If you like the show you're going to love this book. His calm rational style of narration really comes through in his writing and it feels like an extended episode of Meat Eater. It's filled with tons of great information on staying safe in the outdoors.

I attempted to post a review to Amazon, but I keep getting the following message "This item is not eligible to be reviewed."

However, here is the review I tried to post:

//////// Review Start //////////////

As a 74 year old retired Air Force combat veteran who flew F-4 Phantoms over the skies of North Vietnam, I have attended three of the formal survival schools that the Air Force operates. Also, I grew up in the woods of north Georgia hunting and fishing until I left for the outside world. Therefore, I feel that I can truthfully say that I have a fair knowledge of survival skills and outdoor wisdom.

With this background in mind, please believe me when I say that I was very impressed with Mr. Rinella's latest book and that I learned quite a lot from it. He writes clearly and knowledgeably about survival from the tropics to the arctic, and he skillfully incorporates his many personal experiences to illustrate his points. One item I really enjoyed was his liberal inclusion of experiences from many other experts in the outdoor arena, ranging from air rescue personnel to professional wilderness guides.

In short, I believe that anyone expecting to spend any time in the out of doors would benefit from reading this excellent book. It will be an investment well worth making.

//////// Review End //////////////

However, there is a separate issue I would like to raise with the author and his publisher. Throughout the book, the author repeatedly said "see page 000". I realize that my epub version was a pre-release version, so the page numbers had not been filled in yet. However, giving page number references for epubs is a very bad idea as hard page numbers really don't exist in epubs (except pdf files and all that I see offered are epubs such as Kindle). Epub references should instead be html links to the referenced section, because those will not change. Other than this technical issue, I was very pleased with the book.

Thanks,
Gene Dalrymple

Useful and sound techniques that help the backcountry novice and experienced backcountry traveler with a different approach and outlook on wilderness survival and adventure. Rinella and his contributors provide a fresh outlook on a tired subject.

People looking for a camping book will more likely choose something that contains lists. While this is a very comprehensive book for the serious outdoorsman, most are looking for something more basic.

A really down to earth and well thought out plan. Many different lists for each kind of plan you may execute. Some language, but really well laid out. Almost like talking to the author instead of reading a dry book. A lot of survival books, in my opinion are dry reading, this one was not.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

This book was done well. I like how it toggled between real examples as well as sources. The references to products and resources were helpful. It was organized well and allowed me to skip parts that werent relevant. I also appreciated the realism that this book was more for weekend warriors and things that often happen rather than unique scenarios. definitely a resource I will reference in the future

Everything you never thought you’d need to know is in this guide

I’m not into any extreme outdoor activities myself, but I enjoy the casual walks and hikes on existing trails. I still think there is a lot I learnt from this guide to help me out when planning and executing my next hike. However, this guide is definitely complete enough if you are thinking about more daring outdoor adventures!

I loved the author’s point of view on the subject and his personal experiences really helped illustrate a lot of the themes he tackles. It seems like he knows what he is talking about and learnt a lot by experience, or even trial-and-error; as he says so himself: “The greatest survival challenge you might encounter is the person staring back at you in the mirror.”

This is a very complete guide for anybody thinking of doing anything outdoors, from a small hike to a few weeks of surviving in the wild. I would recommend this to people looking for a good recent and up-to-date survival guide to the North American wilderness!

The Meateater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival is a general guide to wilderness and emergency survival skills presented by Steven Rinella. Due out 1st Dec 2020 from Random House, it's 512 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

For readers unfamiliar with the author, the title MeatEater refers to his online presence and brand. This is a general guide for emergency and self-sufficiency wilderness skills and is an impressively comprehensive treatment of the subject. The book is arranged in logical sections starting with what to pack and wear, securing water and food, avoiding being something else's dinner, securing shelter and staying warm, navigating in the wilderness, and medical/safety.

One of the most impressive parts of this guide is that besides being a comprehensive treatise on keeping body and soul physically moving and alive, the author also expends a great deal of effort talking about and illustrating the importance of psychological preparedness for survival - evaluating situations, minimizing (as much as possible) mistakes, and compensating for unforseeable situations which crop up.

This is probably the best overall survival guide I've ever seen. This would make a sensible addition to the smallholder's library, self-sufficiency folks, off-grid, campers/hikers/wilderness and the like. It would make an excellent gift for the outdoorsy folks as well. Very well written and accessible.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Despite the title, I think everyone, including those who are not meat eaters, should have this book. This book is so detailed, that even a beginner would find this useful if they were in a survival situation. I also love how love Steven Rinella debunks the common myths, that people including me believed. I had no idea moss didn’t just grow on the north side of trees. This would be a great gift for Christmas when it is published. I for sure will be buying a few copies.

I see that this book is due to be published on Dec. 1. Perfect. Go buy it for people you love. This is by far the best all around first aid-survival-what am I going to do now-book. The advice is solid and comes complete with excellent illustrations that work fine on kindle and simple step by step guidance.
How often to you see or hear "apply pressure to the wound" when someone is bleeding out? Here you get simple instructions (with illustration) on how to pack the wound, with what, and why you must pack the would. It's a technique called "stop the bleed" and it saves lives. This was just one highlight for me.
How about sucking rattlesnake venom out of the bite (nope, don't do that)? What should you pack if you're going into the bush, camping, taking a hike, or maybe even driving across 100 miles of nothing. How do you find safe water? Gather food? What about bites, stings, snakes, lions and bears? Staying warm, dry and sheltered?
Finding your way without getting lost....or more lost? Lastly, the Medical and Safety chapter the covers pretty much everything you can think of. Throughout the book are interesting and entertaining anecdotes of the author's experiences told with a nice touch of humor and wisdom. I highly recommend The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival! #netgalley #TheMeatEaterGuidetoWildernessSkillsandSurvival.