Review: Nothing New or Innovative
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2014
The Urban Prepper: A City Survival Guide by Robert Paine offers nothing new that has not already been written about in other books, blogs, videos, forums, etc. I liked that the focus was on an urban environment but no new insights were brought forth. Paine defines prepper as, "...refers primarily to the practice of survivalism in its modern context" yet this is a very elusive definition.  Other words and phrases are also poorly defined. Paine goes on to talk about bug out bags with an emphasis on urban settings. Essentially, he just lists some items and puts in some commentary. He then goes on to discuss some basics of home preparations along with food storage items. There are other sections of the book but nothing special.Overall Assessment:The Urban Prepper: A City Survival Guide by Robert Paine has some good information but it is poorly organized and the writing style is choppy and poorly written. There is nothing in this book that is not available for free on the Internet and the author fails to provide any relevant insight that is of benefit to the reader. There are so many "prepper" books on the market that anyone who writes a book on this topic needs to bring some new and innovative topics to the table otherwise they are only rehashing what is already out there in abundance.  Having read a lot of prepper books this one was nothing special and does not stand out. I was disappointed with this book and would not recommend it to others.Books that I do recommend, while not necessarily focused on urban settings, include:Realistic Bug Out BagBuilding a Trauma KitTrauma Care for the Worst Case ScenarioEmergency Radio Communications