Five Books You Should Have In Your Prepper Library

Part of being a prepper is being prepared, and your preparation should start with your library. While there are a lot of books you could have in your library, there are some obvious ones that should be in every preppers’ library, but it’s easy to forget some important books. These books should make your life a little easier, as they’re chock full of good advice and good information; they can be valuable additions to any library. Keep them on hand, and you can deal with any situation.

[The Kindle Debate: While dead tree versions are better, given the wide variety of situations you need to plan for, if you have a way to recharge simple electronics, a Kindle reader may not be a bad idea as it compacts your library; you can store a lot of reading material on the reader. This can be a good thing if you’re dealing with storage issues. Its search function can be of immense help, and it can store a lot of books as well as various utility apps. As such, it’s not a bad investment.]

The Farmer’s Almanac

This is a great book for farmers and homesteaders as it has a lot of information on when to plant various vegetables as well as when to harvest them. While the information is set for an entire year, it can be used for multiple years if you allow that the information doesn’t change much. It also makes hunting easier as it can be used to plan for the phases of the moon. It also contains a lot of great advice for a wide range of situations.

Boy Scouts of America Handbook

A caveat going in: You’re more interested in the older books as they focus more on bushcraft and physical training, with more instruction. On the other hand, more modern handbooks focus more on business and leadership. The older books also go into more detail on how to earn merit badges; this means that they have more information. In short, if you are an amateur when it comes to basic survival skills, this can seriously up your game, and it’s great to give to bored kids and some adults. Even if you’re an expert, there is some great information you may not have considered.

The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding a Civilization

Arguably the most expensive single book on this list, it is filled with lavish illustrations and lots of how-to information. What makes this an important book is that it contains a lot of plans for building simple devices that will make your life a lot easier, such as mills and fireplaces. For those looking for a big book of plans for all sorts of cool devices and machines, this is well worth the investment

The Complete Foxfire Collection

This fourteen-book collection is definitely the most expensive collection and sort of breaks the rules by being a collection. The high schoolers of Foxfire Magazine compiled the wisdom of their Appalachian elders; that would eventually lead to all of that information being gathered and collected into this collection. If you’re looking for the ultimate compilation of old school wisdom, specifically from an era where people couldn’t depend on outside help and had to do things for themselves, this is definitely something that should be in your library.

A Good Canning/Jarring Guide

If you only have one recipe book, make it something that will help you do something about all of the vegetables you’re growing. Obviously, you’ll need a large number of canning and jarring supplies, but this recipe will help you fill your shelves with more than just simple cans and jars of fruits and vegetables. Add in some pectin and sugar, and you can do jams and jellies as well. While this can add some time to harvests, it is definitely time well spent.

Bonus Materials

There are two broad categories that you may want to look into. The first are military training guides. The military has a wide variety of jobs that need to be done, and training guides were meant to ensure that everyone was on the same page. Besides weapon guides, there are plenty of other topics covered, such as camouflage, medical training, and even outside latrines; it may be worth looking into a master catalog of topics. You should also have maintenance guides for every piece of equipment that you have. For your vehicles, look into the various Chilton’s Guides can be of intense interest.

Lastly, don’t forget books just for pleasure reading; you need something for when you relax. All told, this should provide a good basis for a library that will see you through the good times and bad, and make sure that you are prepared for just about anything.