There has been a thread on Les Stroud's book Survive! some time ago but it deteriorated into another Les vs. Bear slugfest. I thought we could start the discussion again, focusing on the BOOK this time (opinions on Man vs. Wild NOT welcome ).

I've almost finished reading my copy and IMO Les deserves a big thumbs up. Initially, I had major reservations about buying another survival book because over the years, I've read pretty much all the better known titles out there (plus a good number of more obscure texts). With so many survival books published already it's hard to find something fresh and original.

Les has fortunately avoided that pitfall. Reading the chapters on water, shelter, navigation etc. it's evident that he's done his homework and studied all the literature he could find. But his advice always seems to be very much based on his own hands-on experience, which is exactly what makes it all the more valuable.

In particular, I've been pleasantly surprised because a lot of his advice mirrors my own experience. Not that I would attempt to compare myself to a survival expert but it is interesting that a lot of methods I've tried and didn't work for me apparently didn't work for Les either. On the other hand, Les recommends a number of techniques that I've grown fond of in the past, well before I first heard of Survivorman.

All in all, Les seems a very much down to Earth kind of guy. He only teaches techniques he knows will work in a given situation because he's tested them in practice time and again. He also has no problem discarding the stuff that may be well known from the older manuals but does not work too well in practice.

Kudos for a well written book and let's hear some more comments from all the other readers...