Outdoor Life has a number of encylopedia-style outdoor titles. I like to think of them as my bathroom books, and I mean that with the highest esteem. None of the books go into great detail on tools and tactics, but they are all great surveys of a broad range of topics relevant to the title, and they are all entertaining reads.
The Ultimate Winter Survival Handbook covers 157 different tips and tricks. I found the most useful pertained to winterizing cars and homes, although living in Alaska allows me to find a few omissions: the most effective things to increase your home's energy efficiency are foaming your rim joists in the crawl space and blowing in insulation in the attic, for example, and these aren't mentioned. Winter driving, cycling and running are all mentioned, but not studded tires, fat bikes or shoes with ice cleats. And the section on ice axes actually shows ice tools. You get the idea.
Beyond these omissions and the rare outright error, the information that is included is generally solid if somewhat superficial. The Ultimate Winter Survival Handbook is great for reminding yourself of things you need to do and things you forgot to do, and points the way toward further research. And best of all, you can read a few tips at a sitting while you're warm and, hopefully, comfortable.
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