Jerome Knap
Pagurian 1976
I've read a lot of books like this one. The SAS Survival Handbook, the NOLS Wilderness Guide, Ronald Eng's Mountaineering, and maybe half a dozen other titles over the years.
Never in my life have I come across a more condescending book.
As annoying as it is to be around holier-than-thou/ more-punk-than-thou/ more-well-read-than-thou types, you can usually just make fun of them in your mind and dismiss them as the children they are. When you're reading something they've written and are trying to glean real, meaningful information from them, you can't. You have to pay attention. And it's a nightmare.
On top of the author's dickish sensibilities and down-the-nose glance towards newcomers to the great outdoors, this is by no means a complete handbook. The topics covered are either just barely touched upon, or gone into with a maddening level of detail. The detailed chapters are almost completely meaningless, and the generalized ones are the chapters which would be of benefit to the most people.
For instance, the author spends an inordinate amount of time on the different designs and materials of snowshoes, but barely touches on water preparation or expedient shelters. For a book that claims to be about "outdoor living" and "wilderness survival," much is left to be desired.
I didn't learn much from this book, which was maddeningly disappointing. I felt like I was enduring Knap. I get that this book is 35 years old, and I've had all of my life to independently research the things I wanted to learn on my own.
I would not recommend this book to anyone, ever. It would be like recommending Deuteronomy as a guide to field first aid. Got leprosy? Sprinkle some dove blood on it.
This volume was clearly written for people living north of Montana. All of the literature dedicated to dry or warm climates can be summed up on one page, and that information is pretty much useless. One of the more startling omissions in the book is on a chapter about poisonous spiders. The Brown Recluse spider is not mentioned at all as a poisonous spider of North America.
The author continues on to explain the importance of snares for catching small game, but goes into absolutely ZERO explanation for snaring:
"Birds can be caught in the Ojibway bird snare."
What the fuck is an Ojibway bird snare? I don't know. And my guess is that you don't either. Thank Google that the internet exists and I can figure it out, because Knap makes absolutely no effort to explain it to his readers. I guess taking the time to explain things would make him look like less of a hipster.
"I'd use an Ojibway bird snare. It's effective, but you've probably never heard of it."
 |
| Pictured: The Author |
Overall, I'm annoyed with this book. So far, it's only the second book I've read during this adventure that will go on the crappy books list. Right next to The Art of War.
A sentences which appeals to my juvenile sense of humor:
"Many injuries have been caused by backward-flying butts."
A sentence which appeals to the author's lack of ability as a writer:
"The most important maneuver in snowmobiling is turning."
To be fair, there were a few entertaining moments in the book, but I would not go so far as to say that they justify the experience of being talked down to for 200 pages.
Zero masturbating monkeys.
No comments:
Post a Comment