• The Disaster Diaries

  • How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse
  • By: Sam Sheridan
  • Narrated by: Donald Corren
  • Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,090 ratings)

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The Disaster Diaries  By  cover art

The Disaster Diaries

By: Sam Sheridan
Narrated by: Donald Corren
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Publisher's summary

Sam Sheridan has been an amateur boxer, mixed-martial-arts fighter, professional wilderness firefighter, EMT, sailor, and cowboy, and has worked in construction at the South Pole. If he isn't ready for the apocalypse, we're all in a lot of trouble.

Despite an arsenal of skills that would put most of us to shame, when Sam had his son and settled down, he was beset with nightmares about being unable to protect him. Apocalyptic images filled his head. If a rogue wave hit his beach community, could he get out? If he was forced outside the city, could he survive in the wilderness? Let's not even talk about plagues, zombies, and aliens. Unable to quiet his mind, Sam decided to face his fears head-on, embarking on a quest to gain as many skills as possible that might come in handy should the world as we know it end.

Each possible doomsday required a different skill set. Trying to navigate a clogged highway when everyone is trying to leave town? Better go to the best stunt-driving school in the country. Need to protect your family but have no ammunition? Better learn how to handle a knife. Is your kid hurt or mentally strained? Better brush up on emergency medicine and study the psychological effects of trauma. From training with an Olympic weightlifter to an apprenticeship in stealing cars with an ex-gang member, from an intense three-week gun course in the 100-degree heat of Alabama to agonizing lessons in wilderness survival, Sam left no stone unturned. Would it be enough if a meteor rocked the earth? Who's to say? But as Sam points out, it would be a damn shame to survive the initial impact only to die a few days later because you didn't know how to build a fire.

This is participatory journalism at its finest. A rollicking narrative with each chapter framed by a hypothetical doomsday scenario, The Disaster Diaries is for everyone who wants to know what it might take to make it through a cataclysmic event - or just wants to watch someone else struggle to find out.

©2013 Sam Sheridan (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc

Critic reviews

"Sheridan, an amateur boxer and mixed-martial-arts fighter, uses a collection of stark disaster scenarios to wise up the reader on how to live through those final times…. As a quirky survivalist primer, Sheridan’s work spells out how to stay alive when the world goes topsy-turvy." (Publishers Weekly)

"How to survive any possible disaster, from aliens to zombies to everything in between…. An upbeat and entertaining survival guide for the end of the world." (Kirkus Reviews)

"This is no mere guide to surviving disaster; it's also the author's personal account of learning to prepare for catastrophe…. A clever and very useful guide to getting ready to face the unknown." (Booklist)

What listeners say about The Disaster Diaries

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Big Bang, Great Starting Point

Any additional comments?

The author has a novel hiding in him, and I'll read it when he brings it out. But what makes this how-to guide different from everything else out there, is that the author took an idea of each aspect of what is most important to survival (of anything, really, up to and including a zombie apocalypse), and then went out and lived the aspect. He learned the stuff, instead of just researching it (which he also does). Then wrote about it, and did the writing very well. The horrific aspects are covered dynamically, with humor, and the snippets of apocalyptic fiction woven into the narrative were well done and will surge your pulse. Dealing with the unthinkable is more than stocking food, or spraying a whole lot of bullets (yet these are are covered comprehensively), and Sam Sheridan hits every bull's eye. Great presentation, and great listen. Art et Amour Toujours

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A bad title for this excellent WCS user's manual

I picked this book up, only by chance during an audible sale. I had just finished 'The Beginning of the End: Apocalypse Z' so I was still in a mood for post apocalyptic chaos, but what I got was a thoroughly researched book on how to survive the immediate aftermath.

The majority genre of end of the world scenarios paint a romanticized version of a dystopia, but 'The Disaster Diaries' (title insinuates an epistolary fiction similar to the aforementioned) is about 95% legitimate survival information and techniques and only 5% story telling (used to combine each scenario together).

The author focuses on key areas of potential doom (e.g., personal fitness, shooting, infection, water, knife fighting) that if overlooked is a silly way to die if you already beat the odds and survived an Extinction Level Event.

Get this book if you're a self-proclaimed prepper, or even if you want to be able to live through a temporary local disaster. Save yourself, save your family.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Entertaining, Educational and Practical

What made the experience of listening to The Disaster Diaries the most enjoyable?

Most apocalyptic fiction is so far fetched that it is difficult for it to be much more than an entertainment piece. This book was entertaining in the way the author maintained a storyline while educating the reader about skills that would be needed in an apocalyptic situation. In reality, the skills that the author discusses should be basic requirements for any person to learn as the grow older. These are practical skills that most of society has forgotten in our ingrained complacency with modern technology. Thanks for a well written book and the well narrated audio.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Worth a listen

Any additional comments?

A little overblown, but interesting. I thought it was worth the time. I would suggest previewing the narrator (if you dont usually) to make sure he's not a little over-the-top for you.

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6 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Blah blah blah

I thought it was a fiction about a man in a disaster/end of the world. It isn't there is a story here and there otherwise it's more like listening to a lecture. Lots of statements and analogies.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Book. Great advice tied to a good story

Would you listen to The Disaster Diaries again? Why?

Absolutely. Great effort.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Disaster Diaries?

All of the good recounting of the survival training experiences and how they might be used in a real world situation.

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

Lost of great advice.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well written, well researched, and entertaining.

A very interesting look at possible doomsday scenarios. Well written. The research and preparation was intriguing.

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Zombies, Aliens and Cannibalistic Bikers....

Please don't waste your time, or your credits on this book. I downloaded it believing that the author's portfolio of experiences might be useful to me as I begin prepping. Instead, it's memoir-type journal interspersed with tabloid / fantasy fiction. JRR Tolkien he ain't.

Since the author's experiences sounded great, I had high hopes. He learned stunt driving, trained with gun experts, did SOLO wilderness training. Well, I hoped that it would at least give me a place to start my own research. Instead the whole book sounds like a veteran recounting war stories. Interesting at times, but there's no real educational benefit for the listener. A few hours on YouTube would give me more education...and that's saying something.

The only thing I actually took away from this book (besides a headache) was that you do need to practice your preparedness and survival skills.

I have a lot of respect for the author - he's done and learned amazing things. It's just a totally useless text. No one can hope to possibly pick up all the skills he's learned with a twenty minute explanation, no matter how detailed. Too much scope, not enough substance here. That, and the periodic fiction was just disturbing.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The Disaster Diaries is a Great Audiobook

If you could sum up The Disaster Diaries in three words, what would they be?

It is a fun, realist, and well rounded look at prepping for the worst for the layman.

Which scene was your favorite?

Sam's trip to Canada. I liked how he went out of his element and the way he described people living an almost subsistence lifestyle.

Any additional comments?

I heard of this book from a JRE podcast interview that Sam Sheridan did. It was a great podcast and the audiobook did not disappoint.

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good, but not great...

I believe the thesis of this book is somewhat naïve, or perhaps the authors conclusions are based on wishful thinking.

The book is an attempt to present a moderate view of what could result from the breakdown of societal norms. Honestly, it's not very convincing.

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3 people found this helpful