98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive

This book and its approach to survival is not my bag, however Lundin does what he set out to do in writing it. Some have described this book as chauvinistic, brash and immature. Perhaps the art is offensive to some, but the information, the reason people actually buy the book, is solid. This is not a primitive technology book, nor a wilderness living manual. It is in short, a Survival Manual. If you want to create a survival kit for your car, cabin or whatever, Lundin leads you through it step by step. For the armchair survivalist that has no desire to actually practice tough skills, this book is for you. If you want to be a responsible back country trekker, this book is for you. If you want to be prepared to survive short term (72 hours give or take a few days) disasters like power outages, back country strandings, or just getting lost, then this book is the one to have. The well researched reasoning behind his ideas comes across clearly leaving no doubt as to the action to be taken to correct a given situation.
The best part of this book is by far the comprehensive survival kits and all their contents and the rationale for selecting the items he lists.
Well worth the money!

I just finished reading this book and I have to say this is the best book that I've come across for short-term survival (i.e., the 72 hours or so until rescue). I've spent a lot of time growing up in the outdoors and I've always thought survivalist literature was a little nutty and that most "survival kits" were way off base for what the average person needed. Cody Lundin does and excellent job of telling the reader how to avoid the biggest outdoor killer for short term survival situations--EXPOSURE--and how to avoid having a survival kit full of useless crap. For example, I've always thought it was sensless to carry things like fishing hooks and snare wire in a survival kit when the average person can live for weeks without food. Food is not a priority during short-term survival. This book does not confuse self-sufficiency with survival and it just gives a lot of good information on some basic kit to have in case you ever do get lost or stuck in the woods longer than you intended.

In my opinion, anyone who is a dayhiker, hunter, or just likes to spend time in the outdoors should own a copy of this book.

The ideas were well articulated in a consistent thread throughout 98.6 Degrees. It's funny, which keeps it from being condescending even to those who are experienced. The crass bits others refer to were really just cheesy, and there aren't many of them. If you only read one survival book in your life, this should be the one. It will help you think straight, prioritize well and, if you work at it, you may even be mistaken for a polyextremophile.

A new approach to delivering the key ideas of survival and his recommended components for a survival kit with some humor. Short and sweet...this is a great book with another survivalists perspective on how to be prepared for that unexpected situation. I am not going to repeat all of the other 5 star reviewer comments but I will say that after reading many books on survival I have still managed to pull information from this book that was useful. For example, Cody suggests that you put brightly colored tape on survival objects so they are easy to spot if dropped...simple but brilliant. I rapidly modified my kits! I never knew how useful REAL parachute chord is until I read about it in this book. I bought 150' to slip into my kits! Oh! and the dental floss...I haven't use it for survival yet but experimented using it to sew a fiberglass screen around a wood dowel frame for drying plant parts for tea...worked nice! Your survival chances are only limited by your imagination...buy this book for some imaginative stimulation and learn some of Cody Lundin's techniques.

Awesome purchase. This book's a keeper. It goes straight to the point and tells you what you need to know and do, if ever caught in a survival situation.

One downside of the book, in my opinion, is that it does not go into a lot of detail regarding survival situations in environments other than hot deserts and cold temperate areas. The survival kit components that are featured in the book attest to that fact.

But overall I love the book because it gives you knowledge you can begin to use immediately.