One excellent way to start learning about survival skills and preparation is through reading books from reputable sources. But with so many on the market, where should you start?

This list, compiled as the best survival handbooks to read and own, are good books to have on hand. Even if all you do is skim through them for now, having them in your home could potentially save your life one day.

I do recommend that you actually read them and practice their teaching now, but I’d rather you have them for later than not have them at all.

LIST OF BEST SURVIVAL BOOKS

The SAS Survival Guide

With over one million copies sold, this is an absolute essential for anyone and everyone. The SAS Survival Guide teaches you how to survive in the wild in any climate. It offers case studies to encourage critical thinking, helping you develop both the knowledge and survival instincts necessary for thriving in times of emergency.

You can even find the pdf (for free) of the shortened SAS Survival Handbook here.

The Survival Medicine Handbook

The Survival Medicine Handbook prepares you for medical emergencies. It teaches responsibility and preparedness in cases when help is too far away. It would be an excellent companion to a place near a first aid kit.

100 Deadly Skills

This book, written by a retired navy seal, contains 100 skills necessary for staying alive in any crisis. It discusses self-defense, surviving in the wild, staying alive in a hostage situation, and surviving natural disasters. The skills are adapted to be understood and executed by civilians.

The Ultimate Survival Manual

This survival manual is designed to help you in urban crises, in natural disasters, and out in the wild. If you want to read a few free pages of this book to see if it’s written in your style, Amazon offers a free sample if you follow the link provided below.

Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide

This book is designed for slightly different scenarios than many of the other books recommended so far. Instead of providing preparation for short-term emergencies or disasters, this survival guide prepares you for a long-term social collapse caused by a pandemic or similar emergency. It provides resources and ideas for how to survive until governmental services are restored.

How To Stay Alive In The Woods

For a more detailed account of how to survive in the woods–including finding food, creating shelter, and staying alive–this is a wonderful book to read after completing the more general survival guides mentioned above.

Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants

This guide to edible plants can help you recognize which plants are safe for consumption and which are poisonous look-alikes. In cases of being lost or stranded in the wild, this guide could save your life.

Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival

The Bushcraft 101 Guide prepares you for your next backdoor adventure. It discusses how to prepare for emergencies, how to protect yourself, and how to collect and prepare food so that you can enjoy the beautiful outdoors.

How To Teach Kids Emergency Preparedness

The best way to teach your kids emergency preparedness is to include them in your own preparation. Narrating what you are doing to the level of the child’s understanding will help them comprehend emergency preparedness at their level of growth and development. At a very basic level, you will want to start explaining to your kids what you are doing. For instance, you may say to a three-year-old: “We are buying food to put in our storage in case a storm comes and we are hungry.” For a five-year-old: “We are storing clean water to drink in case the stores run out of clean water to drink. Can you help me stack this water?” In the next level, you will want to engage your children in your preparation journey. Instead of just telling your eight-year-old about clean drinking water, teach them how to purify water from an unclean source using either your Sawyer Mini or LifeStraw water filters to make it suitable for drinking. Instead of talking about how to open cans, complete basic first aid tasks, and prepare basic meals from your food storage, make the child your partner in this preparation. This will ensure that they will value survival skills. In addition, they will be able to help in times of emergency. Of course, teaching and preparing every child will be different. Here is a list of basic topics to help you get started. At each level of development, work on furthering your child’s knowledge and skill:

• First aid tasks, such as applying bandages, sterilizing a wound, CPR, and responsibly handling medications
• Preparing basic meals
• Finding shelter
• Purifying water through a variety of methods
• Keeping warm when in cold weather
• Starting a fire
• Learning self-defense
• Storing food and water responsibly
• Helping and serving others

What Are The Five Basic Survival Skills For Kids?

Mindset

Teaching your kids how to stay calm in the face of an emergency is no small task, but one of the most important for any emergency. Teaching mindfulness skills in the midst of tantrums is a great place to start. One skill to begin teaching as soon as children are able to observe and communicate those observations is a simple “five senses” game. When your child is upset, ask him/her to communicate with you 5 things they see, 4 things they hear, 3 things they feel, 2 things they smell, and one thing they taste. This will help bring them back to the present moment. Teach children how to take deep breaths when they feel intense emotions rising. Talk openly about how to cope with stress in healthy ways.

Shelter

Showing children how to put up tents through camping or backyard sleepovers is a great place to start. From here, teach kids how to search to find small spaces that they could sleep outside if necessary. Teach them to make a generous layer of leaves to sleep on to conserve body heat.

Food

First, teach kids the importance of storing food for emergencies. Help them learn to independently prepare meals. This will help them get ready for an emergency where you still have access to food storage. In a real survival situation, teach them that insects and worms are edible and will provide protein. Show them in nature which plants are edible and which are poisonous.

Water

Water is one of the most important components of emergency and survival preparation. Children should know how to boil water for purification as soon as they safely can. Following a water source usually eventually leads to civilization, which you can teach your children in case they get lost in the woods.

Fire

Last, teach children how to start a fire in a protected location using tinder (dry grass), kindling (small sticks), and logs (laid criss-cross on top of each other so that air can still flow.) CONCLUSION Kids are going to be the most vulnerable during stressful times. It’s important to mentally prepare your kids for the possibility of these hard times. That being said, it is important to make this preparation age-specific. Be careful about how you talk to your kids about potential disasters. The last thing you want them to do is shut down because they are so scared of something that might not ever happen. You know your kids better than anyone. You choose how and when to get them prepared. Pro Tip: Making preparedness fun will help your kids retain important things better. For example, go camping to teach them how to start a fire. Go fishing to teach them how to catch, gut, and cook wildlife. Go hiking to teach them what vegetation they can eat in your area. The more fun you make it the better chance of them remembering during the upcoming stressful times.

ooks can be a motivating factor in your preparedness. Here are the books I recommend for every bookshelf, along with Amazon (Audible if available) links so you can learn more about them. 

Top Survival and Preparedness Novels

1. Last Light by Terri Blackstock (Audible)
2. Lights Out by David Crawford
3. One Second After by William Forstchen (Audible)
4. Patriots by James Wesley Rawles (Audible)
5. Stacey’s Quest by AK Steele
6. The Fourth Turning by William Stauss and Neil Howe (Audible)
7. The Cleansing of America by Cleon Skousen
8. EMP by Jonathan Hollerman (Audible)
9. Seven Days by Sterling Nixon (Audible)
10. The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn (Audible)
11. The Mystery of the Shemitah by Jonathan Cahn (Audible)
12. Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzalez (Audible)
13. The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker (Audible)
14. The Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood (Audible)
15. The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley (Audible)

Wilderness and Outdoor Survival

1. Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before it’s too Late by Scott B. Williams (Audible)
2. Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere – Alive by Les Stroud
3. Will to Live by Les Stroud

Food Storage and Preservation

1. Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving by Judi Kingry
2. Cookin with Home Storage by Peggy Layton & Vicki Tate
3. Dinner is in the Jar by Kathy Clark
4. Food Storage 101. Where do I begin? by Peggy Layton
5. Cooking with Food Storage Made Easy by Debbie G. Harman
6. Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrator Cookbook by Mary Bell
7. Food Storage for the Clueless by Clark L. Kidd
8. The Ultimate Food Storage Cookbook by Arlene Mickelsen
9. Gardening for Prepper’s by Robert Paine (Audible)

Religious – Dreams, Visions, and Stories of the Last Days 

*This section is full of peoples personal dreams and visions. Use the stories to learn how to prepare better, but only take the stories with a grain of salt, as these stories are personal and are not meant as a prophecy to the masses.  

1. Visions of glory by John Pontius (Audible)
2. There is no Death by Sarah Menet
3. A Change is Coming by Hector Sosa Jr.
4. Dreams and Visions (V1) by Roger K. Young
5. As A Thief in the Night: 20th Anniversary Edition by Roger K. Young
6. Tent Cities in the Last Days by Roger K. Young (Free Download)
7. Wrath & Righteousness by Christopher Stewart (Audible)
8. They Saw Our Day by Lance Richardson (Audible)

TEOTWAWKI Survival

1. The Grid Down Prepper by Robert Paine (Audible)
2. Build a Brilliant Bug-out Bag by Zac Lasson (Audible)
3. The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan
4. Build the Perfect Bug out Bag by Creek Stewart
5. Crisis Preparedness Handbook by Jack A. Spigarelli
6. Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat by M.D. Creekmore
7. The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook by Joseph and Amy Alton
8. The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery
9. Gardening When it Counts by Steve Solomon
10. How to Survive the End of the World as we know it by James Wesley Rawles
11. LDS Preparedness Manual by Christopher M. Parrett
12. The Modern Survival Manual by Fernando Aguirre
13. The Prepper’s Pocket Guide by Bernie Carr
14. Prescription for Herbal Healing by Phyllis A. Balch
15. When there is no Doctor by David Werner
16. Where there is no Dentist by Murray Dickson