field guides

This book really isn't very useful, especially for anyone living outside the southwestern desert. Mr. Olsen wrote the outdoor survival merit badge requirements for the boy scouts, and this is indicative of how the book reads. Most of the information is nice to know and even interesting at times, but it gets silly at points and is more historical in nature than anything. This book might be a good read for those interested in how people survived off the land in the distant past, but offers nothing in terms of modern survival skills. I believe that anyone interested in actually surviving in the wilderness would be better off looking elsewhere. I was disappointed.

This book is meant for the survival enthusiest. I.e. someone who likes to go out and intentionally spend weeks at a time living off the land. For them, this is a good book.

It is NOT useful for hikers/backpackers/boaters etc. who are worried that if they get lost or stuck they need survival skills to last until rescued.

It has a information on topics such as building a bow and arrow, setting trap lines of 100-200 traps, making stone tools, and tanning hide (all things that require considerable time, energy, and practice). What it does not have is any information on getting rescued - not even a mention of what makes a good distress signal.

I haven't read many survival books, but if you're looking for a "survive until rescued" book check out The Complete Book of Outdoor Survival by J. Wayne Fears.

I have read many survival books including: Wilderness Survival; the October 1970 edition of the Army Feild Manual; Living off the Country;Tom Brown's Feild Guide to Wilderness Survival;and this one as well as many others. Aside from Tom Brown's feild guide, this book is definately one of the best I have read. I would rate Tom Brown's feild guide higher than this one, but the two together make a great pair. Both cover topics such as the four great needs: shelter, water, fire, and food, as well as weapons, edible plants and animals et cetera, but they both explain different techniques and different ways of doing the above mentioned topics. The back of this book has color photos of many plants that are edible.
I strongly reccommend buying both books, they are very similar yet you can learn more from both than you can from just one.
If you don't wan't both then I reccommend Tom Brown's Guide. Either way you go, try to use your library and the internet in conjunction with the books.