Though we’ve made the Earth easier to live on for us humans, we still run into things that can challenge us. People regularly get lost in the jungles and mountains, drown in the middle of the ocean, and even bite the dust in urban landscapes.
Survival books are a great way of learning practical knowledge for different situations that you might unexpectedly encounter. They’re filled with understandable and realistic know-how that might just help you out when you’re fighting for your life.
Best Survival Books For Tough Situations
We’ve put together a list of survival books that tackle various situations and survival skills. Check them out below!
1. Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival by Dave Canterbury
Your go-to book for basic survival skills.
Dave Canterbury is a world-renowned survivalist, and his book has become the ultimate survival guide to surviving the backcountry. Using the 5 C’s of survival—cutting tools, covering, combustion devices, containers, and cordages—this book will help you not only survive, but also making the most out your time in the wild.
You’ll learn how to start a fire, build a shelter, collect and cook food, and protect yourself from the elements. Compact and lightweight, it’s the perfect book to bring with you on your next hiking or camping trip.
2. 98.6 Degrees: The Art Of Keeping Your Ass Alive by Cody Lundin
Your go-to book for keeping your body at the right temperature.
Taking a different approach to survival, Lundin maintains that keeping your body at an optimal temperature is as important as food and water. You can live for weeks without food, and days without water, but if your temperature drops below or above the 98.6 degree mark, your chances of survival drastically decrease.
This book won’t teach you how to skin an animal, or make cutting tools. What it does teach you is how to prevent situations where you need to fight for survival in the first place, and what you can do to keep your body at peak performance if such situations arise.
3. Storing Food Without Refrigeration by Carolyn Shearlock
Your go-to book when you don’t have access to a fridge.
You may not realize it, but you’re majorly dependent on a refrigerator for keeping your food fresh and usable. So what happens when you’re in a place without one? What if power is unavailable? Even the smallest fridge is pretty bulky, and may not find electricity everywhere.
This book teaches you how to properly wash, store, treat and cook your food so it’ll last a long time even without the power of refrigeration. It also includes a few recipes to get you started.
4. The Forager’s Harvest by Samuel Thayer
Your go-to book on foraging.
This book is a guide to 32 of the most common edible wild plants in North America, and it teaches you on how to locate, identify, and harvest those plants for cooking. It goes a step further by introducing you to each plant’s cultural history and ecology to give you more in-depth knowledge that you might have to use in the future.
5. Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by Andrew Chevallier
Your go-to guide for medicinal plants.
When you’re out in the wilderness, you most likely don’t have access to modern medicine. Not being able to treat the simplest ailment can be disastrous in the wild. That’s where the 550 medicinal plants listed in this book come in handy. You’ll learn how to identify, cultivate, and use these plants correctly for more than 200 common health concerns.
6. Backyard Homesteading by David Toht
Your go-to guide to self-sufficiency.
You’re entirely dependent on supply lines when it comes to a lot of stuff, but most importantly, your food. When those supply lines get disrupted because of natural disasters, road blockages, and scarcity of supplies, you’re going to find it very tough to get by.
Self-sufficiency is quite an important aspect of survival. This book is a step-by-step guide on how to turn your yard into a productive “homestead” where you can grow fruits and vegetables, raise farm animals, and properly use and preserve your bounty.
7. 40 Projects for Building Your Backyard Homestead by David Toht
Your go-to guide for backyard homestead projects.
A companion to the previous book, this book focuses on building the necessary structures to your backyard homestead. These structures can range from simple chicken coops to hydroponics and solar power. The book comes with step-by-step instructions on materials, tools, and budget, so even if you’re not much of a handy person, you’ll still be able to do the projects.
8. SAS Survival Guide by John Wiseman
Your go-to guide when you’ve mastered the basics.
This book still discusses the basic survival skills you’ll need to survive in any climate, from land to sea. But it goes a step further by including other topics, such as security, self-defense, and disaster survival. So you won’t just learn about the back-country, but also how to survive armed confrontations, natural disasters, and even urban survival situations.
9. The Survival Medicine Handbook By Joseph Alton And Amy Alton
Your go-to guide for medical aid.
This book tackles a wide variety of injury-related survival techniques and procedures. It covers the steps you need to take for minor to more serious injuries, and treatment for several diseases and common ailments. The in-depth guides are viewed from situations where professional help may not be present, so you need to use the resources that are available to you, including a first-aid kit and medicinal plants.
10. Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag by Creek Stewart
Your go-to guide to building a survival bag.
A bug-out bag is a readily available kit that contains the necessary stuff you need to survive for a whole 72 hours. What it contains can vary depending on your needs.
This book is a guide to assembling a bag containing necessary stuff for your survival, and an in-depth study on how to properly utilize a bug-out bag and its contents. Inside you’ll find a bug-out bag checklist complete with photos and explanations, a resource list to help you find and purchase necessary gear, and recommendations for every disaster.
11. Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss
Your go-to guide to remaking yourself as a survivalist.
This book is by no means a survival manual—it’s more of a journal by someone living a comfortable life remaking himself into a more self-sufficient and worldly person.
In the book, Strauss joins emergency response teams, undergoes wilderness survival training, learns urban evasion tactics, and more. He meets people with different survivalist experiences and gradually learns how to survive situations where most people would have likely already died.
What Are the Best Survival Skills?
There are countless survival skills out there, suitable for different situations and environments. Each has its own advantages, but there are 6 particular survival skills that you need to learn to be prepared for anything. Here they are:
1. Making Fire
Fire is king in the wilderness. If you have the ability to make fire, then you can purify water, cook food, signal for help, make a light source, and give yourself warmth and comfort.
2. Finding and Purifying Water
You can last without food for a long time, but water is a critical element for our bodies. You are made of 70% water, after all. Knowing where to find water and how to purify it gives you better chances to survive.
3. Looking for Food
Food is strength, and the stronger you are, the better you can survive. Knowing even the most basic ways to identify, forage, hunt, and preserve food means you can sustain yourself for a long time in a survival situation.
4. Shelter
When in a survival situation, one of the first things you need to do is secure shelter. Having a shelter, however temporary, means you have a safe place to rest and shield yourself from the elements.
5. Signaling
You need to have a reliable way to alert any potential rescuers, however far they may be, that you are in need of help. This makes you easier to find and quicker to rescue.
6. First Aid
In a survival situation, wounds can quickly compound all of your problems. Knowing how to tend to a wound means you can prevent complications, like needing to operate one-handed or getting infections.
Being Ready for Survival
As humans, we’re the dominant species on the planet, but we’re still subject to the whims of both Mother Nature and human nature. We’re regularly put in situations that are either natural or man-made, such as storms, earthquakes, plane crashes, chemical spills, and more.
A little survival know-how can make all the difference when it comes to getting through these situations, so it’s good to at least be knowledgeable about the basics. It’s also a fun subject to learn. Why do you think the boy scouts and girl scouts are still so popular?
If you’re seriously pursuing survival training, or taking it up as a hobby, then the books in this article offer a great starting point.
Have you found yourself in any survival situation? Share your experiences in the comment section below!
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Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
