Emergency This Book Will Save Your Life

Neil Strauss

From Amazon.com: 

Terrorist attacks. Natural disasters. Domestic crackdowns. Economic collapse. Riots. Wars. Disease. Starvation.

What can you do when it all hits the fan?

You can learn to be self-sufficient and survive without the system.

**I've started to look at the world through apocalypse eyes.** So begins Neil Strauss's harrowing new book: his first full-length work since the international bestseller The Game, and one of the most original-and provocative-narratives of the year.

After the last few years of violence and terror, of ethnic and religious hatred, of tsunamis and hurricanes–and now of world financial meltdown–Strauss, like most of his generation, came to the sobering realization that, even in America, anything can happen. But rather than watch helplessly, he decided to do something about it. And so he spent three years traveling through a country that's lost its sense of safety, equipping himself with the tools necessary to save himself and his loved ones from an uncertain future.

With the same quick wit and eye for cultural trends that marked The Game, The Dirt, and How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, Emergency traces Neil's white-knuckled journey through today's heart of darkness, as he sets out to move his life offshore, test his skills in the wild, and remake himself as a gun-toting, plane-flying, government-defying survivor. It's a tale of paranoid fantasies and crippling doubts, of shady lawyers and dangerous cult leaders, of billionaire gun nuts and survivalist superheroes, of weirdos, heroes, and ordinary citizens going off the grid.

It's one man's story of a dangerous world–and how to stay alive in it.

Before the next disaster strikes, you're going to want to read this book. And you'll want to do everything it suggests. Because tomorrow doesn't come with a guarantee...

Peak Oil Resources Review:

Any book that has a subtitle claiming to save your life is either a gimmick or a gold mine.  This one is a gold mine... just not in ways that you might expect.

Neil Strauss is a bit of an atypical individual to write a book on survival, if his past writings were to have any bearing on this particular title.  His life's background is decidedly not oriented towards self-sufficiency or survival during a worst case scenario type of event or calamity.  He does, however, gets there eventually.  This book is a chronicle of that transformation.

It is divided into 5 main parts; 1) Orientation, 2) Five Steps, 3) Escape, 4) Survive, 5) Rescue.  Each of these parts propels him in his journey for the knowledge of self sufficiency and documents the process and, importantly, the experience of becoming proficient in varying disciplines.  More than the specifics of what he does to "be prepared", Neil's experience is what brings color and depth to the account.  

In this transformation, he goes from viewing those who make preparations for uncertainties as potentially psychologically suspect, to having not merely some manner of respect for the philosophy of preparedness... rather, acceptance.  That is what makes this book different than the majority of related resources that treat this subject matter.  They tend to be written by folks who generally have been preparing their whole lives for disaster.  They may have been raised on farms, hunting and fishing.  Or maybe they were ex-military or law enforcement.  Whatever.  Neil comes to this as, to use the well-worn moniker, a city slicker.  It is full of his musings, internal and external, about this change that has taken place in himself.  In the end, all of his preparations bring him to a place where his role in a community is recognized as the ultimate "safe haven".    

In this book you will find more general advice and direction than specific know-how.  Its purpose is more philosophical in direction and as such, it will stimulate thoughts and discussions about your motivations.  Specifically, what are all of the driving forces for what you may or may not be doing for the "Just In Case" moment?  Are they well thought out?  Are they motivated by a self-centered drive for survival or the natural tendency towards self-preservation with the good of the community as the ultimate goal?  You will inevitably be brought along this philosophical journey, which, at the very least,  will likely initiate your own thought experiment along similar lines.  

In the end, Emergency will leave you wanting more.  It is an easy and captivating read, written in a very comfortable style.  When you are done with it, if not sooner, you will compelled to chase down many of the sources that Neil used in his own transformation.  Then you will want even more.  Approach with due diligence and with an eye on balance.

You will undoubtedly enjoy the read!

Neil Strauss is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Game and Rules of the Game. He is also the co-author of four previous bestsellers, including The Dirt (with Motley Crue), Don't Try This At Home (with Dave Navarro), and The Long Hard Road Out of Hell (with Marilyn Manson).