Book review: 31 Days to Survival

31 Days to Survival:
A Complete Plan for Emergency Preparedness
By M.D. Creekmore
Paladin Press 2012
153 pages

It’s felt like a long wait for M.D. Creekmore’s new book, 31 Days to Survival: A Complete Plan for Emergency Preparedness.

True, it’s been only a little over a year since his last book (Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat: One Man’s Solution — my review here). But it’s been one vital year for preparedness.

Even some fairly dim bulbs are beginning to realize the problem now. If the Maya don’t get us first (and I expect we’re pretty safe from them), the Fed and its funny-money surely will. Or something else entirely.

In short, this is the time for preparedness manuals to find their way onto even the most mundane bookshelves.

So it’s good that 31 Days is here.

One thing I’ve always liked about M.D. Creekmore’s approach: He’s realistic. He never sends us off in search of $10,000 “perfect” survival weapons or iron-clad, million-dollar bunkers in North Idaho. His website, TheSurvivalistBlog.Net is focused on commonsense, real-world advice on living well and cheaply — in ways that enhance potential emergency/hard times survival.

Nor is his advice unbalanced. To read some survival authors, you’d think as long as you have really cool weapons, you don’t have to worry about food or water. Creekmore has always covered the full territory of preparedness.

31 Days continues that tradition. Its slender 153 pages contain 31 separate “to dos,” all laid out with calendar and checklist graphics (nice layout, there, Paladin Press).

The “assignments” range from the abstract (“Prevent and manage stress”) to the concrete (“Put together a survival kit for your automobile”). They cover some traditional “guy” topics (“Build a dead-fall trap”) and some that are more domestic (shopping for a 72-hour kit and sprouting seeds).

Of course, nobody’s really going to do all this in 31 days. (Most of us will spend more than 31 years attempting to conquer stress.) So the calendar thing is just a trope — a gimmick, if you will. But a useful one.

Breaking 31 tasks, some large and some small, into discrete assignments simplifies and demystifies them. Anybody who has tried to organize preparedness plans should appreciate that.

Creekmore’s advice is sensible, too. It’s simple, clearly written, and illustrated with photos or drawings where needed (e.g. making a small-game snare).

This is a nice little how-to guide. And perhaps it’s even a nicer “how to think about things” guide. Which is why his Day 19 — “Avoid these 10 prepping mistakes” — is a particular winner with me.

Don’t give up too early … Don’t invest in too many guns … Don’t buy a ton of books then ignore their advice (gulp — guilty on that one). Above all don’t try to follow somebody else’s preparedness plans. Instead, look at your own circumstances and needs and think out your own plan.

M.D. Creekmore’s approach is very good for getting us to sit down and, in an organized, non-overwhelming manner, do just that.

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Disclaimer: Through May 15, M.D. Creekmore is holding a contest for bloggers who want to review either his new book or his website. This review is eligible for the competition, but I hope I didn’t let that influence anything I wrote. If you have a blog, you, too, can enter for a chance to win a ton of survival-oriented books.