{"id":1083,"date":"2009-07-10T20:19:23","date_gmt":"2009-07-11T03:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:44:23","slug":"favorite-preparedness-self-sufficiency-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/favorite-preparedness-self-sufficiency-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Favorite Books on Preparedness, Self-Sufficiency, and Practical Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

In descending order of frequency, the 78 readers that responded to my latest survey recommended the following non-fiction books on preparedness, self-sufficiency, and practical skills:<\/p>\n

The Encyclopedia of Country Living<\/a> by Carla Emery (Far and away the most often-mentioned book. This book is an absolute “must”<\/strong> for every well-prepared family!)<\/p>\n

The Foxfire Book<\/a>
\nseries (in 11 volumes, but IMHO, the first five are the best)<\/p>\n

Holy Bible<\/a><\/p>\n

Where There Is No Dentist<\/a>\"\" by Murray Dickson<\/p>\n

“Rawles on Retreats and Relocation”<\/a><\/p>\n

Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook<\/a>\"\" by James Talmage
\nStevens<\/p>\n

The “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course<\/a><\/p>\n

Crisis Preparedness Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Home Storage and Physical Survival<\/a>\"\" by Jack A. Spigarelli<\/p>\n

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon<\/p>\n

Tappan on Survival<\/a>\"\" by Mel Tappan<\/p>\n

Boston’s Gun Bible<\/a>\"\" by Boston T. Party<\/p>\n

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners<\/a>\"\" by Suzanne Ashworth<\/p>\n

Survival Guns<\/a>\"\" by Mel Tappan<\/p>\n

Boy Scouts Handbook: The First Edition, 1911<\/a> (Most readers recommend getting pre-1970<\/strong> editions.)<\/p>\n

All New Square Foot Gardening<\/a>\"\" by
\nMel Bartholomew<\/p>\n

When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency<\/a>\"\" by Matthew Stein<\/p>\n

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition<\/a>\"\" by Abigail R. Gehring<\/p>\n

Preparedness Now!: An Emergency Survival Guide (Expanded and Revised Edition)<\/a>\"\" by Aton Edwards<\/p>\n

Putting Food By<\/a>\"\" by Janet Greene<\/p>\n

First Aid (American Red Cross Handbook) Responding To Emergencies<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook<\/a>\"\" by James Talmage Stevens<\/p>\n

Nuclear War Survival Skills<\/a> by Cresson H. Kearney (Available for free download<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

Cookin’ with Home Storage<\/a>\"\" by Vicki Tate<\/p>\n

SAS Survival Handbook<\/a>\"\"by John “Lofty” Wiseman<\/p>\n

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables<\/a>\"\" by Mike Bubel<\/p>\n

Outdoor Survival Skills<\/a>\"\" by Larry Dean Olsen<\/p>\n

Stocking Up: The Third Edition of America’s Classic Preserving Guide<\/a>\"\" by Carol Hupping<\/p>\n

The American Boy’s Handybook of Camp Lore and Woodcraft<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook<\/a> by Peggy Layton<\/p>\n

98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive<\/a>\"\" by Cody Lundin<\/p>\n

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners<\/a>\"\" by Suzanne Ashworth<\/p>\n

Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life<\/a> by Neil Strauss<\/p>\n

Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management<\/a>\"\" by Maurice G. Kains<\/p>\n

Essential Bushcraft<\/a>\"\" by Ray Mears<\/p>\n

The Survivor<\/a> book series by Kurt Saxon. Many are out of print in
\nhard copy, but they are all available on DVD. Here, I must issue a caveat
\nlector <\/em>(“reader beware”): Mr. Saxon has some very controversial views that I do not
\nagree with. Among other things he is a eugenicist.<\/p>\n

How to Stay Alive in the Woods<\/a> by Bradford Angier\"\"<\/p>\n

The New Organic Grower<\/a> by Eliot Coleman<\/p>\n

Tom Brown Jr.’s series of books, especially:<\/p>\n

Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Wilderness Survival<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Tom Brown’s Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants (Field Guide)<\/a>\"\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Total Resistance<\/a>\"\" by H. von Dach<\/p>\n

Ditch Medicine: Advanced Field Procedures For Emergencies<\/a>\"\" by Hugh Coffee<\/p>\n

Living Well on Practically Nothing<\/a>\"\" by Ed Romney<\/p>\n

The Secure Home<\/a>\"\" by Joel Skousen<\/p>\n

Outdoor Survival Skills<\/a>\"\" by Larry Dean Olsen<\/p>\n

When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes<\/a>\"\"by Cody Lundin<\/p>\n

The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare<\/a>\"\"by John Poole.<\/p>\n

Camping & Wilderness Survival: The Ultimate Outdoors Book by Paul Tawrell<\/p>\n

Great Livin’ in Grubby Times<\/a>\"\" by Don Paul<\/p>\n

Just in Case<\/a>\"\" by Kathy Harrison<\/p>\n

Nuclear War Survival Skills<\/a> by Cresson H. Kearney (Available for free download<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

How to Survive Anything, Anywhere: A Handbook of Survival Skills for Every Scenario and Environment<\/a>\"\" by Chris McNab<\/p>\n

Storey’s Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance<\/a>\"\" by John & Martha Storey<\/p>\n

Adventure Medical Kits A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness & Travel Medicine<\/a>\"\"by Eric A. Weiss, M.D.<\/p>\n

Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook<\/a> (superceded the very out-of-date ST 31-91B)<\/p>\n

Wilderness Medicine, 5th Edition<\/a>\"\" by Paul S. Auerbach<\/p>\n

Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long<\/a>\"\"by Elliot Coleman<\/p>\n

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition<\/a>\"\" by Abigail R. Gehring<\/p>\n

Government By Emergency<\/a>\"\" by Dr. Gary North<\/p>\n

The Weed Cookbook: Naturally Nutritious – Yours Free for the Taking!<\/a>\"\" by Adrienne Crowhurst<\/p>\n

The Modern Survival Retreat<\/a>\"\" by Ragnar Benson<\/p>\n

Last of the Mountain Men<\/a>\"\" by Harold Peterson<\/p>\n

Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills: Naked into the Wilderness<\/a>\"\" by John McPherson<\/p>\n

LDS Preparedness Manual<\/a>, edited by Christopher M. Parrett<\/p>\n

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging
\nCatastrophes of the Twenty-First Century<\/a>\"\" by James H. Kunstler<\/p>\n

Principles of Personal Defense – Revised Edition<\/a>\"\" by Jeff Cooper.<\/p>\n

Survival Poaching<\/a>\"\" by Ragnar Benson<\/p>\n

The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses<\/a>\"\"
\nby Eliot Coleman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In descending order of frequency, the 78 readers that responded to my latest survey recommended the following non-fiction books on preparedness, self-sufficiency, and practical skills: The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery (Far and away the most often-mentioned book. This book is an absolute “must” for every well-prepared family!) The Foxfire Book series (in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[534],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources","tag-books"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18348,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions\/18348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}