear. Often, survival- and preparedness-related books seem to be the other way around.

I discovered some gear that I wasn?t familiar with before. That?s good, I guess, but then, do I really need encouragement to spend more money on this kinda stuff?

And being ?portable,? it serves a great purpose for me. When accompanying my wife on her weekend shopping excursions, it helps fill the time while I wait patiently in the car. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

What the heck? Redundancy is my middle name when it comes to flashlights, knives, ferro rods, and water purification. Why should my library be any different? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Recently finished it. Need to add it to the book page one of these days when I have a spare moment. Essentially, there's little or nothing there that cannot be found here on ETS, often in greater detail and in some cases, more up-to-date information. The latter being a primary reason I've never done such a book myself. Perhaps stupid on my part, but that's another issue. <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> On the positive side, it's pretty good for what it is and a lot easier for many to read through than wading through the many pages on this site. So, you have completeness and depth vs. compact and less deep, up-to-date vs a bit dated in some cases, and difficult to read on the john vs easy to read on the john. It would be a good gift to someone who isn't online or just isn't interested in taking advantage of online sources for this information.

Hmmm, looks like I'm halfway towards getting that review done. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

For a long term member of this board, it's an iffy. I got it over the summer, and the biggest thing I got from it was a different perspective on the making of kits. For example, I don't think I remember him mentioning the Sparklite, but mentioned items I hadn't seen and ideasI hadn't had. I never would have started one of my current projects if I hadn't seen his M-6-based kit, and I hadn't thought of his walking stick kit. I have a few grumbles, but that is a matter of opinion on which widgets are better.

For someone who isn't as hard core as we are, or at least doesn't want to spend days and days reading the website and months of crawling through the boards, this will be almost, if not just as good. For those who aren't sure of how to package, the book does a very good job of showing some ideas.

What it doesn't discuss is the bug-in gear most of us maintain. The lack of 72-/96-/120-hour house kits was very obvious to me, but they are covered well enough in hundred, if not thousands, of books.

If you are looking to give a gift of preparedness primers, this and the newest, paperback size of the SAS manual are a great set.

I bought the book and recommend it, but then, I'm a gear junky and love to get new ideas. The only fault I find with the book is the lack of color photographs, it would be a little easier to pick out the items in the kits if they were in color. I think it's well worth the price.

I agree, this book is worth the price. I too did not find anything earth-shattering about his kits, but the fact that he has produced actual kits from A to Z is quite impressive in itself. His knife recommendations did not jive with my views, but overall he has done a service with this book.

This will become dated (and I know my vest kit is better than his <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> )but I recommend this book....as I recommend reading Doug's extensive pages.

Many cultures produce incredible works of art and then deliberately include a small flaw. The rational being only God can create perfection and this insures our humility in spite of great talent. I called my work perfect once. It was a treehouse in my grandmother's back yard. I climbed down to answer the call to dinner, put hands on hips and pronounced to the heavens ' It's Perfect! ' A few seconds later this low creaking amplified into a resounding crash of timbers and plywood.It's a decent book, hubric title <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

If you enjoy reading about the subjects posted on this forum, then this book will appeal to you whether you are a beginner or a so called expert. The book is well organized, well-written, and well-illustrated - albeit in black and white.

This book is definitely worth the money and would make nice gifts for those you care about. For those new to the subject, reading the book will be a far more efficient use of time than searching through scores of web pages and sifting through thousands of postings for potentially useful information.

This book sounds perfict for the newbie to ETS!

I bought the book and have looked through it. It is not really a page turner. It is more of: what item or kit am I interested in at the moment. It is the only book I have seen specifically on Survival Kits. It is interesting to read different web sites and see what items are common and what are different. This book had just about all the ideas you will see in any web site compiled into a book. I like it!

My biggest beef is that I don?t agree with many of the items he shows in his kits. For example if you look at the compasses in the different kits they keep changing. Most people need a good base plate compass and a good pocket compass. I also hate the Starflash signal mirror. I gave mine to one of my sons. The glass ones are so much better. The only good plastic signal mirror I have used is the Ritter PSP mirror. The hooded Space Blanket is too small to make a shelter you can lie down in and be protected. The regular HD Space Blanket is barley large enough.

Clearly a lot of research went into this book and it is well worth owning and reading. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />