This was not the book that I'd hoped for. The focus is more on accumulation of the right supplies than skill acquisition and mental/emotional preparedness. Also, the advice given simply isn't within the means of most people. Yes, I would like to have a 5 or 6 bedroom alternative energy retreat in the country, complete with four vehicles, livestock, and a fruit orchard. It is, however, about as realistic a goal for me as an airtight, self-sufficient fortress on the moon. Despite mention of different scenarios that would lead to the end of the world as we know it, every plan that came up made the assumption that all of the large group of people that the author recommended cultivating as survival buddies would live through the plague/meteor/alien invasion/zombie uprising/nuclear war. That said, it's not a bad guide for well off people to weather a breakdown in modern civilization. A better title might have been How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It By Throwing Money at the Problem and Convincing Everyone that You're a Paranoid Fruitcake. Don't pay the $17 cover price. Pick it up if you see it at half price.