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I opened this book with the wrong expectations; I was expecting narratives similar to Plant's videos, but found a technical how-to book (NB: it doesn't claim to be anything else).

Plant includes am impressive number of guides for making the tools you would need in a survival situation, particularly, a long-term survival situation. He does not include skills you would need that don't have a direct observable result (stealth, navigation, etc.), but those really require experience and an interactive teacher, rather than a book.

I would suggest that this book should serve mostly like a lab book in high school science courses: steps for replicating an experiment, and a reference for the expected result. Combining this with Plant's videos would produce a wonderful introduction to long-term wilderness survival without modern tools. Just don't rely on the book alone, and don't expect a narrative.

The Book of Sea Shanties is short reading, but it didn't need to be long for its material. It's a clear, casual explanation of several well-known shanties. Since shanties were sung to manage rhythm between multiple sailors working the same task, this book explains the kinds of tasks each shanty was used for. The jargon and slang used are explained for most of the shanties, as well.

Two things I would have liked to see: 1. A cross reference of shanty types to shanties in the book so you can find similar songs. 2. A tempo for the songs and for the words on which to haul. The hauling words are identified for some songs, but not all.

All in all, a good source to get started learning about shanties.

The Book of Sea Shanties is short reading, but it didn't need to be long for its material. It's a clear, casual explanation of several well-known shanties. Since shanties were sung to manage rhythm between multiple sailors working the same task, this book explains the kinds of tasks each shanty was used for. The jargon and slang used are covered in most of the shanties, as well.