Books worth looking at

[argent93]

I found these two books on Amazon.com. They look really useful, so I thought I'd pass along the links. There are others that also look good, but I'm leaning toward these two as a start-up set.

When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival by Matthew Stein

Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook by

Comments

[sunfell]

I have 'Making the best of Basics' and it's pretty good, with one caveat: do the math! Like a reviewer points out, his food amount calculations might be more suited to feed a Marine squad than a standard family. That aside, it's definitely a good book.

I've been busily putting various books into my Wish List- I may need to start a Disaster Preparedness/Self Reliance wishlist. I already have a metaphysics, religion and politics, technical, music, and Suff I'd like to have wishlist, so, what's one more?

:-)

[argent93]

I may need to start a Disaster Preparedness/Self Reliance wishlist.

Yep. I just did this today. It's so much easier to find things when they're categorized. I love the multiple wishlist feature.

[interactiveleaf]

I own a copy of When Technology Fails, and I will let you know that it wasn't as useful as I had hoped it would be. There are chapters on Shelter and Buildings (how to build them from scratch), on Clothing and Textiles (how to make them), Metalworking (starting from how to build your own foundry) and Shamanistic healing (the Low-Tech Medicine and Healing chapter includes sections on "the power of prayer" and charts of the chakras.)

I'm not denigrating the book; I'm letting you know that it's geared for a longer-term emergency--like, it's for what happens when technology fails and STAYS failed, which I don't expect to happen in my lifetime. If you're trying to plan for a short-term emergency (a week to a few months) there are other books which may be more useful for you.

[interactiveleaf]

I guess I should have added to that comment that for every chapter that I mentioned above, I can think of a full-length book that covers the same subjects in more detail.

[argent93]

I'm not denigrating the book; I'm letting you know that it's geared for a longer-term emergency--like, it's for what happens when technology fails and STAYS failed, which I don't expect to happen in my lifetime. If you're trying to plan for a short-term emergency (a week to a few months) there are other books which may be more useful for you.

Thanks. This is good to know. It's so hard to really tell stuff like that even with the "look inside" feature.