Survive! By Les Stroud

I've had the fortunate opportunity to read Les Stroud's survival book titled "Survive!" And I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Les covers a lot of important aspects to survival such as the mental challenges that you'll face. He continues throughout the entire book to remind you that it doesn't matter how skilled and strong you are, if you're defeated mentally, you will not survive. He goes over many important skills such as:

• Shelter Building
• Water Procurement
• Food Hunting and Gathering
• Fire Building
• Navigation
• Signaling for help

And many other skills that are necessary. Most importantly he provides the information based on your location, because skills in the tropics may not necessarily work in the arctic. The book is very well laid out and I think a must for any survivalist library. Les also preaches one of the most important messages in survival, a message that people like Bear Grylls leaves out in his show because his show is meant for entertainment. Don't do things that you don't have to do. Don't run if you can walk, don't walk if you can stand, don't stand if you can sit, and don't sit if you can lay down. Les reminds you of how grave an injury can be in a survival situation, and to not do running leaps across gorges, like you might see other television survivalists do (ahem).

This is a very well put together book and I'm happy to have read it. Yes, the book covers many things you've seen or heard before, but that's because those are tried and true tactics. This book is fantastic and I highly suggest it!