[Inor]

So what do you all keep in your prepper library?

Ours includes:

1 - The Encyclopedia of Country Living (Awesome book)

2 - Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills

3 - U.S. Army Ranger Handbook

4 - The Ball Blue Book

5 - Foxfire (We only have 2 of the series. I wish I had the rest but I do not know if they are even in print anymore.)

6 - Where There is No Doctor

7 - Where There is No Dentist

8 - Gray's Anatomy

9 - Storey's Guides (These are really just pamphlets. We have about 6 of them.)

10 - Country Wisdom and Know How

11 - Boston's Gun Bible

12 - LDS Preparedness Manual (E-copy here: Another Voice of Warning: Prep Manual - General but I strongly urge you to order hardcopy for about $25.)

13 - Ashley Book of Knots

14 - Shipbuilder's Joinery Guide

15 - About 8 3-ring binders full of notes, spreadsheets, internet screen prints on every prepper subject imaginable.

16 - The Bible

There are several more that I did not mention. But these are the important ones. I figure, as a prepper, knowledge is the most important thing we store since it can save your life and it does not weigh anything.

 

[burkecj]

Great topic!

I'm with you on the Encyclopedia of Country Living. I would add:

Cottage Economy -- William Cobbett. Published in 1821. Much has been learned since then, but much has also been forgotten, and there will be a lot to be said about looking to the past in a long-term SHTF scenario.

SAS Survival Handbook. Good reference work.

Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. A useful book if you plan to eat food.

Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening -- Sepp Holzer.. A good "farming" system for self-reliance in the temperate zones.

You Can Farm -- Joel Salatin. This book isn't on "survival farming", but the practicality of this guy's mindset and his integrated use of livestock make him a good resource.

The Trapper's Bible -- Dale Martin. A useful book if your aim sucks and you like to eat meat, or if you want to protect meat on the hoof/claw.

Coppicing & Coppice Crafts: A Comprehensive Guide. This one might take some explaining. It's basically a book about sticks. I'll just say two brief things about why it's worth having a book about. The first is that not all of what you can do with greenwood or coppice wood is obvious. Basically, these are skills that all temperate-living people knew how to do up until very recently, and they all have a multiplier effect on everything else you would stand to do in a self-reliance situation: heating, construction, farming, fishing, archery, storage, you name it. Secondly, it's a set of skills that goes to economy of scale. Woodworking techniques with the chainsaw, logging truck, and sawmill in mind will not cut it (no pun intended) in a survival scenario. And in the developed world, a lot of wood is going to be of a smaller diameter in young, low-quality forests. So basically you want to know how to manage small-diameter woodlots efficiently for fuel, fodder, and construction materials. The Brits have been doing it for hundreds of years.

 

[Inor]

Great topic!
Coppicing & Coppice Crafts: A Comprehensive Guide. This one might take some explaining. It's basically a book about sticks. I'll just say two brief things about why it's worth having a book about. The first is that not all of what you can do with greenwood or coppice wood is obvious. Basically, these are skills that all temperate-living people knew how to do up until very recently, and they all have a multiplier effect on everything else you would stand to do in a self-reliance situation: heating, construction, farming, fishing, archery, storage, you name it. Secondly, it's a set of skills that goes to economy of scale. Woodworking techniques with the chainsaw, logging truck, and sawmill in mind will not cut it (no pun intended) in a survival scenario. And in the developed world, a lot of wood is going to be of a smaller diameter in young, low-quality forests. So basically you want to know how to manage small-diameter woodlots efficiently for fuel, fodder, and construction materials. The Brits have been doing it for hundreds of years.

Great point! The building part is why I included the Shipbuilder's Joinery Guide, but as you say there may not be enough old growth sized trees for a while.

 

[Montana Rancher]

Great idea, I've been meaning to consolidate my prep books from being all over the house to a single bookcase and you inspired me to do that. The ones you listed above are good and I have most of them, here are some of the ones that I think most should consider adding.

5x different reloading manuals, Speer, Hornady, Barnes, Herters, Nozler

CD Survival Blog Archives 2005-2012 (every article published on Survivalblog.com

Basic Seed Saving

Gazetteer Atlas for Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska

DIY Rammed Earth Manual

Complete idiots guide to fermenting foods

Small scale grain farming

Mosby's 2010 drug consult for nurses (My wife is an RN and we have about 15 huge books on almost any subject from prenatal to geriactrics.

American college of Physicians "complete home medicine guide" (got it at goodwill for $4)

Making soap from scratch.

Edible and medicinal plants of the west

The constitution of the United States with all amendments, declaration of independence, articles of confederation

State road maps for all surrounding states

Engineer in training reference manual (another huge book with tons of facts)

The doom and bloom survival medicine handbook

Cabelas 2012 master catalog

The Alaska bootleggers bible

Plants of the Rocky Mountains

How to survive the end of the world as we know it (Rawles)

Emergency food storage and survival handbook

A guide to canning, freezing, curing, smoking meat fish and game

 

[JBG621]

The wife and I have compiled a sizable collection of books, about 30 or so. Most of which have been mentioned above.
One of the things we did, and it may be something other members are interested in, is consolidate them into small laminate folders; the kind with the clear front that students use for book reports.
What we found was that most books covered a wealth of information, but not all was relative to the areas we are planning to be in. Example: we are far, far away from a desert environment, so, while we study and learn about desert basics, we usually use the computer to scan the pages more relevant to our areas, and print them. This way we have smaller, more reader friendly "booklets"concerning topics that we need to know for our environment. These "booklets" are also much smaller than full size text, and provide more specific, relevant information we need, compared to most pocket guides.
We keep copies in our bug out bags, and their size and weight makes them a lot easier to store, and pack items around.

 

[StarPD45]

FWIW: Rain Barrels, Chicken Coops, and Solar Panels

There are some interesting projects there. I haven't tried printing any of them, though.

 

[Denver]

This months Backwoods magazine has an order form for all the Foxfire books. I have 3 but didn't know there were 13.

 

[Inor]

This months Backwoods magazine has an order form for all the Foxfire books. I have 3 but didn't know there were 13.

They are in print again?!? AWESOME!!! That is a great series!