The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger

A more descriptive title would be "Death by Sea". The first part of the book tells you about the lives of deep-sea fishermen, their months at sea and days on land. The second part gets a little into meteorology, but is story after story of death. Not that these accounts lack merit. This is a quote from one who escaped death by drowning:

"I was at a fork in the road and there was work to do -- swim or die... People think you always have to go for life, but you don't. You can quit."
-- Ernie Hazard, p.139

Reading disaster accounts has the benefit of passing on survival info. If someone has suffered trauma, they know the following things:

  1. Who they are
  2. Where they are
  3. What time it is
  4. What just happened
Start with the first question and ask each subsequent question. The last question they successfully answered is their score. This is conveyed by saying that they are "Alert and Oriented times N" where N is their score.

I'll leave off with Junger's words on threat analysis:

"If danger can be seen in a narrowing range of choices, Billy Tyne's (captain of the Andrea Gail) choices have just ratcheted down a notch. A week ago he could have headed in early. A day ago he could have run north like Johnston. An hour ago he could have radioed to see if there were any other vessels around. Now the electrical noise has made the VHF practically useless, and the single sideband only works for long range. These aren't mistakes so much as an inability to see into the future."
-- Sebastian Junger, p. 112