How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter, and Self-Preservation that Makes Starvation in the Wilderness Next to Impossible

The last time I flew, I remember looking down periodically at the landscape below, marking the water, the mountains, and overall terrain. I would also ask the stewardess where we were over periodically for point of reference. I was not worried that the plane would go down, but I knew after reading this book, that if it had and I actually survived that I would have a better chance than normal of surviving as long as I remembered key things.
Author Bradford Angier originally published this book as "Living off the Country: How to Stay Alive in the Woods" in 1956 and carries the language of the time. Sentences and paragraphs are formal and to the point.

Have you ever wondered what you would do and how you would survive if you found yourself lost in the woods? This book covers 285 pages in its paperback form on everything you would need to know. For anybody who is the survivalist type or you just have always wondered how is staying alive when lost in the woods with very little or no supplies possible, this book is a must read. After reading it, I personally recommend that each person in your party have one on their persons as a reference when hiking, camping, skiing, day hiking, backpacking, or even just traveling.

The book is broken down into 26 chapters in four parts ranked for priority and reference: substance, warmth, orientation and safety. Each chapter is evenly spaced and relatively easy to read. The author includes pictures, patterns, and speaks in detail about food finding, water, shelter and first aid.

He discusses candidly about prevention of getting into these situations to begin with but if you ever find yourself in one, it can obviously mean life or death trying to escape it. It's obviously much better to be well versed in these techniques just so you have the knowledge of it and hopefully you will never have to use it.

This book is not a quick broken down version of survival techniques you may find in any local bookstore. This book is jam packed with detailed information on how to survive in just about every capacity you can think of if you are lost and have no supplies or little supplies, regardless of how you found yourself in that situation.

He goes into how to do this despite any unforeseen weather such as drenching down pours to even unexpected snow, snow shelters and quick shelters in the woods. Consistently throughout the pages, Angier details priorities given the particular situation he is discussing in a "if this is the condition, you need to do this kind of shelter if available then concentrate on food" type fashion and when its visa-versa he will tell you. Reading the entire book, the reader begins to get and instinctive feel for priorities depending on the given situation.

It needs to be known that no one book can contain all the material necessary for survival, neither can just by reading it will ensure ones survival if lost in the woods. However, if a person is only going to have one survival book in their home library, this is the one I would not be without.