The Dangerous Book for Men: How to Triumph over Pitfalls and Perils

by Rod Green

Finally, a book that teaches a man how to be a man, that harks back to a less sheltered and pampered age when, without the aid of technology, men had to use their military training and outdoor skills, and were prepared for any eventuality. "The Dangerous Book for Men" offers useful but often long-neglected skills and imparts wisdom gleaned from many sources. You can learn and relearn forgotten skills like how to light a fire in a downpour, set a broken limb or harvest food from the wild, among many other skills that a true adventurer cannot do without. Presented in an elegantly designed, but hardy, volume, "The Dangerous Book for Men" teaches the importance of self-reliance, common sense and background knowledge. With this book every man will be able to overcome whatever perils and difficulties he might encounter in the course of an adventurous life.

Genres: Nonfiction

151 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Rod Green is a children’s writer who has worked with many publishers, including Puffin and HarperCollins. With Templar, he has written books in the Mean Machines series.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gift, which turned out to be one-third useful, one-third amusing, and one-third annoying. There are instructions on how to avoid drowning and how to treat burn victims before an ambulance arrives - that's the useful bit. There are descriptions of how to survive unlikely scenarios such as encountering an angry bull - that's the amusing bit. And there are fussy, hard-to-follow directions for both rare occasions like building rafts and mundane functions like sewing a button onto a shirt - that's the annoying bit.

[Mark Bates · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some good ideas but it was hard to read, really didn't flow. It was like reading instructions to a dishwasher.

[Tim Roast · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a plethora of these books out there at the moment with "The Dangerous Book for Boys" probably being the book to have kick-started the trend. But which of them is better? Well I have only read this one so I can't possibly answer that question but I can relay my thoughts about this particular book.

Basically this is a book of mini-instruction manuals. It contains many different sets of instructions detailing how to navigate using the sun, or how to survive falling out of a plane with a failed parachute and so on. It is the stuff that you'd expect Bear Grylls to know but that other men need not know. Hence this is a book that is best read by dipping in and out of it skipping the bits that you think are not relevant or that are not of interest.

The instructions are illustrated with occasional funny little drawings and diagrams to help you understand the sometimes detailed text. Also each section is normally introduced with a joke just to lighten up what would be a very dull book indeed if it were just a continued set of instructions on how to do some such "dangerous" task and then another separate "dangerous" task. And as to whether dangerous tasks include how to darn a sock or how to sew on a button or not is up to the reader to decide (after all you might get that needle stuck into your thumb, ouch).

Lastly is the advice in the book any good? Well next time I have to escape from a bear I'll let you know. And if I am unable to let you know then you'll know that the advice was not up to scratch.

(And if this review hasn't convinced you either way as to whether to purchase this book or not then use the Amazon `look inside' feature to view its contents and also to see some sample sections.)

[Dominic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light.