Quintessential Prepper Books

I am reading lights out now, Sal Batree was it for me and for reading material you want other people to read it is a considerable bit shorter, I am enjoying lights out though.

 

Finished One Second After. I liked it. I am going to get the one after it and see if it's just as good. It's good enough that I will also be getting a hardcopy of it. It shows just how sheep will be. No preps before hand. Just imagine having a supply of MREs for your family that would last for five years. You would have survived the scenario with spare. How many are thinking of insulin? Are you prepared to eat your dog? Many questions to think about from this book. Good one. Now on to others.

 

I couldn't get into One Year After. Forstchen wrote Day of Wrath.Not a prepper book but this book scared me. It could happen today. This is why you are prepping IMO. This is why you need to step it up and keep learning and storing everyday.

Day of Wrath: William R. Forstchen: 9781625781543: Amazon.com: Books

Dies Irae: Day of Wrath a novella by William R. Forstchen | Survival Forums

Read Lights Out and learn the lessons that are sprinkled throughout the book. After reading LO, look around where you are and see if your AO can withstand what the character went through.

 

Just finished Lights Out last night, wish I could get the neighbors on board without letting them know what I have done and have. Tried to talk to some of them in the past got the "I'll shoot me a deer" I wanted to say how many times do you go out and don't see anything. Just have to wait until they get hungry and see the need to band together, hopefully it wouldn't be to late.

 

I'm not ashamed to admit that One Second After made me cry in a couple of spots. It brought the personal and emotional impact to survival right to the surface, and shows that we need internal strength as well as all the rest in order to continue to live. One Year After is a good story, and was worth the read, but not as significant from a preparedness standpoint than One Second After.

 

It's not just Insulin - Ive been able to stock up 6 months of my prescription medicines through a strategy of periodically skipping some and reordering early. My goal is one year of meds including such things as vitamins, calcium, etc..

It's also just not diabetics that need to worry about infection. Most people don't realize that infectious germs, yeast in particular, are always in our system and that they are kept at bay by our immune system. Diabetics are more susceptible due to these organisms growing out of control due to high blood sugar levels. I found out I was diabetic due to such an infection - pimple size day one, marble size by day three, chicken egg size by day four. The pain was excruciating, and you don't want to die this way.

Diabetes is also why my preps don't focus as much on my own survival as that of the survival of my loved ones. Once my insulin reserves are gone I will likely die within the following year. I've gone for months previously without medication, but the result was always an infection requiring a trip to the ER.

During the "One Second After" type scenario many non-diabetics will die of infections, simply because most calories will come from carbs thus taxing your pancreas and liver to maintain normal blood sugar levels in combination with malnutrition, and physical and mental stress undermining your immune system.

 

Without question, The Unwelcome series tops the list.
Z

 

@3M-TA3 I know that it is a fiction book but in Lucifer's Hammer, I think they sacrificed a goat or sheep for insulin. Now that could be pure fiction but then there could be some truth. I hear what you are saying regarding infection. The healthiest person can be taken down by an ignored cut. But someone that has an underlying condition just makes this twice as deadly.

 

I'm too old I guess. What got me started was a period in time often called the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A real prepper book would be is

Free online book - Nuclear War Survival Skills

And free on line.

 

I have read almost all of the books mentioned above, and would like to add one online only offering that is probably the most riveting post-apocalyptic fiction story I have ever read. The title is "This Is Me Surviving" and it was written by a blogger that goes by Kathy in FL. I read it as it was being written, and had to wait to read it chapter to chapter. I can only find it posted on her blog in reverse order, and I fear that even a glance at chapter 101 would spoil the entire experience. A quick search of "This is me surviving chapter 1" took me to chapter one, here:

This is Me Surviving: Chapter One

It's the day to day survival story of a young woman who is on her own after society collapses. There are hundreds of recipes and step by step instructions threaded throughout the chapters. They are written into the story and I didn't find them too distracting, even if I'm not much of a cook or baker. One thing that I found interesting from the very beginning is that since this is written as a young woman's personal journal, there are words that she consistently misspells throughout the book. This was annoying at first, until I really got into the story. At some point I started to imagine her switching from black to blue ink, and in my mind I saw the words appear on the screen in different colors, and in a girls handwriting. A powerful book, and well worth the effort to hunt it down online.

 

It is also over at the Zombie Squad forum pages under Fiction...as are a number of my stories.

 

As I said before, I tried at least five times to get past page four of ONE SECOND AFTER. After reading how everyone loved it I sat down and forced myself to read it. Not (too) horrible, but NOT a book I would recommend to anyone or will ever read again.

Everyone goes "Do you HAVE to point out every logical flaw, mistake, screw up and will get you killed in real life, doesn't work in real life and stupid thing in every movie/book?!" Well... yes, I do. I read ONE YEAR AFTER (OSA goes from slightly before to one year after, OYA takes up after the first book) and at least most of the major stupidities were missing (Thank God!) but it still was not a book I really enjoyed. The "hero" (in both books) claims to be a military officer, but if so the military has gone to hell as he would have been fragged fifteen minutes after any combat troops were exposed to him and his stupidities (dare I say Rawles would be too? Better not). How ANYONE survived in the town with him in charge is beyond me too.

If you like/love the book(s) that's great, I have no problem with that, but there were too many basic mistakes, screw ups, stupidities and what not for me to enjoy it. I guess I like my "realistic" fiction (survival or otherwise) a little more real than these books, or so completely off the wall so there is no mistaking it is stupid and not to be taken seriously.

 

some of the BEST stories i have read have not been finished.............in my mind they just walked off into the sunset

firefly

 

WITHOUT QUESTION.............marry christmas happy new year Zen

 

I can understand the author running into writers block.
NEVER finishing the story isn't fair ( I know some hate that word) to the people following the events being written about

 

Another book to consider is Grapes of Wrath. Old school, well written and looks
at how desperate life can get...

 

On a more practical aspect I have copy's of Mel Tapping's Survival Guns and Tappin on Survival. Although dated the information is still valid. Could use an update though.

 

Patriots was the first prepper book I read followed by One Second After. IMO those are the two best fiction books, in that order.