I have always liked books and movies about survival and woods lore. I used to check out such books as a grade schooler. Part of me likes the battle against the elements and of course part of me likes my creature comforts. I was accused as o kid of trying to bring the outside in. Lately I have been reading books about the WWII era. True stories- my father was one of the GIs who liberated a concentration camp and I remember sugar being rationed and picking up kindling in the alleys to start coal fires with a wagon and my mother. Tow of my favorite books are “The Last Jews in Berlin” (where they hid in plain sight and survived) and “Paris Underground” (where an Englishwoman and an American tried to leave Paris when the Germans took over the city and wound up not leaving but with a downed British flyer in the truck of their car.)
I have enjoyed watching Alone, Frontier House (in Montana and in Texas), Homestead rescue, The Last Alaskans, The Wheel, Naked and Afraid, Bear Grylls, and other shows about survival. Haven’t watched Bushcraft Build Off so will try that one. About Frontier House- the teenagers there in the end found it much more interesting than going to the mall when they got back.
If you read about the Donner party you should do it in a blizzard- makes it more real. I remember an old movie about a ship sinking and people in a lifeboat. In fact the name may have been “Lifeboat.” Made me think that if I was on a ship I would not sleep naked.
Currently I’m in the middle of a book – a memoir about growing up in Germany in the 30s and 40s.