What Is In a Prepper's Library?

WHAT’S IN YOUR LIBRARY?

     Since reading Patriots and Survivors by James Wesley Rawles, I had a good look at the book cases that hold both the books and the movies. Rawles never suggested I do any such a thing.  I took it upon myself to have what I like, have what I need and acquire what I may need.  I thinned out to make room to store better books suited to my needs.

     I have always had craft books and how-to books that represent the things I like to do or want to learn to do.  I have a number of tips and techniques for keeping house and organizing.  I have NO exercise books although I do have a couple exercising and tightening for dummies videos.  I have always had an  array of tips & techniques  books as well as two good cookbooks and a few of the classics I mean to read this year coming up.  I have a Bible and a Book of Common Prayer. 

      I have sorted out a lot of things in the house toward my prepping lifestyle goal.  Books are just one place I found it made sense to let go of unused items.  The books I let go of had not been opened in years and it was easy to wipe off the dust before I donated them.  Our county library allows that donated books needed for their collection to go into the collection and those they have or have enough of are sold to raise money for more new titles. 

     I thinned out some of my craft book collection by being perfectly honest with myself.  I am never going to learn to knit.  I crochet and that will have to be good enough.  I freed up about four inches of space on the shelf with the subtraction of knitting for dummies and the like.  I gained another few inches when I pulled out the books I bought from some infomercial that were a total waste of time and money.  They were all good books in mint condition and were taken to the library for donation. 

     Since I have been prepping for a time when I may be on my own without modern convenience, I have been thinking what I should have on hand.  I have acquired two new  books on herbal remedies and disease prevention through herbal teas and supplements.  The best way to get well is to stay well, I think.  I bought a set of The American Medical Association Home Medical Encyclopedia for $3 at a yard sale.  The Red Cross First Aid manual has been there for years.  

     I have added other titles from yard sales for an average price between 50 cents and a dollar, titles like; Produce your own Power, The Reader’s Digest Treasury of Humor, The Reader’s Digest Book of Facts,  The Reader’s Digest Complete Book of The Garden, Solar Cooking.  Notice the pattern emerging here?  Lots of information is in a condensed version when the author is not paid by the word. I may not be ready to produce my own power, but that book was full of money saving tips that work to reduce power consumption.  I got the book of humor because everyone needs a laugh. 

     I have the Betty Crocker Complete Encyclopedia of Cooking ( the 1940 edition).  Maybe you are lucky enough to know how to clean a deer and scale a fish, I do know these things, but it’s nice to have the diagrams in the cooking encyclopedia for the removal of the scent glands of every animal edible including bear and squirrel.  Oh, yeah! Squirrel!  This book is a total coup de gras.  My mother has her mother’s cookbook and there have been a few discussions among sisters about it.  Thanks to a lucky yard sale find, I am out of the conversation!  I have my own!!  

     Some of these books have a lot of general information that I know but the bits I don’t are invaluable.  I have a book for the repair of small engines and one for my specific model car.  No one knows it all and a good reference book is gold to me.  

SO, what’s in your library?