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When you were a kid (or even an adult), did you ever dream about being an action hero like James Bond or Indiana Jones? As a friend and I were discussing the other day, one of the most amazing things about these fictional heroes is their seeming expertise in a wide variety of subject areas. I mean, these guys can do everything from fly planes to escape from wild animals to pick up a sword and go toe-to-toe with expert fencers.

Is your inexperience in these areas and others keeping you from living the secret agent-like lifestyle that you want to live? Never fear, for help is one the way in the form of the new book, The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. The Handbook is a semi-serious how-to guide dealing with everything from surviving an alligator attack to jumping from a motorcycle to a moving car. All of the information in the book is presented by real life experts.

While I suppose that few of us will ever find ourselves in the awful situations discussed in the book, there are a few things that may come in handy. For example, what to do if your parachute doesn't open, your car is sinking in water, or you are buried in an avalanche. Of course, whether anyone who read the book would remember the advice when they actually found themselves in the predicament is another story all together. Also, whether the advice actually works is not clear, and I personally do not plan on checking.

While the book is kind of entertaining, I cannot really recommend it for a couple of reasons. The first is that some of the advice seems kind of useless. For example, if you are jumping out of a plane and your chute doesn't open, you are supposed to grab on to someone else. The book is silent on what to do if there is no one else jumping with you. Similarly, the book says that if you are sinking in quick sand you should use a large pole to help yourself out. Great advice, assuming that you happen to have a large pole on you. The other complaint I have is a little more basic: the book tends to get kind of boring after awhile. It might be worth thumbing through at the book store, but definitely do not shell out $14.95 for it.

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(Submitted 2/24/00 by Notre Dame law student Julio.)