Posted on June 4, 2009 - by J Lane

Book Review: Emergency by Neil Strauss

Based on the recommendation of Tim Ferriss, I decided to order a copy of Emergency by Neil Strauss.

It was an unusual read.  Essentially it tells the tale of Neil’s building fear and unease as to how his country (the US) was being run during the Bush Administration and his realization that the sense of security that many North Americans feel may be false.  Strauss decides to educate and prepare himself to deal with a range of possible situations that may occur; everything from terrorist attacks (he lives in LA) to economic collapse (widespread kind, not just GM).

Up front, I can’t say that I completely agree with his level of paranoia.  Granted, I’m Canadian and I don’t live in a city of several million people, but part of me has trouble believing that some type of event could occur in North America so suddenly that there will be no warning.  Even if that’s the case, I think that with a little common sense, most people can survive a few days with what they have available to them on a day to day basis.

Putting that aside, and unleashing my inner consipiracy theorist though, I have to admit that I had trouble putting this book down.  I’ve always had an interst in this topic though.  My parents got me a copy of the SAS Survival Handbook quite a few years ago, and I have to admit that I have read it cover to cover.  Personally, I find that the novelty of the information is entertaining as opposed to actually believing that some day my life will rely on being able to create a snare trap for food (the great part is that if I’m proven wrong here, chances are nobody will be reading my blog and posting “I told you so comments”).

Emergency is entertaining, and I guess, in some ways rather informative.  From Strauss’ discussion of the various courses he took, and people he met, to his description of his “off the grid” exercise where he shut off all of his power and utilities for a few days to see if he could last, I had Emergency read in it’s entirety in about 48 hours.  I can honestly say that given the need, I’ll be able to free myself from plastic handcuffs (there’s a comic devoted to this topic).

I don’t know if I can outright recommend this book to everyone.  I think, for example, it would bore my wife to death, but a number of my friends would probably get a kick out of it.  In a sense, it’s sort of like recommending a book on programming — if you’re into that language, it’s a good read.  Otherwise, don’t bother.