Recommended Survival Books-Required Reading-Fiction & Guides - Beginners

Thanks!

Melbo,

Thanks for the list; I'll get started.

 

Deep Winter, Shatter, and Remnant by Tom Sherry.

 

S. M. Stirling:

1. Dies the Fire - published August 2004 sample chapters
2. The Protector's War: A Novel of the Change (Change Series) sample chapters
3. A Meeting at Corvallis
4. The Sunrise Lands - published September 2007 sample chapters + map
5. The Scourge of God - published September 2008 sample chapters
6. The Sword of the Lady - published 25 August 2009 sample chapters
7. The High King of Montival - published September 2010 sample chapters
8. Conquistador sample chapters

Robert Heinlein

1. Tunnel in the Sky
2. Farnham's Freehold

 

Yep, "How to survive the end of the world as we know it"

 

Unintended Consequences will be available from Accurate Press in soft cover when available.

I just ordered a half dozen copies of Amazon.com: Lights Out (9780615427355): David Crawford: Books from Amazon (thanks David).

 

Is there a projected date for its release?

Amazon's got some used copies but the least expensive is about $100. I'd love a copy but can't swing that price!

 

Some fiction off the top of my head...

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein
The Traveler - John Twelve Hawkes
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Non-fiction:

FM 21-76 US Army Survival Manual
SAS Survival Handbook
Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook
Crisis Preparedness Handbook

 

Ok don't laugh but The zombie survival guide by max brooks will give you some good ideas if you take out the zombie reference. the lists of what to carry are a good place to start IMHO. Books a million carries a non-fiction book on the art and skills of the backwoodsman. I found it quite interesting don't have the author or title but it can't be that hard to find. The backwoodsman magazine is a great place on DIY ideas for when times get hard.

 

Thanks you learn somthing new every day Im told.

 

I consider The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress one of Heinlein's best. The premise is that the Moon is used as Earth's penal colony, but after several generations the inmates are tired of living under a warden and shipping all their wealth and natural resources to earth.

In 2005, Tim Minear wrote a movie script based on the novel and though I posted the link in another topic I thought I'd stick it here too, you might enjoy reading it. The screen-play condenses the story out of necessity and makes a few plot changes to update the 1965 story, but it captures the feel of the original, including the unique speech patterns of the "Loonies" and it's a fun read dealing with the nuts and bolts of revolution: http://socalbrowncoats.com/images/moonfriday.pdf

 

I just finished Alas, Babylon yesterday and loved it. I read On The Beach right before that and while it was good, definitely liked Babylon better. Maybe it was because it had a little more action, or that it wasn't so depressing. The part in "Beach" where the guy gave his daughter the shot was brutal. I have a 2 year old and can't even grasp the thought of it. I started Lucifer's Hammer yesterday, and I'm jumping back and forth to Dies The Fire. I'm about half way through that. I like the Mike Havel story line, but I kind of zone out when I'm reading about "Lady Juniper" and her coven.

 

In the non-fiction category I would suggest the following:
The "Have-More" Plan
The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living
The Encyclopedia of Country Living
Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management
the Homesteader's Manual, by the editors of Farmstead Magazine (circa 1983)

These are a few I wouldn't want to part with. As you can see by the links they are all readily available today (Jan 23, 2011) Additionally IMO no better relevant magazine exists than, Backwoods Home Magazine. A subscription to this magazine, and eventual acquisition of all the back issue Yearly Anthologies is highly advised.

 

That is just the tip of a huge iceberg my friend. I know I have over 3000 books. I hate being inbetween houses right now. My books for the most part are in climate controlled storage. Very few are fiction. Maybe 100 or so. 800 to 1000 are cookbooks. I suspect you have a few of those, considering some of the nightly menus you have posted in the chatbox. The rest are reference books on all kinds of subjects I deemed essential for survival. I will die before my books are scattered or lost to humanity. I acquire most of my hard copies at much much less than the original suggested market price. Quite a few at $1 or less. I just picked up a copy of "The Joy of Cooking", a classic, for $1. I already have two other copies. I gifted the new one to a newly retired relative without a copy. Bon Appetit.