Rating: 
Summary: New perspective
Review: It's true...this book is for people who have a great sense of humor but also a serious mind. This book is packed with tips and detailed guides for just about any trouble you might slip into. Read it for kicks or to save you [behind]. Either way it's one of the most entertaining books you'll ever read.
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Summary: Worst Case Scenario
Review: Sorry. No more than recylcled information, mostly from free Goverment materials. The Boy Scout Handbook does better.
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to past standards
Review: The "Worst Case Scenario" people are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Surviving an airplane crash and building a snow shelter can be important! But encountering aliens, while offering both an extreme scenario and a touch of humor, isn't specifically travel-related. The same with a plummeting elevator, or losing someone who's tailing you. On the other hand, they've omitted some important items, like getting arrested in a foreign country, or losing your passport. This series is losing steam.
Rating: 
Summary: Valuable information but could have been better
Review: The publishers chose to produce this book in the same form-factor as the original "worst-case scenario handbook" which from a marketing standpoint makes sense, but this would have been more useful if it were the size of a standard passport and thus could fit inside a money belt, for example. Also, it could have been printed on lighter stock paper to make it more travel-friendly. The advice on what to do if abducted by space aliens is certainly appropriate to a worst-case scenario but makes me question the authors' sincerity. The first handbook's strongest point was that it could be taken entirely seriously; describing how to deal with space aliens struck me as a little over the top.
Rating:
Summary: Great for travelling
Review: The statistics are against you: More than 50 percent of all travellers run into problems.
This is the start of the introduction in this book, and to help you deal with these problems Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht have once again consulted experts on various areas, so that if you're going travelling somewhere you'll have expert knowledge at your hand, should you need to deal with a crisis.
If you've been to a third world country or somewhere politically unstable you know the discomfort of being a tourist in the midst of it all. Sometimes protesters go bezerk, and should you be in a foreign country where protesters outside the hotel are throwing molotovcocktails and firing guns, the odds of you making it to the airport safe are very grim. This book does, however, give an EXCELLENT guidance on WHAT to do WHEN and HOW, not only in a situation such as that mentioned, but also if you're hanging over the edge of a cliff in your car, sitting in an airplane that's about to crash, tied up or in a runaway passenger train. Crisises that common sense simply does not have a solution for. Through this book you also get the entertainment value of reading (whilst sitting in Denmark) how to steer a runaway camel, foil a UFO abduction etc. but also great travellers tips and usable emergency phrases in 4 languages.
Think you've got it all covered? You're in Tokyo and a thug tries to mug you. How do you call for help? Well?
See, how would you know that you say: "Tasukete! dorobô"??? There's no way a normal tourist would know that, which is why this book is indispensable to any frequent traveller.
Rating:
Summary: Seriously Funny
Review: The Worst Case Scenario books are really great conversation pieces. You'll receive tongue-in-cheek education on such topics as "How to Ram a Gate" and how to say, "Hello, I am seriously injured. May I borrow towels to mop up the blood?" in five languages. The instructions are clearly written and illustrated, and it will give you a chuckle to imagine yourself in these scenarios. However, if you ever find yourself needing to bribe a customs official, just whip out this handy guide!
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Summary: Humorous Advice for Secret Agents and Ordinary Travelers
Review: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel has four primary uses: (1) To let you fantasize safely about what you would do in a life-threatening situation you probably won't face, but have seen in the movies (survive after being lost in a jungle, escape a mob, survive a kidnapping) (2) Provide humorous scenarios that you will probably never face to give you a good laugh (being abducted by a UFO, handling a runaway camel, getting rid of a leech in your nose) (3) Practical advice for challenges that many travelers will encounter (stopping a car with no brakes, handling a runaway horse, foiling thieves) (4) Reducing risk of harm from unlikely events that you probably do think about (escaping a hotel fire, what to do after falling onto a subway track, surviving an elevator fall). I was impressed that although I did not expect to learn anything I could ever use, the book actually had several sections which I wish I had known about when I faced travel challenges in the past (handling scorpion stings, what to do in a hotel fire, how to stop a runaway horse that someone else is on, making a shelter in the snow, avoiding having your carry-ons stolen at the x-ray machine). I suspect that I will be able to use this information in the future. Another benefit I got was to realize that I could handle some emergencies that I would normally consider well beyond me. In these days when travel seems more dangerous than before, this book may also be worth carrying to play the role of Dumbo's magic feather -- to build a little confidence. For example, I don't like to fly in small planes. I think I could follow the instructions in the book for crash landing a small plane in water, as long as someone could help me. But I could never remember all of these details in a crisis. Having the book along will help me relax a lot more on my next small plane flight. People with phobias about certain travel situations may find the knowledge that they gain here can help reduce their anxiety. One of the best parts of the book came in the foreword by David Concannon of the Explorers Club who described the many hideous things that had happened to him in order to encourage you to realize that the unexpected does happen, you need to accept what is beyond your control, always have a contingency plan, and no matter how bad things are . . . they could get worse. As a result, you will probably spend more time thinking through the potential challenges that you will face on future trips, and be better prepared to handle these challenges. My favorite funny parts in the book were the runaway camel, passing a bribe, foiling a UFO abduction, trailing a thief, losing someone following you, jumping from a moving train, escaping from being tied up, ramming a barricade, surviving a volcanic eruption, surviving a tsunami, getting rid of leeches, and crossing a piranha-infested river. Indiana Jones, move over! Even if you never travel, the book "will provide good information and entertainment for the armchair survivalist." Be prepared!
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Summary: review by k-man.worst case scenario survial handbook:travle
Review: The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel'
By Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht This book would be for a frequent traveler, and if you were one, you would want to keep this book nearby at all times. There are lots of things that you're probably not going to need, but they're vary interesting to read about. Some examples of the situations are how to deal with run away camels and UFO abductions. Lots of the things that this book will talk about are going to be useful like escaping a high rise or hotel fire, or stopping an airplane hijacking, or how to escape when tied up. I would recommend this book to travelers, or people who are thinking about traveling to a secluded jungle type place. Even though I don't travel much, lots of the things are useful to know. Recommended ages, 8 and up.
Rating:
Summary: Great library book
Review: This book was mildly entertaining at best. Of the forty-four scenarios, only a couple are immediately useful to most people. I did find the trivia type Be Aware sections informative. Unfortunately the How to Foil a UFO Abduction section, while intended to be humorous, destroyed most credibility of this book. Am I reading a joke book or a book designed to save my life? Pick it up at the library or at a used bookstore for a couple of dollars.
Rating:
Summary: Great library book
Review: This book was mildly entertaining at best. Of the forty-four scenarios, only a couple are immediately useful to most people. I did find the trivia type Be Aware sections informative. Unfortunately the How to Foil a UFO Abduction section, while intended to be humorous, destroyed most credibility of this book. Am I reading a joke book or a book designed to save my life? Pick it up at the library or at a used bookstore for a couple of dollars.
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