The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse
By Sam Sheridan
The British novelist E. M. Forster thought the characteristic tragedy facing Englishmen of his day was to prepare for a test that never came. One wonders what he would have thought of The Disaster Diaries, a survivalist handbook instructing anxious readers on how to best prepare for earthquakes, tsunamis, global pandemics, asteroid strikes, nuclear war, alien invasion, a zombie apocalypse, and just about every other variety of TEOTWAWKI you can think of (the acronym stands for The End Of The World As We Know It).
In chapters framed by fictional end-of-the-world vignettes, Sheridan discusses his training in important post-apocalyptic survivalist skills like fitness, emergency medical treatment, weapons handling, the martial arts, and the ability to hunt and forage for food. It’s not meant as satire, but it isn’t all paranoia either. Sheridan believes that cultivating self-reliance is healthy come what may, and he provides a number of tips that might come in handy even before the end of the world.
Alex on SF 