Building a Survival Library Part Three: Top Ten Survival Books

Building a Survival Library Part Three
Top Ten Survival Books

Actually I am not that big a fan of “Top Ten” list because my ten favorite any things never make the list. Like so many things that appear on blogs, the purpose of this list is to get you to add and subtract from it. Maybe you have a really good survival book I have not heard of or one that I remember as being good is outdated and sucks. That happens. I started reading survival books back in the 1970s so I am sure some have changed or no longer can be found.
Another thing that can tilt the list is your own personnel prejudices on survival. If you are one that plans to head into the Huron National Forest and live off the land your best books will be more toward that goal, while the family in Oceana County that have 87 acres and a good home and outbuildings are more likely to have shelter in place preferences.
I fall into the latter category. I moved out of the city and back to the family farm a few years ago. We kept the farm stocked and ready all the while Dad and Mom were alive and it was our retreat. After Mom passed my wife and I moved “home” and now our retreat is our full time residence. I will not lie to you; there is a great sense of relief now. I wish I didn’t have the debt we ended up with because of choices we had to make, but all in all, this is where I want to be if TEOTWAWKI comes calling.
In no real order, ten books I would keep over the others are as follows:

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery.

The Guide to Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour

The Outdoor Life Complete Book of Camping by Leonard Miracle and Maurice Decker

Storey’s Basic Country Skills

Country Wisdom: The Art of Successful Homesteading by the Editors of Countryside Magazine

One of my seven or eight Wild Foods guidebooks. (Hard to pick just one, they all have info I want.)

One of my half dozen Mushroom Field guides. (Man, do I love Michigan mushrooms with a good fire grilled steak.)

Where There is No Doctor by David Werner with Thuman and Maxwell. (I believe you also need a good first aid book to go with this book.)

Making the Best of Basics by James Talmage Stevens

My “Survival Bible”, all the stuff I have printed out that I think I might need and want on hand if we ever go grid down.

My guess is that most of these books you already know about or have at least heard about. The only one that may need any explanation would be my Survival Bible. It is simply any article that I have read and printed out or cut out of a magazine that I believe I will want to look back on and re-read at some future date. A good recent example would be the Grub and Gear article by Alaskan Trapper over on Survivlblog.com about his list of supplies for a winter of trapping. It will make a good checklist for my wife and me to check making sure we have all the items we might need to hold up even longer than we plan on now.

Ok Michigan let us see some of the additions and subtractions you would have. I wanted to put my old Poor Man’s James Bond on the list, but frankly I rarely look at it anymore.

Wolverine

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