Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life
by Neil Strauss
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Book Reviews of Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life
Book Review: A lot of people seem to have read this book but not gotten it
Summary: 5 Stars
The reviews for Emergency seem to be clearly split between people who found it valuable and people who didn't. Those who didn't seem to fall into two groups. The first group that didn't like it bought the book because they bought The Game and they apparently thought that because they liked a book on learning to pick up girls, they'll like a story of becoming a self-reliant individual (with predictable results; i.e. they didn't). If you loved The Game, that appears to not a good reason to buy this book; it's very different. The second group that didn't like it expected it to be packed with techniques that magically transform them into someone who is survival-competent. I understand a little more why they feel this, as the publisher's cover blurbs skew that way, but a basic flip-through would tell you that it is not that kind of book; it is, instead, a story of transformation. I'll have more to say to you guys a little later.
The people who did like it likely already care about, and know some things about, survival. As one of those people, let me explain why it is a seriously good book: survival is a mentality, a way of looking at the world - backed up by a rich set of basic skills. There is no coffee-table book that is going to make you a good shot, a good lock-picker, good in a crisis, a good EMT, good at managing financial risk, etc. Those are deep skills and you get them reading many books, going to classes, spending time in the field or dojo or gun range - i.e. by doing the work. Expecting a book to make you a good survivalist is like reading a book by a karate master and expecting to fight like one at the end. It's not going to happen like that. You need to do the work. The value in a book about someone's journey from novice to expert is that it tells you *where to spend your time*. When Neil tells you a story about how he was able, barely, for a half million dollars to get a St. Kitts citizenship as the door for second citizenship was closing, while narrowly avoiding being ripped off, the real message is that getting a second citizenship is not a viable path unless you already qualify for one. When he tells a story about how he structured asset protection and the company ends up getting investigated by the IRS, he's telling you that's a rat-hole and you can now avoid going down it. By the end, he realizes that he is by nature an urbanite and he's learning things that work for his environment, such as becoming an EMT and building relationships with the police. Viewed from that perspective, the book is excellent.
Book Review: offensive, but necessary information
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoyed this book, and what I learned from it is NOT what I expected.
First, a warning, there is profane language in the book - too much and in my opinion, it is very unnecessary.
"Emergency" details Neil's realization that he was NOT being kept safe by government and society, and that he DIDN'T have any skills to keep himself safe.
The first part of the book is a bunch of whining about how scary his life is, but in the second half, he goes out and GETS the skills that are necessary. He also gets EMT and other emergency response skills and has a major change of viewpoint about how to best survive.
He starts out by wanting to join the "survivalists" and the PT (perpetual travelers) and "bug-out" or leave if/when problems happen.
He ends up realizing that by being a productive part of the community he has the best chance of survival AND is the most fulfilled and happiest in day - to - day life.
In between he meets and learns from interesting characters such as Kurt Saxon and Tom Brown.
I was expecting to learn some skills from this book. I didn't. It gives you nice starting points and where to find stuff if you are just starting out, but is light on the actual skills taught.
More importantly however, it DOES give you a starting point and if you have never thought about emergency preparedness or survivalism before, it is a good introduction to the concepts.
And most importantly, it details the change in heart and thought of a politically left leaning city dwelling adult boy, into a man who has the confidence and skills to take care of himself and his loved ones in any crisis.
(I only bring up the "left leaning" because many of the people he approaches to learn from are on the opposite end of the political spectrum. It makes for some very entertaining exchanges. He doesn't preach politics and by the end of the book, the reader is left unsure of what his political leanings are. This is a good thing.)
Overall, unless you are offended by bad language (many instances of the "f" word), I recommend this book. It is a good overview of the emergency preparedness mindset, but more importantly, it teaches why and how to get life skills that can indeed save your life. Just don't expect this book to give you ALL the needed info. It is a great starting point. You will still have to get out, find other sources, practice, and basically DO what the author has done.
4 stars!
Book Review: Not a How-to, But A Why-to
Summary: 5 Stars
I became a "survivalist" in 1980 when Ronald Reagan got elected. As a newly registered Libertarian, I wasn't opposed to his politics so much as I KNEW he was going to get us into a nuclear war by the end of the decade. Good thing I was wrong.
But since then, I have bought hundreds of pounds of books on survival, emergency preparedness, primitive technologies, homesteading, etc. Just because TEOTWAWKI hasn't happened yet, TSHTF looms ever closer.
When I saw this book on a main table of my local chain bookstore, I perused it but almost didn't buy it because it was not like the books I was used to--there were no lists of supplies, no defined sections on food, water, shelter, etc, like I was used to seeing. But the back cover and this weird list of "survival" skills which intrigued me and I went ahead and bought it. I am so glad I did.
As some reviewers have noted, this book is not a how-to on preparedness. If you want a good one on that, check out Holly Deyo's "Dare To Prepare", that has all the info and lists to get you through any emergency you can imagine. It's very comprehensive and worth the money.
What Mr. Strauss has done is show us the "why-to" of preparedness and does it in an engaging style that reads like a novel. His journey from jaded, citified reporter writing on kooky millenium cults to an independent, self-reliant individual is an educational and highly entertaining read.
We are living in "interesting times" and it behooves us all to become less dependent on big bureaucracies and corporations and take more responsibility for ourselves. But Mr. Strauss does not advocate lone wolf survivalism, but encourages getting involved with your community. The end of his journey is inspiring and has lead me to talk more with my neighbors instead of just waving to them as I go by. And I have found they have the same concerns that I do and are replacing their ornamental plants with food plants just like I am, and for the same reasons.
IF you are already into this kind of thing, you will love this book. But it is also a great book for those who may be on the fence. I've pushed my copy on to my sister in hopes that she may take preparedness more seriously. If Neil Strauss doesn't convince her, then it is hopeless. But I think he will.
Book Review: Emergency
Summary: 5 Stars
The author is (it appears) a pop journalist and music critic who grew up in Chicago and lived the life of a hip urbanite there and in New York and Los Angeles. During the Y2K scare, working for the New York Times and looking for a story angle, he took an interest in survivalists. The book chronicles his own fear of danger and cataclysmic disaster and what he does and the training he undergoes to overcome those fears and prepare himself to survive an apocalypse. He begins in ignorance, incompetence and fear, and ends with knowledge, skill and self-assurance.
He pursues dual citizenship as part of a bugout plan; he meets Kurt Saxon and studies in Arizona with the knife maker Mad Dog, who teaches him how to butcher a goat; he learns handgun tactics at Gunsite and wilderness survival at Tom Brown's Tracker School; he is trained in Urban Evasion and Escape, obtains a concealed weapons permit and gets licensed as a security guard, thereby obtaining a permit to carry a firearm openly in California; and he gets certified in Red Cross First-Aid, then under CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), EMT, and CEMP (California Emergency Mobile Patrol).
The book is written to be entertaining; and the author, clearly a steadfast Democrat, is probably not telling the entire story of his inner life in relation to the topics covered in this book or of the degree of his immersion (was it fleeting or long lasting?) into the survivalist mentality. He mentions in passing, that along with now owning a Springfield XD 9mm pistol and his firearms training at Gunsite -
"This wouldn't be my last gun class. I would eventually purchase and learn to use a Remington 870 Wingmaster shotgun with a ventilated ribbed barrel and a model 700 [Remington] rifle with a Tasco Super Sniper scope.
"Thanks to Kurt Saxon, Mel Tappan, and Bruce Clayton, I'd become a gun nut. I'd become one of the guys I would have been too scared to hang out with on the millennial New Year." (218)
The book seems to conclude with him seeing his involvement with emergency response as the culmination of his quest and a way to find meaning and value in his own life. His quest, it seems, had not been about how to survive, but how to live.
Book Review: Informative, entertaining and timely...how prepared are you?
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed Neil Strauss's previous book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists and with this new book I have to admit I've become a fan of his writing. I bought this book for summer reading on the beach. I was looking for something fun and entertaining and the book did not disappoint. I finished it over two days, including my four hour flight time.
I am very interested in the subject matter, I mean, we all need to be somewhat prepared for disasters and tragedies both man-made and natural. This book is about preparedness. Everyone needs to be prepared to take care of themselves in a bad situation, which is what the author set out to do in the beginning of the book. Everyone should know how to shoot a gun, start a fire, find food and water and build a shelter. These are basic human skills we all need from time to time.
His efforts to acquire a second passport was funny and pointed out the difficulty of getting this more and more desirable document. It motivated me to start on the journey, although I don't think I would go as far as buying property in St. Kitts (although you never know).
I found it interesting that he was initially motivated by the actions of the Bush administration and that he expressed hope that things would improve under the Obama regime. I found that assumption funny since the loss of privacy and level of governmental intrusion seems to have only gotten worse in the past few months, with more to come it seems.
Also interesting was how he came full circle in regards to "fighting the system." He started out by trying to avoid and hide from the establishment but ended up becoming a part of it. The point he made (as I understood it) was that the best protection could be had by being a member than by being on the outside looking in.
For a fun, informative and entertaining look at how you can better prepare yourself for problems that may lie in the future. I highly recommend reading this book. If nothing else you will enjoy yourself. At best, you'll learn how you can start your own planning.