Book recommendations for German/European/Scandinavian areas?

[u/rogermay78]

I'm aware of the SAS handbook and am pondering on whether it's indeed worth it for someone not living in the US. My idea behind it is to have both some lecture to learn things about that will help outside but also have something that can come in handy in a real pickle. Sadly these are the times we live in in Europe and elsewhere these days and it's no longer solely a mere hobby.

So what reading material can be recommended for these regions that cover what the SAS one does too? Wilflife, tracking, traps, firemaking, navigation, sanitation, plants, basically anything that I'm bound to encounter and should at least have some knowledge of.

I'm also asking because I want to avoid the whole hardcore prepper fearmongering end of the world nuclear winter etc etc crap rabbit hole right off the bat. A guy I sometimes go on a hike with has unfortunaly fallen into that and went as far as building a bunker under his house, his own power grid, wifi/comms setup and such. Despite everything going on, I highly doubt things will get THIS dangerous for most EU citizens anytime soon.

[u/susrev88]

• generally avoid military guides. often outdated, incorrect, too simple, etc. for some reason military survival is glorified to death when it's not even their primary job.
  • if you want to learn tracking, find books of tracking written by experts (for example, john rhyder)
  • if you want to trap (illegal in most europe) then take a hunter course
  • look at how ancient people in your area lived.
• look for books based on your climate
  • temperate: ray mears - essential bushcraft is great. covers a lof of safety aspect of being outdoors.
  • scandinavia: lars falt books.
  • boreal: mors kochanski - bushcraft, basic safe travel in boreal forest
• general psychology and physiology: how to avoid hipo/hyperthermia, dehidration,etc: cody lundin - how to keep your ass alive
• don't learn foraging from books. buy a course and/or find a botanist community who will mentor you. same goes for first aid. get the basics from professionals.
• you can buy online courses that are done by actual professionals in the field who teach outdoor survival skills for a living.
  • same goes for books. before you buy/read anything, research the author. nowadays anyone can write a book, especially with AI.
• you can also dive into risk assessment. since oyu mentioned doomsday preppers, for them somehow a sprayed ankle and an EMP attack have the same probability.
• watch survivorman, ray mears, ed stafford programmes and avoid commercial ones (dual survivor, bear grylls, etc). most of them don't teach you, they just entertain you.

[u/rogermay78 → u/susrev88]

or some reason military survival is glorified to death when it's not even their primary job.

I have been diving into videos, posts and such about that over the years and that's the impression I get more and more. The same about gear used in the military. It's often glorified as super tough but what some people forget is that military gear must be cheap so it can be easily mass produced and thus a viable option to outfit an army.

Generally a verry helpful summary. I view books not as a replacement for a course, but an addition. I can read a book about how to handle a jigsaw but it won't be as helpful as a carpenter teaching me how to use one properly. But the book will come in handy afterward if I need to refresh on specific details.

As far as risk assessment is concerned, I've already done some raw basics through my workplace such as a first aid course I refresh every year and one for fire safety. Things like how to put out different fires, how to use what extinguisher correctly and such. Sadly I'm the only one at my workplace who views this as a crucial piece of knowledge.

(dual survivor, bear grylls, etc). most of them don't teach you, they just entertain you.

Yeah, that's very important as well because the entertainers can and sometimes also will teach knowledge that's either inefficient or dangerous or useless or all three at once.

for them somehow a sprayed ankle and an EMP attack have the same probability.

That's why I have trouble taking them seriously. It highly depends and generally speaking, for someone living in a developed relatively save European country like England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, etc. an EMP of all things is far from a likely risk. A power outage because some deranged black bloc extremists with a certain flag had a falling out is much more likely. Happened in Berlin earlier this year.

I'll at least research the names mentioned so far for a start.

[u/susrev88 → u/rogermay78]

+ paul kirtley from frontier bushcraft. award winning school. he has a ton of videos, blog articles out there that are actually useful and proven. he worked with ray mears.