How do you convince people to be prepared?

Paperbacks are so old fashioned? So my 600+ paperbacks are obsolete?

 

I have been trying to get everyone I know to read Atlas Shrugged from the time I frist read it at thr age of 17. To me this has been one of the most enlighting books of our time, and a great intro into why we should be prepared for a SHTF. Now that the movie has been made I am hoping others will see the writing on the wall and get onboard with the rest of us who woke up a long time ago

 

No! Books are NOT obsolete! It's the mindset of the computer generation! I used to read a book or more aday...but i got busy and that went away...I have a librabry myself of all kinds of books and I"ve saved a lot of old magazines for their information as well...People don't want to take the time anymore...or maybe they can't concentrate long enough? Can't say for certain, but "we" seemed disposed today to want to get all our info from a source that is not a book..Just sayin'!

 

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, so why waist the energy ?

BWM

 

Could not agree more!!!!!!!! We are always buying books, you can get them used on line for next to nothing. You can get former library books which are built better. My wife has found us 10 of the 12 foxfire books in hardback. I trust a book will still be there will a electronic device still work????

BWM

 

Hello?! Books don't require batteries. They don't get erased in a power surge. They don't need WIFI to work. The bulk of human knowledge until less than 20 years ago was located in these big buildings called libraries. It was a mark of affluence to have an extensive library.

I have built shelving and covered the walls in my house. In my house, there are fiction books, literature, non-fiction, biographies, religious writings, how to books, encyclopedias, repair manuals, history texts, art books, craft books, and educational books. I have antique prayer books, Audubon books, the complete works of William Shakespeare (each play is a separate hard cover). We have children's books, teaching manuals, atlases, maps, dictionaries, thesauri, poetry, essays, short stories, novels, farmers almanacs, planting guides, and seed saving books. Our self sufficiency section alone takes up a 10'x8'x8" shelf unit.

I live in my own library. I don't go to the internet for much. I go to the shelves in my house, pull down a book, open it up (and smell that comforting smell of a book), and read. Bibliophiles - I recommend this site - "Half.com" a division of ebay but only for books. I got some seriously great deals here. I also shop thrift stores, Half Priced Books, and bargain bins at places like Barnes and Nobles. Just go in with an open mind, a budget, and browse. Second only to a day curled up with a great novel is a day spent finding a great bargain on a book or books.

Ex libris sapientia (From books wisdom). Carpe libris (seize the book)!

 

NEw tech, old tech

The books are offered as Kindle ebooks on Amazon. Hopefully some of the trendy hipsters will catch the fever. They are tagged as romance, adventure and military.

Sales run about one every other day, not bad considering the lack of advertising,.

I'll be putting these on sale shortly. When book 3 is online for sale, book one will stay at the reduced price.

 

Well...I have a little different take on ebooks than most here it seems.

I have a good ton of "paper books" around me on 3 walls as I sit here...but if I should be forced out into the woods or whatever, I also have every one that I have been able to obtain in both PDF and Kindle formats.

I am far from a "trendy hipster" (as a matter of fact, my wife is still laughing hysterically from when I quoted that description to her a few minutes ago), but appreciate being able to carry a few hundred books with me in the pocket of my cargo pants.

I believe in redundancy and have all of the books I have been able to obtain on the Kindles (the one I use daily and the one stashed away with the extra laptop, batteries, radios and ignition parts for my old British cars in a place as "EMP-proof" as I have been able to manage), as well as on the extra laptop, my daily laptop and 3 seperate sets of CDs.

I enjoy a "real" paper book as much as anyone, but I also like being able to carry all the books I am currently reading and all of those I might wish to consult in a package smaller than a single paperback...

 

You just caused me to look around and realize the only wall in this room NOT covered in books is the only outside wall...

 

I agree with the general consensus (here) that people are not readers like they use to be. When they do read it's a kindle, I-pad, phone etc..

My wife and I are BOOK readers. We have a 12X12 library in our home. We have book shelves in 2 spare bed rooms for our paperbacks. They are double stacked.

Like Falcon said, they don't need batteries, and short of a fire they will last you a life time.

 

Seems to be an unwritten requirement for a Prepper to be a BOOK READER instead of being locked into tech devices only, lol.

And the loss of available reading material will be one more shock for those who do not read paper books, when the SHTF and they are stuck in their homes with nowhere to go and no canned entertainment! Not only no food, no water, no power, no heat, but NOTHING TO READ....personally, I'd sooner be dead. I don't have the vast libraries that some of my fellow Monkeys are telling us about (the fortunate few!) but I do have three large bookcases full, as well as a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica which I bought at a sale. Never need to be bored if you have that in the house! Always something new to investigate and study. The original Web!

I have several field guides (wildflowers, birds, fungi, nests and nestlings, trees etc.) and several medical and first aid books, as well as all my favourite old books which bear frequent rereading. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago I decided I had better start unloading some of my "stuff" in light of my advancing years and I gave away a lot of classics etc. to grandchildren. Kind of wish I had kept them. Also have quite a few Prepper books, including Lights Out and my precious copy of Rawles Handbook, books of how-to for dehydrated foods, canning etc. And my old copies of Mother Earth News. I had a good many homesteading books but lent them out and in spite of getting quite aggressive with the borrowers, never got any of them back. Needless to say I don't lend any more. My dear old Scots Mum used to say "Only a fool lends these three things: books, brollies (Britspeak for umbrellas, don't you know) and money"!

I also have a Sony E-reader which I do very much enjoy but I only buy bargain-priced books for it (that frugal Scots blood again!) I always have in the back of my mind the thought that if there is an EMP in my future, I probably wouldn't be able to use it any more so I don't like to commit too much moolah to it.

 

They also increase the ballistic resistance of your walls. Just sayen'.

 

Every time sumone suggests to me getting rid of sum of my books or says about a Book Trade In Place where I could trade my old books for books I haven't read I look at them in sheer horror at the thought of getting rid of ANY of my Books!!!

For years I used to have a Family Circus comic strip from the Sunday Funnies on my Wall. If I remember correctly it said

TV gives you the pictures & sound of the story so you don't have to think.

Radio gives you the story & sound & you just imagine the scene in your head.

A book is a quiet friend, it gives you the story and you have to use your mind to imagine the pictures & sound.

 

my bedroom, my living room, my computer room and my library each have at least 2 walls covered in books and special magazines. like 40 some years worth of mother earth news and organic gardening
if i ever have to bug out of here i'll lose em all but i sure aint carrying all that on my back...lol

 

you are a true multitasker BT

@ Falcon - my family thinks I am nuts to tote box after box after box of books every single time we move but I insist...they have been my best friends since childhood. They never let me down and as you said - the comforting smell of the pages and ink instills a sense of wellness.

I agree the world has forgotten the joys of reading and now have to be fed it via movies and TV. I can only say I see it in this next generation...they are unable to imagine things. My nephews and son all suffer from this limited sense that is wholly and totally built in childhood. My son likes to read but as he became an older teenager and a young adult he succumbed to the laziness and it shows in his lack of originality when writing or speaking.

To be well read is a gift you truly give yourself

 

Gunny I think you just explained where all this ADHD ADD Short Attention Span crap came from. Its laziness of the Mind!!!

 

i have adhd, they say ive had attention problems all my life
the old mans willow switches kinda convinced me to pay attention
we need discipline, thats what is truly lacking, discipline and respect
and a real sense of community, it shouldnt be"me first" for everything

 

People with ADHD or ADD can adapt and become very productive adults. It is all about having the mental fortitude to understand that you have it and overcome it. I was diagnosed with it in high school and have looked at it as a blessing. I can multitask better than most people I know. One of my sons has it and I will not ever let him use that as a crutch ( he has tried several times). My ex-wife used to say to me all the time well he just can't concentrate blah blah blah. I told her frankly no he needs to learn to deal with it. Without medication and without you coddling him. He in turn has learned to deal with it and is doing just fine now without meds.