There have been a few times while hiking or camping where I’ll slip near an edge or start to question the direction I’ve been going thinking briefly that I might be lost. In those moments it’s never my life that flashes before my eyes. No, it’s every wilderness survival or medicine book I thought about picking up but never did.
Well, after making this list those books will still probably flash in my brain, but this time, it won’t just be their covers.
Below you will find the top 34 wilderness survival books that appeared multiple times on the 22 sources we consulted. You can also find over 100 additional books at the bottom of the page that all appear on a single list.
Happy scrolling!
Revised to reflect the latest in survival knowledge and technology, and covering new topics such as urban survival and terrorism, the internationally bestselling SAS Survival Handbookis the definitive resource for all campers, hikers, and outdoor adventurers. From basic campcraft and navigation to fear management and strategies for coping with any type of disaster, this complete course includes:
Laurence Gonzalez combines hard science and powerful storytelling to illustrate the mysteries of survival, whether in the wilderness or in meeting any of life’s great challenges. This gripping narrative, the first book to describe the art and science of survival, will change the way you see the world. Everyone has a mountain to climb. Everyone has a wilderness inside.
This is not your father’s scout manual or a sterile FEMA handout. It entertains as it informs, describing how to maximize a survival mind-set necessary for self-reliance. According to the book, living through an emergency scenario is 90 percent psychology, and 10 percent methodology and gear. Relevant quotes and tips are placed throughout the pages to help readers remember important survival strategies while under stress and anxiety. Lundin also addresses basic first aid and hygiene skills and makes recommendations for survival kit items for the home, office, and car.
Cody Lundin, director of the Aboriginal Living Skills School in Prescott, Arizona, shares his own brand of wilderness wisdom in this highly anticipated new book on commonsense, modern survival skills for the backcountry, the backyard, or the highway. This book is about how to stay alive-based on the principle of keeping the body’s core temperature at a lively 98.6 degrees.
Broken down into four essential sections, Sustenance, Warmth, Orientation and Safety, this enlightening guide reveals how to catch game without a gun, what plants to eat (full-color illustrations of these make identification simple), how to build a warm shelter, make clothing, protect yourself and signal for help. Detailed illustrations and expanded instructions, newly commissioned for this deluxe edition, offer crucial information at a glance, making How to Stay Alive in the Woods truly a lifesaver.
More than 300 of the author’s own illustrations and a clear, easy-to-follow text enable campers to create such lodgings as half-cave shelters, beaver mat huts, birch bark shacks, over-water camps, a Navajo hogan, and a pole house. Additional chapters provide information on how to use an axe, split and notch logs, make a fireplace, and even build appropriate gateways to log houses, game preserves, ranches, and other open areas.
From the sun-scorched sands of the Kalahari to the snake-infested jungles of the Amazon, Les Stroud has made a life of surviving in the harshest—and most remote—regions on Earth.
The most proven and field tested military techniques, documented by the U.S military and used for official training, The U.S. Army Survival Manual provides step by step instruction and illustrations for surviving outdoors–survival skills every soldier, climber, hiker, and hunter should know.
This historical guide, originally written in 1945, includes information on making fires, canoeing, using axes and knives, and crafting shelters from hand-gathered materials. Readers also learn about clothing, gear, and useful plants. This book also is an account of life in the 1800s, when survival in the wild depended on one’s skill and ingenuity.
More than 370 edible wild plants, plus 37 poisonous look-alikes, are described here, with 400 drawings and 78 color photographs showing precisely how to recognize each species. Also included are habitat descriptions, lists of plants by season, and preparation instructions for 22 different food uses.
Anyone who wants to learn basic living skills—the kind employed by our forefathers—and adapt them for a better life in the twenty-first century need look no further than this eminently useful, full-color guide. Countless readers have turned to Back to Basics for inspiration and instruction, escaping to an era before power saws and fast food restaurants and rediscovering the pleasures and challenges of a healthier, greener, and more self-sufficient lifestyle.
This book shows you how to create a self-contained disaster preparedness kit to help you survive your journey from ground zero to a safer location. Survival expert Creek Stewart details from start to finish everything you need to gather for 72 hours of independent survival–water, food, protection, shelter, survival tools, and so much more.
Written by survivalist expert Dave Canterbury, “Bushcraft 101” gets you ready for your next backcountry trip with advice on making the most of your time outdoors. Based on the 5Cs of Survivability–cutting tools, covering, combustion devices, containers, and cordages–this valuable guide offers only the most important survival skills to help you craft resources from your surroundings and truly experience the beauty and thrill of the wilderness.
Clear instructions, extensive use of diagrams, and a full color photo supplement detail all the practical skills and knowledge essential for surviving and enjoying the wilderness. Includes basic instructions for lighting and maintaining a fire, chopping wood and felling trees, creating a warm shelter, using knives and axes safely, finding plants and animals important for survival, cooking in the outdoors, and making tools, ropes, baskets, and more from plant materials.
The perfect home-reference book for both seasoned outdoorsman and average citizens to learn comprehensive outdoor survival techniques. Includes illustrated instruction on shelter and water, food and fire, tools and medicine, navigation and signaling, and survival psychology. Hawke’s engaging style and matter-of-fact attitude—not to mention his incredible resume in the survival arena—elevates this book above its competition.
In How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It, James Rawles, founder of SurvivalBlog.com, clearly explains everything you need to know to protect yourself and your family in the event of a disaster-from radical currency devaluation to a nuclear threat to a hurricane. Rawles shares essential tactics and techniques for surviving completely on your own, including how much food is enough, how to filter rainwater, how to protect your money, which seeds to buy for your garden, why goats are a smart choice for livestock, and how to secure your home. It’s the ultimate guide to total preparedness and self-reliance in a time of need.
This book is an in depth “how-to” of outdoor primitive skills.
The Modern Survival Manual is based on first hand experience of the 2001 Economic Collapse in Argentina. In it you will find a variety of subjects that the author considers essential if a person wants to be prepared for tougher times: -How to prepare your family, yourself, your home and your vehicle -How to prepare your finances so that you don’t suffer what millions in my country went through -How to prepare your supplies for food shortages and power failures -How to correctly fight with a chair, gun, knife, pen or choke with your bare hands if required -Most important, how to reach a good awareness level so that you can avoid having to do all that These are just a few examples of what you will find in this book. It’s about Attitude, and being a more capable person and get the politically correct wimp out of your system completely.
Among a myriad of outdoor skills, it teaches readers how to make shelters, find water, and spot, catch, and cook wild food. And if there’s an emergency, it shows which essential first-aid techniques to use when, how to mount a rescue, and even how to get yourself found. Now in Paperback!
If you had to deal with an injury or illness in a disaster, would you know what to do? The Survival Medicine Handbook is a 670 page detailed guide for those who want to be medically prepared for any disaster where help is NOT on the way. This book is written by Joe Alton, M.D. and Amy Alton, A.R.N.P., the premiere medical preparedness professionals from the top ten survival website www.doomandbloom.net. The expanded third edition of the 3 category Amazon bestseller (Survival Skills, Disaster Relief, Safety/First Aid) is geared to enable the non-medical professional to deal with all the likely issues they will encounter in catastrophic short or long-term scenarios. The third (2016) edition of The Survival Medicine Handbook is not your standard first aid book: Unlike other so-called “survival” medical books, it assumes that a disaster, natural or man-made, has removed all access to hospitals or doctors for the foreseeable future; you, the average person, are now the highest medical resource left to your family. The Survival Medicine Handbook will give you the tools, in plain English, to competently handle injuries and illness for any situation that leaves you as the end of the line with regards to your family’s medical well-being.
Here, in one essential volume, are the basics of wilderness survival. The most ancient and important skills, preserved for generations, are presented in a simple, easy-to-use format with clear illustrations and instructions. A complete must-have companion to the great outdoors.
With concise explanations and detailed illustrations, survival expert Gregory Davenport covers the five basic elements of survival–personal protection, signaling, finding food and water, travel, and health–providing the reader with complete information on how to stay calm and alive until rescue arrives.
“The Ultimate Outdoors Book” with 31 chapters of well researched camping and survival techniques. This guide covers everything from fire making to first aid, building shelters, winter travel and much more.
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present—and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent’s divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self pity, or despair—it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.
The gripping story of young Karana, who survives by herself for eighteen years on a deserted island off the California coast.
A #1 London Sunday Times Bestseller, Mud, Sweat, and Tearsis the adrenaline-fueled autobiography of the mega-popular star of the hit survival series Man Vs. Wild, adventurer Bear Grylls. A former British Special Forces commando, a man who has always sought the ultimate in dangerous challenges, Bear’s true story reads like an outdoors action and adventure novel. But Bear’s story is true—full of breathtaking escapes and remarkable exploits that would make any Jack London or H. Ryder Haggard hero proud.
In 1959, Jean Craighead George published My Side of the Mountain. This coming-of-age story about a boy and his falcon went on to win a Newbery Honor, and for the past forty years has enthralled and entertained generations of would-be Sam Gribleys.
Outdoor Survival Skills has taught three generations of wilderness adventurers how to survive in nature without expensive purchased equipment, instead drawing on knowledge of the land and carefully tested techniques, many of them ancient, for finding or creating shelter, fire, tools, water, and plant and animal foods. In this new edition, anecdotes from the author’s lifetime of experience provide thrilling examples of the skills and attitudes that ensure survival outdoors.
The preparation you make for a hurricane, earthquake or other short-term disaster will not keep you alive in the event of widespread social collapse caused by pandemic, failure of the grid or other long-term crises. Government pamphlets and other prepping books tell you how to hold out through an emergency until services are restored. This book teaches you how to survive when nothing returns to normal for weeks, months or even years
The bestselling resource for modern homesteading, growing and preserving foods, and raising chickens, The Encyclopedia of Country Living includes how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, can peaches, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, catch a pig, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more. This comprehensive resource is the most authoritative guide available to a sustainable lifestyle and living off of the land.
The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two company men are dispatched to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies. When the men abandon him instead, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out, crawling at first, across hundreds of miles of uncharted American frontier. Based on a true story, The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.
Although he faces responsibility bravely, thirteen-year-old Matt is more than a little apprehensive when his father leaves him alone to guard their new cabin in the wilderness. When a renegade white stranger steals his gun, Matt realizes he has no way to shoot game or to protect himself. When Matt meets Attean, a boy in the Beaver clan, he begins to better understand their way of life and their growing problem in adapting to the white man and the changing frontier.
Here for the first time in one place is everything you need to know about modern military combat. Drawn from dozens of the U.S. Army’s well-written field manuals on every conceivable aspect of conducting combat operations, this huge compendium contains everything for any combatant anywhere—armed or unarmed and in all conditions and terrains
With Dr. William Forgey’s comprehensive Wilderness Medicine: Beyond First Aid in hand, you can recognize, assess, and treat many kinds of medical emergencies. This fully revised and updated, illustrated text is essential reading for anyone from trip leaders, guides, and search and rescue groups to EMTs, paramedics, and physicians who must provide immediate care when access to a medical facility is difficult or impossible. Learn how to survey, assess, and stabilize the victim and the medical situation, what questions to ask to gain necessary vital information, how to manage physical symptoms as well as care for wounds and orthopedic injuries and much more.
| 100 DEADLY SKILLS | Clint Emerson | Jebiga |
| A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs | Io9 | |
| A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game | Wilbur F. Easton | Io9 |
| A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There: With Other Essays on Conservation from Round River | Aldo Leopold | Nevada Wilderness |
| Abbey’s Road | Edward Abbey | Nevada Wilderness |
| Adventures With Ed: A Portrait of Abbey | Jack Loeffler | Nevada Wilderness |
| Alabama Moon | Watt Key | What Should I Read Next? |
| Aldo Leopold and an Ecological Conscience | Richard L. Knight and Suzanne Riedel | Nevada Wilderness |
| Baby Island | Carol Ryrie Brink | BuzzFeed |
| Battle Royale: The Novel | Koushun Takami | What Should I Read Next? |
| Be Ready When The Sh*t Goes Down | Forrest Griffin | Outdoor Life |
| Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It’s Too Late | Scott B. Williams | More Than Just Surviving |
| Cache Lake Country | John J. Rowlands | Trails |
| Call It Courage | Armstrong Sperry | BuzzFeed |
| Call of the Wild | Jack London | Nevada Wilderness |
| CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT | Jebiga | |
| Camping and Woodcraft | Horace Kephart | Brain Tan |
| Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival | Max Velocity | More Than Just Surviving |
| Daughter of the Mountains | Louise Rankin | BuzzFeed |
| Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park | Lee H. Whittlesey | Barnes & Noble |
| Deliverance | James Dickey | What Should I Read Next? |
| Desert Solitaire | Edward Abbey | Nevada Wilderness |
| Ditch Medicine : Advanced Field Procedures for Emergencies | Hugh L. Coffee | Io9 |
| Downriver | Will Hobbs | What Should I Read Next? |
| Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide | Thomas Elias | Active |
| Emergency Preparedness The Right Way | Urban Survival Site | |
| Emergency War Surgery: The Survivalist’s Medical Desk Reference | Department of Defense | Ms Prepper |
| Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life | Neil Strauss | Survival Cache |
| Encyclopedia of Outdoor and Wilderness Skills, | Chris Townsend and Annie M. Aggens | Nevada Wilderness |
| Everyday Survival Kits | Mark Puhaly | Survival Cache |
| Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass | Harold Gatty | Active |
| Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men | Carl P. Russell | Big Sky Words |
| Foraging: A Beginner’s Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants | Jill B. | Ms Prepper |
| Foxfire Books | Io9 | |
| Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family | Urban Survival Site | |
| Hayduke Lives: A Novel | Edward Abbey | Nevada Wilderness |
| Heartsblood – Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America | David Petersen | Nevada Wilderness |
| Holding Your Ground: Preparing for Defense if it All Falls Apart | Joe Nobody | More Than Just Surviving |
| How to Survive Anything, Anywhere | Urban Survival Site | |
| HOW TO SURVIVE ANYTHING: FROM ANIMAL ATTACKS TO THE END OF THE WORLD | Jebiga | |
| Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places | Offgrid Survival | |
| Incident at Hawk’s Hill | Allan W. Eckert | BuzzFeed |
| Into the Forest | Jean Hegland | What Should I Read Next? |
| Julie of the Wolves | Jean Craighead George | BuzzFeed |
| Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient when the Unexpected Happens | Urban Survival Site | |
| Listening to Cougar | Marc Bekoff and Cara Blessley Lowe | Barnes & Noble |
| Living Ready Pocket Manual – First Aid | James Hubbard | Ms Prepper |
| Mountaineering First Aid | Jan Carline, Martha Lentz, and Steven Macdonald | Outdoor Life |
| Mountainman Crafts & Skills: A Fully Illustrated Guide To Wilderness Living And Survival | David Montgomery | Big Sky Words |
| Naked Into the Wilderness | John & Geri McPherson | Brain Tan |
| National Geographic Complete Survival Manual | Slate | |
| Northern Bushcraft | Mors Kochanski | Outdoor Life |
| Nuclear War Survival Skills: Updated and Expanded | Urban Survival Site | |
| On the Far Side of the Mountain | Jean Craighead George | What Should I Read Next? |
| One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey | Richard Proenneke, Sam Keith | What Should I Read Next? |
| OUTDOOR LIFE – The Ultimate Survival Manual – 333 SKILLS That Will Get YOU Out Alive | Simon & Schuster | More Than Just Surviving |
| Patriot Dawn | Max Velocity | Survival Cache |
| Poor Man’s Wilderness Survival Kit: Assembling Your Emergency Gear for Little or No Money | James Ballou | Ms Prepper |
| PREPPER’S HOME DEFENSE | Jebiga | |
| Prepper’s Instruction Manual: 50 Steps to Prepare for any Disaster | Prep For SHTF | |
| Resist Much, Obey Little: Remembering Ed Abbey | James Hepworth and Gregory McNamee | Nevada Wilderness |
| Rich Johnson’s Guide to Wilderness Survival | LiveStrong | |
| Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables | Mike and Nancy Bubel | Io9 |
| Soul Among Lions: The Cougar as Peaceful Adversary | Harley G. Shaw | Nevada Wilderness |
| Strategic Relocation: North America Guide to Safe Places, 3rd Edition | Prep For SHTF | |
| Survival Poaching | Ragnar Benson | Big Sky Words |
| Survival Wisdom & Know How: Everything You Need to Know to Subsist in the Wilderness | the editors of Stackpole Books | More Than Just Surviving |
| Surviving When Modern Medicine Fails | Scott A. Johnson | Ms Prepper |
| Swallows and Amazons | Arthur Ransome | BuzzFeed |
| THE ART OF EATING THROUGH THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE | Jebiga | |
| The Black Stallion | Walter Farley | BuzzFeed |
| The Brief History of the Dead | Kevin Brockmeier | What Should I Read Next? |
| The Building Blocks to Rebuild Civilization | Io9 | |
| The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game | Prep For SHTF | |
| The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook: Keep your Loved Ones Healthy in Every Disaster, from Wildfires to a Complete Societal Collapse | Joseph Alton | More Than Just Surviving |
| The Doomsday Book of Medicine | Prep For SHTF | |
| The End of Nature: Tenth Anniversary Edition | Bill McKibben | Nevada Wilderness |
| The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries | Curt Meine and Richard L. Knight | Nevada Wilderness |
| The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants | Prep For SHTF | |
| The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence | Gavin de Becker | More Than Just Surviving |
| The Girl Who Owned a City (Laurel-Leaf Science Fiction) | O T Nelson | What Should I Read Next? |
| THE HUNTING AND GATHERING SURVIVAL MANUAL | Jebiga | |
| The Last American Man | Elizabeth Gilbert | What Should I Read Next? |
| The Monkey Wrench Gang | Edward Abbey | Nevada Wilderness |
| The New Self-Sufficient Gardener | John Seymour | Io9 |
| The Outward Bound Wilderness First-Aid Handbook | Jeffrey Isaac | Outdoor Life |
| The Prepper’s Pocket Guide: 101 Easy Things You Can Do to Ready Your Home for a Disaster | Prep For SHTF | |
| The River | Gary Paulsen | What Should I Read Next? |
| The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality | Belden C. Lane | Nevada Wilderness |
| The Trapper’s Bible: Traps, Snares & Pathguards | Dale Martin | Io9 |
| The Ultimate Man’s Survival Guide: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Manhood | Frank Miniter | More Than Just Surviving |
| The Ultimate Situational Survival Guide: Self-Reliance Strategies for a Dangerous World | Offgrid Survival | |
| THE ULTIMATE SURVIVAL MANUAL | Jebiga | |
| The Wild Within | Paul Rezendes | Nevada Wilderness |
| The Wilding | Benjamin Percy | Barnes & Noble |
| The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook | Joshua Piven | More Than Just Surviving |
| THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE: COMPLETE PROTECTION FROM THE LIVING DEAD | Jebiga | |
| This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment | Roger S. Gottlieb | Nevada Wilderness |
| Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign | Paul Rezendes | Nevada Wilderness |
| U.S. Air Force Survival Handbook | U.S. Air Force | Alderleaf |
| Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living | John and Geri McPherson | LiveStrong |
| US Army Field Survival | Io9 | |
| Walden and Civil Disobedience | Henry David Thoreau | Nevada Wilderness |
| White Fang | Jack London | Nevada Wilderness |
| Wilderness A-Z: An essential guide to the Great Outdoors | Rachel Carley | Nevada Wilderness |
| Wilderness and the American Mind, Fourth Edition | Roderick Nash | Nevada Wilderness |
| Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness, Special Edition, with an Appreciation of Guy Waterman | Laura Waterman and Guy Waterman | Nevada Wilderness |
| Wilderness Survival for Dummies | LiveStrong | |
| Wilderness Survival Handbook | Michael Pewtherer | Alderleaf |
| Wilderness Survival: Living off the Land with the Clothes on Your Back and the Knife on Your Belt | Mark Elbroch and Mike Pewtherer | Alderleaf |
| Will to Live | Les Stroud | Survival Cache |
| Woodcraft and Indian Lore | Ernest Thompson Seton | Slate |
| Woodsmoke | Richard & Linda Jamison | Brain Tan |
| Your Survival | Bob Arnot and Mark Cohen | Outdoor Life |
| Z for Zachariah | Robert C O’Brien | What Should I Read Next? |
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