Hello Monkeys, I've started a small collection of survival/SHTF/fun books to keep in my treehouse come completion. I have looked over a lot of these reading room threads, and added a lot to my "to buy" list. I was wondering what books you guys keep on hand. What I physically have so far: Morrows guide to knots (with rope to practice) US army survival handbook The Woodland Homestead Medicinal Wild Plants of the prarie Edible wild plants of the prarie My side of the mountain (a favorite as a child) Walden or Civil Disobedience -Henry David Thoreau (a great classic) Pocket Ref 4th edition Seed to Seed A few Backwoods Home magazine Sun Tzu - Art of War What I am looking for: An quick go-to emergency medical/first aid book A more in depth medical book Classics circling around self-reliance A book or two to throw off friends if I ever take any out there(i was thinking a book on cannibalism) any books you have found useful and/or fun On my "To-Buy" List: Lights out Patriots- Rawles Tools for survival- Rawles The Have-more Plan
You need medical resources. Here are some to consider: 1. Wilderness Medicine 6th Edition by William Forgey 2. Survival Medicine Handbook, 2nd Edition by Joseph Alton 3. Armaggedon Medicine by Cynthia Koelker 4. Dr. Paul Auerbach has several good books on wilderness medicine 5. The Prepper Pages: A Surgeon's Guide to Scavenging Items for a Medical Kit, and Putting Them to Use While Bugging Out (Volume 1) - Ryan Chamberlin 6. How to Treat Life-Threatening Conditions Preppers Get!: The Prepper Pages Survival Medicine Guide to Dealing with the Most Common Infections & Illnesses Plaguing Preppers (Volume 2) - Ryan Chamberlin 7. Physician's Desktop Reference - an older version from several years ago is fine
See? I think dogs are useful, whereas my adorable chubby princess cat is probably toast. I would add: Ball Blue Book Canning Guide Gardening When it Counts, by Solomon The Four Season Harvest, by Coleman
I was going to say "no cook books? You NEED cook books! Wild game cook books!" Sewing books. What, you think clothes last forever? How-to (sew, garden, can, reload, build, remodel, etc, etc, etc.) books. How to play card games/game playing books (Book of Hoyle, etc.) to keep you from going crazy on the long winter nights. Bible (even if you don't believe in it, it gives you great advice and something to read). Trashy paperbacks to keep you from going nutz. Personally I would get any Rawles books (or other survivalist, or ANY book for that matter) at the library and read them before buying. ALL of Rawles books are riddled with WILL get you killed in real life, DOES NOT WORK in real life, DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY in real life, WILL get you thrown in jail in real life (remember when the two "heroes" go get birth certs? THAT is a one way ticket o prison! Too bad Rawles doesn't try his own BS as he would be dead, or in prison, in a week). ALL his book are full of this c=rap and if you can't find an average one screw up per page (300 page book will have about 340 "doesn't works" in it easily) than you need to learn a lot more! And NOT from Rawles!
When There is No Doctor and When There is No Dentist. (Both are available as free .pdfs.) Any military Survival Manual, especially Russian ones in English. Mark's Engineering Handbook Also, start your own survival fake book: Get a binder and add pages with new survival info that you want to remember and have close at hand. Example: Look up Japanese lashing. They do it simpler and smarter than us round-eyes. Japanese Square Lashing - Scoutmastercg.com
Well a quick run down to the library and it seems I was right about Rawls' TOOLS FOR SURVIVAL too. He just pulled a Duncan (from Duncan Long - Long on BS and short on facts, who puts out a "writing course" when he wants another book, and each victim...er...writer gets a chapter...er... subject to write about and compiles them into a book he knows nothing about, which is why his books are worthless junk) and just pulled the whole book, articles written by other people, from his blog and added his "wit"(less) to the chapters. Totally worthless if you have been a survivalist for more than five minutes, and of little use if you are a rank beginner.
Thank you guys. My to-buy list just got much larger. Added Books: Mark's Engineering Handbook The Four Season Harvest Gardening when it counts Wilderness Medicine 6th Edition Ball blue book of preserving Eat thy neighbor: A history of cannibalism (you know....for fun) The survival medicine handbook The Bible Hunt,gather,cook: finding the forgotten feast A guide to kansas mushrooms
Look at the PDF's in the Monkey Library... then buy a 50.00 kindle and a 20.00 chip and down load them to it... then get a 30.00 solar charger panel and you are set to go... $100.00and you have over 16 gigs of books on hand... and more space to store food or ammo.... YMMV
What WD said. I started this journey about '73. Everything was hard copy and what was available took searching to find. A couple years ago I went the tablet route and was able to readily put a cube vans worth of knowledge in a 6X6 inch space weighing about a pound. Duplicates as needed.
PDFs are fine as an alternative and as a cost effective starting point, but sooner or later you need to start a collection of hard copy reference. easy enough to do if you hit used book sales and aren't buying everything new My hard copy collection, not including fiction stuff and firearms stuff:
What tc556guy said. It is all well and good to have 10,000,000 books on a thumb drive or disk or what ever UNTIL that thumb drive dies (10 years max), the disk dies (gets hit with a magnet, degasses, bent/cracked/scratched), the computer dies (remember the C-64? I need a power pack, otherwise I would STILL be using it! Got 20 years worth of stuff I can't access and even if I get a power pack [hint! hint!] I still might be able to access any of it), or what ever. Best to have BOTH, but remember either can get wiped out easily enough.