Worst Case Scenario Travel Handbookk - Softcover

Borgenicht, David; Piven, Joshua

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811831310 ISBN 13: 9780811831314

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2001

Synopsis

Danger lurks at every corner. Volcanoes. Sharks. Quicksand. Terrorists. The pilot of the plane blacks out and it's up to you to land the jet. What do you do? The "Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" is here to help: jam-packed with how-to, hands-on, step-by-step, illustrated instructions on everything you need to know, from defusing a bomb to delivering a baby in the back of a cab. Providing frightening and funny real information this indestructible pocket-sized guide is the definitive handbook for those times when life takes a sudden turn for the worse. The essential companion for a perilous age. Because you never know...

About this title

Review

Piven and Borgenicht's Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel is, like their previous bestseller The Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook, a pithy, witty and surprisingly useful guide to getting through life's stickier patches with body, soul and even dignity intact.

The difference here is that the authors have addressed the kind of glitches, pitfalls, disasters and conundra one might encounter when sojourning in distant or hostile lands. Hence there are sections offering advice on: How to Control a Runaway Camel; How to Survive in Frigid Water; How to Pass a Bribe; How to Deal with a Tarantula; and so on. Some of the problems and chapters might seem a little far-fetched and remote (How to Cross a Piranha-infested River); others all-too local and everyday to be confined to a travel book (How to Survive a Mugging). Each and every chapter is clearly written, accompanied by simple but effective illustrations, and derived from the accumulated wisdom of top survival experts in various armies, navies, academies and universities. There's also a very handy appendix dealing with general travel tips, such as which thumb-gestures to avoid when you don't want to insult the natives, and how to say, "Hello, I have been seriously wounded" in Japanese. This is a must-pack for all modern adventurers. --Sean Thomas

Review

PEOPLE
Quick: You're on an elevator when the cable snaps, plunging you into free fall. What do you do? Jump in the air at the moment of impact, right? Sure, except that the elevator "will likely collapse...and crush you," note the authors of the bestseller The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. The right answer: Lie flat on the floor to distribute the impact. In deadpan tone, Piven and Borgenicht advise how to survive a plane crash, remove a leech (burning it off will make it regurgitate, causing infection who knew?) and escape from the trunk of a car. The scenarios owe a debt to action flick clich's how often do you find yourself leaping from rooftop to rooftop? but their utter implausibility doesn't make this read any less riveting.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0811831310
• ISBN 13: 9780811831314
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 193