Book Review: Countdown to Preparedness, by Jim Cobb

brownfox-ffContributor - September 16, 2021

A practical, easy to follow guide that helps you to build a good mindset in addition to realistically growing your preps.

I recently read “Countdown to Preparedness”, by Jim Cobb. Cobb’s book is a reasonable list of actions that is broad and covers most bases. It covers the basics: Stocking food. Storing water. Creating an emergency ‘go’ bag. It covers advanced topics: Situational awareness. Creating hidden storage. Securing your shelter. But it also covers all of the mundane-but-important topics that may not first come to mind. Discussing emergency preparedness with your family or spouse, and agreeing on the goals and methods. Staying on top of your medical, dental, and medication work so you can take advantage of professional medical care when it is available. And how to tackle entertainment, build a library, and learn how to actually cook all of those supplies you’re collecting, so you’re not left with a bunch of food you don’t know how to eat. In my mind, this shows the true depth of experience and wisdom.

All of this is wrapped in weekly lessons that are clear, short, and easy to follow. Each week you complete a task or two, add a few dollars to a savings fund, and buy a few extra items for your groceries or pantry. The idea is that over time the small bits add up. Not only do you end up with a decent supply of food, you also build the habit of looking for sales, buying a few extra items, and scraping together a few dollars to save. Long after you have finished the course and the buying, the habits may continue to be useful.

The book is also realistic from the outset: it takes time to do things well. Cobb isn’t working to make you panic or rush to complete hundreds of tasks in a weekend. He’s there, calmly explaining and guiding, week after week, helping you to get things sorted and explaining why.

I’ve been a prepper for seven years, and have some of the basics covered. I really enjoyed this book. Disclaimer: I have not spent 52 weeks following his advice. But I used this as an opportunity to review all of my skills, plans, and supplies as he went through each area. I learned a lot. There are many areas where I could improve and I’d like to tackle in the near future. I have added tasks to my to-do list and I plan to read through the book again to review. If I had this book when I first started it would have been quite useful.

Cobb makes some assumptions about his audience: that they are rural land owners. If you don’t own land or have a house’s worth of space, not all of the lessons may apply to you – such as chopping firewood, owning a gun, or putting in an outhouse. The author also spent one or two lessons on preparations that are farther into the “collapse” spectrum than I am personally – e.g. advice on organizing a supply run in a town beset by chaos. However, the book still contains a wealth of wisdom that can be useful even if you skim or skip a few lessons that aren’t relevant to you.

At the end of the day, if you follow and are able to complete most of the lessons from Cobb’s book you will emerge much better off, with a stable base of supplies, knowledge, skills, and mindset. This book definitely has use for anyone at the beginner and intermediate level, and may serve as a useful checklist for those who are quite advanced. I’m happy to have a copy in my library.

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That is a very nice review. I have a couple books I am trying to work through right now, but this does sound like one I will be interested in when I’m caught up.

Was there a particular lesson or idea that you hadn’t thought about before reading this?

 

>Was there a particular lesson or idea that you hadn’t thought about before reading this?

Interesting question. I was reviewing the chapters to see what surprised me most. Honestly what might be most surprising is that an author who is quite advanced is still talking about the same, regular tasks that I am doing, that are already outlined on this site. Their author bio says they’ve been prepping for 30 years, so 4x as long as me. I imagine they they are much more resilient. Yet in spite of that they are still discussing the same topics and tasks that I am doing: keep some extra food in the pantry; grow some vegetables; keep your living space organized and clean; go to the dentist.

Hopefully that’s a good sign in two ways. First: it suggests I am on the right track with my actions and preparation. Another author confirming these are the most productive steps to take. And secondly: perhaps it’s more proof that getting prepared doesn’t have to be any kind of strange or difficult thing. It’s not some weird practice of the occult. It’s being a sane adult. You just have to care enough to start, and keep working on it.

 

There is a saying in Equestrian sports that goes like this:  Beginners want to work on intermediate stuff; intermediate riders want to work on advanced stuff; advanced riders want to work on the basics.   Perhaps this applies to prepping as well!

 

That’s so true for many things in life. When I look over my preparedness gear, I look at my basics at times such as water storage and filtration and notice little things I can improve on. Go back through what you’ve done and see what you can improve. Don’t just say, “Oh, I have my first aid kit, I’m done and good!”. I’m sure there are things you can add to it and skills to continue to develop.

 

Good morning Fox,

A well-written review !

 

Thank you. I have learned a lot from reading this site. Just trying to put some good content back into the world.

 

Everyone appreciates it! I may ping Jim too so he can see the review.

 

Thank you for the review! This sounds like just what I need right now. My copy should arrive next week. 

 

I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to report back and let us know what you thought.

 

Really appreciate that detailed review, thanks! Glad to hear you’ve found the book useful. That was a fun one to write, actually, as we were able to play around with the format and such a bit, so it wasn’t just a dry text. 

And you’re absolutely correct in that not every lesson is going to be equally applicable to every reader. In the prepping world, there just aren’t very many one-size-fits-all solutions or answers. But, I tried to convey as much universally useful info as I could within the scope of the book we’d planned.

Thanks again!

 

Hello! I did not expect the author to stop by.

Thank you for writing an engaging and useful book. I enjoyed it a lot.
Did anything surprise you about writing it?

Best of luck with your projects

 

I’m so glad you enjoyed the book! One of the site owners here reached out to me to let me know about the review. 

I can’t say there was anything surprising when I was writing the book. It was one of those rare projects where the idea sprang to mind fully formed. It was just a matter of filling in the blanks, so to speak. The book was a lot of fun to write, though, and is one of my favorites.

Thanks for picking it up!