This book is intended to be a guide. It will not teach you about skills per se, or impart "secret" knowledge. It is not designed to make you the next star of a survival TV show, nor will it get your name in the paper, or make you famous. You will not learn obscure talents, magical incantations to ward off fictional undead, or a thousand and one different uses for a paperclip. This book will not help you perform surgery on a battlefield, teach you to construct a car from a box of dissimilar metal parts, find bizarre uses for obscure household items, or any of the plethora of nonsense pervading the subject. Finally, it is not going to be the comprehensive guide to all things preparedness or survival. This is all about common sense, a talent that is in short supply. It contains common sense solutions to getting started, determining what you might want to acquire, and identifying what is essential - all while finding some needed balance as you progress in your preparations. It is written in short concise sections, meant to stimulate thoughtful preparation, and is not exhaustive in content, nor exhausting to the reader. It is intended to be entertaining while hopefully imparting some much needed knowledge and clarity to an otherwise obscure and needlessly complex subject.