This book not only addresses survival skills but also the mental skills and resilience needed in a survival situation. This would be a great book for Eagle Scouts!

This is not your usual survival guide. It is not a deep dive into details of shelter-building and fire-making. This guide addresses the most important issue, the psychology of survival. Who survives and why.

The author uses anecdotes about people who survived in various situations to demonstrate the concepts. Some made it and some did not. The cases provide real-world examples of what works in survival situations. Some of the stories are harrowing! I can’t even imagine some of the circumstances, but people survived!

I liked that this is a book that goes beyond just the physical survival skills. The attitude of the survivalist is just as important as mastery of the skills. If you don't have the proper attitude, you're likely not to be able to perform the skills or survive very well. You might make fatal mistakes, or make errors in judgement that could be costly. I think this guide should be essential reading for anyone who has any sort of conflicts in life, which includes us all! The tips the author gives apply to normal, daily life just as well as they apply to survival situations. It’s just plain good advice.

I highly recommend this book to anyone.

If we are lucky, most of us will probably never have a use for some of the survival skills in this book. However, besides making detailed plans in case you are ever the survivor of an airplane crash in a remote location, or get lost while hiking, the author, John Hudson, tells you how some of the skills he talks about are useful in everyday life such as making sure you have plotted several different tactics in case one doesn't work out.

This is not a dry, boring just the facts please. John has added real life experiences from others and also talks about his own life and work training people to be prepared.

The book is written by an expert, and would definitely benefit anyone.

How to Survive isn't your typical survival book. While it's got some things that you would find in your "Dummies Guide To Survival" kinds of books like how to build a fire or how to build an igloo it's less of a how-to book and more of a book on how survival psychology works and why you need to do certain things to not just survive being marooned on a deserted island but also to make it through the stresses of everyday life.

Written by RAF survival instructor (and the British Dude on "Dude, You're Screwed" which aired on Discovery way back when), John Hudson breaks down why you need to train yourself to react. How to handle panic attacks. How to handle things like, oh say, a global pandemic that locks down your city/state. It's a book on psychology but a practical book that's filled with anecdotes featuring people who survived but also those who didn't and it analyzes what they did right and what they did wrong and how you can apply that to your standard life.

The book is laid out in a logical manner, centering around anecdotes and stories from history as a framing device and learning module. I found it easy to follow, and I also appreciated the bullet points at the end that were essentially a TL:DR for the chapter. It reminded me in some ways of a textbook, which makes sense considering what the author does for a living.

It's a book that as I read I could see a lot of value it. It answers a core question: Why. Why study survival? Why prepare for the worst case scenario? Why carry a few small supplies, just in case. Why do things in a certain order. Etc. I've already recommended it to a few people who I've seen not be able to handle something unexpected or panic in several situations. Or those who I've seen get overwhelmed by life and trying to figure out how to triage things.

Additionally as an editor, I also would recommend this book for people who are interested in writing characters dealing with a survival situation. Knowing how an everyday person vs. a trained person reacts can be invaluable in creating believable scenarios and characterizations. This extends beyond the action/adventure genre but also into sci-fi, fantasy, YA, paranormal, urban fantasy, and even Romantic Suspense.

I fully enjoyed this book

And so because of that I give this:

Five Stars

I really wish this was out before Christmas because I would happily wrap 3 of these copies for my family. With the world in its current state How to Survive provides readers old and young with some direction and guidance on how to survive through the shit life throws at you and thrive.

I love it. I was expecting "how to build a fire" and got "how to get through the shittiest times in real life". It is now required reading for both of my children and I will probably pester my husband until he reads it too.

Hudson walks you through several life AND death situations and delves in to the reasons people survive or don't survive in the most positive way you could imagine. It's all in your head.