Superb Book on The Basics

When All Hell Breaks Lose, by Cody Lundin


If you can get through the first 30 or so pages of Cody Lundin's When All Hell Breaks Loose, which has a large amount of new age pop psychology in it, you'll find that the rest of the book has some very valuable information. Lundin runs a wilderness survival school in Arizona, and has a great deal of practical field experience to share with survivors of all environments. I found two sections particularly fascinating -- the section on purifying water and the section on heating homes using passive solar design. Lundin is highly practical when not waxing philosophical -- he takes everyday materials and shows you some practical survival uses for them. But the tips extend to all kinds of things, and he is unafraid to talk about things that other people don't consider or discuss -- practical field sanitation and disposal of human waste, burying the dead, how to cook and serve rat, how to open cans without a can opener -- there are literally hundreds of items in here that could have practical application in a grid down or disaster scenario. The information is presented in a humorous way -- Lundin does not take himself too seriously -- and is full of little illustrations and summaries that make his point. I highly recommend this book. It is like a Boy Scout survival manual that never got edited to remove the controversial content. Well worth the price.