# Question: What are the top 3 prepping books you wouldn't want to be without?



## preppermama (Aug 8, 2012)

Here's my top 3 prepper books I wouldn't want to be without. What are yours?

1. SAS Survival Guide: SAS Survival Guide 2E (Collins Gem): For any climate, for any situation: John 'Lofty' Wiseman: 9780061992865: Amazon.com: Books

2. Foraging New England: (or any other well-rounded foraging book specific to the region I'm in) - Foraging New England: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods and Medicinal Plants from Maine to Connecticut: Tom Seymour: 9780762709540: Amazon.com: Books

3. Back to Basics: Back to Basics: Editors of Reader's Digest: 9780895770868: Amazon.com: Books


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## MountainMan (Apr 4, 2012)

Awesome thread Preppermama!! I can't wait to hear what everybody else says. For me it's just one at the moment. Tom Brown's Field Guide. I know I should have the SAS Guide and it's on my list (before everybody starts chewin' me out).


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## punch (Nov 6, 2012)

"Curious George and the High Voltage Fence" would have to be up there some wheres...
The SAS Guide is definitely a good read.

punch


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## preppermama (Aug 8, 2012)

punch said:


> "Curious George and the High Voltage Fence" would have to be up there some wheres...
> 
> punch


LOL. I had to go Google that.


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## preppermama (Aug 8, 2012)

I know this thread has been done before over in the subforum, but we have a lot of new faces here. I am wondering what our new members like.


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## bikermikearchery (Dec 4, 2012)

The first three books of the Fox Fire series has all kinds of good stuff.


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## preppermama (Aug 8, 2012)

bikermikearchery said:


> The first three books of the Fox Fire series has all kinds of good stuff.


I've heard great things about the Firefox series. They always seem to fall to the bottom of the priority list for me. I heard they were posted online somewhere, but I never found 'em.


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## survival (Sep 26, 2011)

"The Kids' Guide to Hitchhiking"

But seriously (I'm in a weird mood tonight), here is my list:

1. Emergency War Surgery: BARNES & NOBLE | Emergency War Surgery by NATO | Paperback

2. Where there is no Dentist: BARNES & NOBLE | Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson | Paperback

3. Where there is no Doctor: BARNES & NOBLE | When There Is No Doctor: Preventive and Emergency Healthcare in Uncertain Times by Gerard S. Doyle | NOOK Book (eBook), Paperback

and to add...

4. Birth Emergency Skills Training: Birth Emergency Skills Training, (0979002001), Bonnie Urquhart Gruenberg, Textbooks - Barnes & Noble


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## J.T. (Nov 10, 2012)

My three....


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

At least 3 ex-SAS troopers have been in the news over the years for committing suicide with depression, so that serves as a reminder to us all that although physical toughness and skills are great, *they count for ZILCH *if we haven't got the right survival mindset to back them up.
The moral therefore is to develop the proper mindset by adopting whatever philosophies help us to achieve it or else we'll be screwed in a SHTF world.
For example Bear Grylls uses the Bible as a 'Survival Manual'-










(At 25 mins:32 secs into this clip)-


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## JDE101 (Nov 9, 2012)

*Question: What are the top 3 prepping books you wouldn't want to be without? *

There is a difference between "preparing" and "surviving". My favorite "prepping" book is James Wesley, Rawles book, "How To Survive The End Of The World As We Know It". It is filled with great ideas on how to prepare for when TSHIF. However, AFTERWARD, it wouldn't be very useful!

Now as far as *survival* is concerned, I have a couple of US Army survival manuals that can be picked up at Barnes & Noble or on Amazon, I'm sure. I have ordered the SAS book from Amazon, along with a couple books on edible and medicinal plants that grow in the region of the US where I live.

As far as Bear Grylis is concerned, in my opinion he is an over rated phony! I watched a couple of his episodes where he was bounding down a mountain side and jumping from bolder to bolder!!! I immediately thought WTF!!! No serious, sane, outdoorsman would do such a stupid thing! If you are alone and break an ankle or even sprain an ankle in the wilderness, your chances of survival drastically go down. So what was he thinking? Later, I learned he has a whole support crew and film crew with him! I never watched another one of his shows.

Now Les Stroud, on the other hand, goes into the "wilderness" by himself, films the entire episode by himself, and carries a minimum of "stuff". He has some extremely useful information on his show about how to "make do" with all kinds of stuff you might have with you or be able to find in any given scenario. I've learned quite a bit from watching his shows. Also, there was a lot of useful information in the series Man, Woman, Wild, which had an ex Green Beret and his Australian newscaster wife in various wilderness survival situations.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

JDE101 said:


> ..As far as Bear Grylis is concerned, in my opinion he is an over rated phony!..


That's TV for you, it's phoney and rigged through and through because all shows are designed to get the highest possible viewer ratings. To his credit Grylls goodnaturedly admits it on chat shows. Also to his credit, there's nothing phoney about him eating yukky things and jumping down waterfalls etc, so in that respect he sends out the useful message that nature needn't be feared. He's also man enough to let viewers see he's not a superman, for example on a small desert island he admitted defeat because there wasn't enough water so he had to build a raft to get off, and another time we saw him puking after eating something, "Wow that's a first for me!" he said.
And when his face ballooned and half-blinded him after a bee sting he never demanded that be edited out either and took it well, saying- "If you risk nothing you gain nothing"

1- Ouch, a sting to the forehead
2- Yummy honey!
3- The stings effect kicks in









VID-


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## Meangreen (Dec 6, 2012)

Just my opinion but I think Bear and Les both bring different things to the table. If I was to pick one to learn from I think Les would be the better choice for survival because he went into the wilds of Canada with his wife and just what they could carry on their backs for many years and not only survived but thrived. Something that Les Stroud said really stuck with me, "Your not against nature and nature isn't against you, nature just is." For books I think the Cody Lundin's books are great such as, "When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes" and , " 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive." My other would be "Survive! by Les Stroud."


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

We can also learn a lot from true exploration and adventure-type books because a lot of the time things don't always go smoothly and we can learn from their mistakes..
Even the SAS goof bigtime sometimes like in the infamous 'Bravo-Two-Zero' mission behind Iraqi lines; the young officer originally assigned to lead it REFUSED POINTBLANK to go because he could see it was doomed from the start, he's got my greatest admiration!
Another officer led it and it was a total failure, they were helicoptered into the open desert and were expected to walk to intercept Scud missile carriers on a main highway as if the enemy would just stand by and let them do it, crazy!










Here are some other true books on my bookshelf we can learn from..-
































































For example Napoleon and his troops were in Moscow for 6 weeks through the Autumn, but instead of prepping for the retreat to France with winter clothes, furs and food etc, they loaded themselves down with booty such as artwork, silverware, grandfather clocks etc and starved and froze in their thousands on the winter retreat, realising their mistake too late and discarding the booty by the side of the road because they were too weak and frostbitten to carry it (below)-


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

As for prepping books, this is one of the best I've seen, the artwork is sensational..


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## Meangreen (Dec 6, 2012)

So true that many of the autobiographies and biographies of true life adventure and survival have really good intel.


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## WoadWarrior (Oct 10, 2012)

Actually... I've been going the opposite route. I've been collecting books on primitive skills... and not just from America. I've collected tons of books on techniques from third world countries under the belief that if our modern system crashes.... I'll have source books that can help me overcome the lack of modern equipment and electronics. Plus... I have tons of repair manuals on smaller electronics, etc., along with the usual ebooks.... 

Here's a sample list of some of them:
Wood Harvesting with Hand Tools - An Illustrated Training Manual
Old Farm Tools and Machinery - An Illustrated History
Tools for Homesteaders, Gardeners and Small-Scale Farmers
Tools and How to Use Them - An Illustrated Encyclopedia
Handling and Storage of Food Grains in Tropical and Subtropical Areas
Intensive Vegetable Gardening for Profit and Self-Sufficiency
The Samaka Guide to Homesite Farming
The Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding
The Nursery-Manual - A Complete Guide to the Multiplication of Plants
The Modern Blacksmith
The Mechanical Engineers' Pocket-Book
The Making of Tools
The Homesteader's Handbook to Raising Small Livestock
The Harness Maker's Illustrated Manual
The Handcart Handbook
The Draft Horse Primer - A Guide to the Care and Use of Work Horses and Mules
The Design and Manufacture of Animal Drawn Carts
Solar Water Pumping - A Handbook
Small Gas Engines
Rural Mechanics Course 3 - Repair and Maintenance of Stationary Diesel Engines
Raising Healthy (Insert farm animal here... Rabbits, poultry, goats, etc) Under Primitive Conditions
Raising Goats for Milk and Meat
Pictoral Handbook of Technical Devices
Pedal Power

And hundreds more... well...actually, well over a thousand. I keep them all on a jump drive and on a tablet in pdf form. Plus I have an AC, DC and solar charger for the tablet... so unless I break it, I should be good to go.


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## WoadWarrior (Oct 10, 2012)

preppermama said:


> I've heard great things about the Firefox series. They always seem to fall to the bottom of the priority list for me. I heard they were posted online somewhere, but I never found 'em.


I tried to PM you about the foxfire books... but you apparently have PMs turned off.


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## WoadWarrior (Oct 10, 2012)

What's nice is that you can concentrate on a particular subject and learn everything about it... and subjects closely associated with it. For example... let's take "Fish as a food source". I have the following books:

Aquaculture Practices in Taiwan
Elementary Guide to Fish Culture in Nepal
Fish Catching Methods of the World
Fish Culture in Central East Africa
Freshwater Fish Pond Culture and Management
Freshwater Fisheries and Aquaculture in China
Making Aquatic Weeds Useful - Some Perspectives for Developing Countries
Practical Shellfish Farming
Raising Fresh Fish in Your Home Waters
Salmon Rancher's Manual
Tropical Oysters
Freshwater Fish Farming - How to Begin
Fishing With Bottom Gillnets
Pair Trawling with small boats
Sails as an Aid to Fishing
Food Cycle Technology Source Book No 4 - Fish Processing
Food Preservation - Fish, Meat and Equipment
Fishing Knots
Essential Fishing Knots
Aquaculture - Walton Two - A Complete Guide to Backyard Fish Farming
Small-Scale Freshwater Fish Farming
How to Clean Whole Fish
Canning Meat, Wild Game, Poultry & Fish Safely
Fish Pickling for Home Use
Smoking Fish at Home - Safely


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## Alaska (Nov 28, 2012)

The Bible 

Copy of the Constitution

The Ranger handbook.


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## preppermama (Aug 8, 2012)

WoadWarrior said:


> I tried to PM you about the foxfire books... but you apparently have PMs turned off.


Really? Let me go check that and I'll pm you


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

Books are great but should be backed up with our own common sense, there are countless examples of botchups, for example the Apollo program cost billions of dollars but the crew of Apollo 13 nearly froze because NASA never thought to put a few emergency survival bags like this aboard costing only a few pennies-










And Scott of the Antarctic's expedition ran dangerously low on cooking fuel because they'd overlokked the fact that the cold would deteriorate the seals in the fuel cans, allowing it to leak and evaporate away.
Hey, if somebody was to write a book called "Great Mistakes of History" it'd run to at leat a thousand pages..


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