Authors Piven
and Borgenicht suggest that readers keep this book in their glove compartments
in order to be prepared for the unforeseen. That’s not a bad idea, but I think the book
would be more useful in a bathroom reading basket or in the kitchen near the
cereal boxes. Under certain circumstances, a coffee table would work too. The
information in Worst-Case cannot be absorbed by a quick read, so having
it stowed away with your Operator’s Manual may not be all that helpful in
an emergency. This is a book you would have to read and then re-read many times
before you could qualify as the "go-to" person when a case worsens.

A section in
this handbook explains how to leap from a moving motorcycle to a moving
car.  It occurred to me as I read it that not only would your timing have
to be impeccable for such a maneuver, but you would have to be living your life
much differently than I do to consider it a "worst-case scenario."
For me, that would be more like a "no case scenario."

Here are some
other sections in which you may be interested: 1) How to Survive a Poisonous
Snake Attack, 2) How to Escape From Killer Bees, 3) How to Treat a Leg
Fracture, and 4) How to Survive If You Are In The Line of Gunfire. I must say I
found it sad that someone thought that type of gun safety information should be
included.

Of value to
niche players are sections like these: 1) How to Get to the Surface If Your
Scuba Tank Runs Out Of Air, 2) How to Break Into a Car, 3) How to Escape from
Quicksand, and 4) How to Jump From a Bridge or Cliff Into a River.

Who would want
to read the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook? Most likely it is
directed toward the same adolescent males for whom the blockbuster action
movies are produced. Those of us who are not adolescent males need a different
book to study. We are also trying to survive, but we usually go about it in
ways that don’t require too much jumping, running, wrestling alligators,
parachuting out of planes, and even trying to land them when the pilot gets
sick.

I hope that
some ideas in The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook take residence
in the minds of its readers and that lives are saved as a consequence. If that
happened, it would more than justify the existence of a book like this. I must
say it is not going to find a place on my coffee table, or in my bathroom,
kitchen, or glove compartment. I think I can risk its absence. But who knows?
Maybe it will be my life that is saved some day by one of its readers.

Stranger things
have happened in this dog-eat-dog world.

© 2002 Liz Bass

Liz Bass is a retired teacher and principal who lives in
Northern California.

Categories: SelfHelp, General