"Deep Survival"

I've been reading this book: http://www.deepsurvival.com/

It's interesting, and not at all what you might think. It's not about eating grubs to survive or how to build a radio from a coconut, or something.

It's about the psychology of survival, seeking to define what common trait there might be among people who tend to be survivors.

Example (true story--- the book is full of them): A plane went down in the jungles of South America. A group of 11 adults survived the crash in one location. A 19 year-old girl (wearing her confirmation dress and high heels) survived in a different location. The 11 adults all died before rescuers found them. The girl eventually walked out of the jungle on her own. What spark did she have that the adults didn't?

The author goes into the biology a bit, examining how various subsystems of our brains cooperate (or fail to cooperate) in crisis situations; and how and what our conscious minds might do about it. It's not Bear Grylls teaching you survival techniques, but more like a westernized, scientifically-based exploration of the Zen of survival.

I'm not quite finished with it yet. The author's ego gets in the way a bit, and his writing's a little uneven. But overall, it's very good and I expect my interest in the book to survive to the last page. ;-)

(BTW, I picked up a used hardbound copy off Amazon for $4.)