If you had only one book

Books are one of the greatest resources for survival. Authors from different walks of life share with us their expertise and experience. Between the covers of some of these books, we can learn a lot.

While some books capture only a few aspects, there are others that could be quite comprehensive. If you could have just only one book for your survival, which one would it be and why?

 

There is this one book but the name escapes me. I saw this guy on a TV show. He talks about the basic things we need for survival in many situations. He provided practical advice on things we need to have in our household. I wish I would have purchased the book but now the site I saw it on doesn't have it. Hopefully, I will learn from people who posts on here about any survival books.

 

If I only had one book I'd probably choose a fiction book that I enjoy rather than a book that would help me survive. That's pretty stupid but if I could only read one book again it would be a Terry Pratchett Discworld book so that I wouldn't go mad.

 

I agree, I would also choose a fantasy novel over a survival guide. It would help me stay sane ironically. I'd pick an uplifting book maybe like the last Harry Potter. Harry Potter an his friends survived all kinds of life threatening things and it wold help boost morale.

I find it funny that you'd pick Discworld since one of the characters is Death. What a great way to be on Death's good side while you're out in the wilderness than to read about it. I love it, haha!

 

I would download the plaintext variant of Wikipedia, which is, to my knowledge, around 14 gigs. Provided I had some sort of PDA I could charge through natural means, it would probably be an enormous asset.

 

The Patriots by James Wesley Rawls or the Out of the Ashes series by William W. Johnstone.

 

Quite agree.

 

I think I would opt for a great survival book. It sounds like the self sufficency guide as mentioned above would be a great book to have. I think having a how to guide and how to survive in any cirumstance would be very helpful. I am not very good with my hands so some simple construction techniques would be good to have.

 

I would probably go for a survival book... Fiction can be enjoyable, but I'd have to survive, not to have fun!
The Survival Guide by Gem Collins would probably be my pick, after the suggestions and reviews I read about it.

 

I'd go for an edible wild plants book or a survival medicine manual. Any recommendation?

 

I would prefer a science fiction book ("The Hunger Games"... one of my favorite books of all time, for example) that would take me to another reality and not one book that reinforced me a reality that I am already inserted.

A utopian place / reality makes me more motivated than dealing with my the place / reality (especially with the current reality of our real world).

 

I'd also for sure pick a good survival book over a fiction one. If I only had one single book I'd want to improve my chances of survival not decrease them.

I'd most likely take Bushcraft 101 written by Dave Canterbury. It's one of my favorite and hands down, best survival books I've read. It has all information you could possibly need in such situations. Plus you can get it in one of those small paperback editions and just carry it in your pocket.

 

What!? Is this possible?
How do we even?

I think you may have won this thread.
It'd be a task discarding all of the trash though, like the entry on Ariana Grande or some random show that aired for three weeks in the 80's. Still, the gems you could get from it would be enormous.

I'd do this, and hopefully by then have the Qur'an memorised so I always have that too.

 

Well, if I'd have the option to choose one, I'd pick a Hungarian one called A Journey Around My Skull from Frigyes Karinthy. It's not about surviving in the nature, it's about how this (well-know) writer survived brain cancer. He writes down his feelings and experiences (there are even original notes from the time when he had the surgery done) in a funny way, so if I'd be alone, surviving, this book would give me strenght.

 

Any edition of the Boy Scout Handbook would have all the basics and several advanced survival skills covered. Plus, it includes other fun activities, songs, and games to keep the mind occupied, which I think would be extremely valuable once our iPhones stop working

 

I would take a book on survival. I would take Seymours book perhaps as everyone here seems to think that is a great resource. Any other book with the exception of something like the bible would get old. A book on herbal remedies and plant idenitification would likely also be helpful to surviving anywhere.

 

The bible for the spirit most definitely. Any book on homesteading, medical / medicine in any form, plants, herbs, tactics, defense, Historical living. Any thing your brain could absorb & apply to sustainability. Those books should be being read now & referenced later

 

I have several field guides to edible plants and medicinal plants. Would be good to combine them into one big book.

 

Depends on how far I have to carry it but I'd like the encyclopaedia Britanica.

 

As far as useful I would love to have a comprehensive book on North American edible herbs and plants and their medicinal use. IO would probably suffer more from the loss of my books than anything if I was forced to bug out. Reading is a huge part of my life and always has been. During the tough times I could always escape into my books for a while. I guess if I was only going to be able to carry one just for pleasure it would be Robert Heinlein's Time Enough For Love. If I had kids to educate it would be a book I have called Highschool courses self taught. It gives you a fast look at history, a good basic in math through trigonometry, a little culture and a grasp of the proper use of the English Language.

Most of the survival things I've worked hard to make into a true knowledge not based on external references. I have probably over a hundred books that you might call survival or rustic living books and then maybe an other hundred or so that are references for different trades.

 

If I had only one book It would be an AV 1611 or King James Bible.

However ...the OP's question is rather ridiculous to me...because if the SHTF...or TEOTWAWKI....there will be books aplenty.

Digital books will quickly become obsolete...with no power to run them.

Agree with many of the posters who state that a book on herbs would be very very handy.



By the way...this from Ted Nugent...

I have read numerous westerns by William W. Johnstone and recognized the name immediately.

I have also read his "Out of the Ashes" series. I found him prescient in his scenario of a nation here in what was once America wherein there is a President named OmShiddi...a Muslim.

In his scenario William W. Johnstone describes a nation in which certain groups...todays "Professional Victim" groups band together ...the Feminists, Atheists, Blacks, and other professional Victims...band together to go after, in particular, patriotic Americans who adhere to the Constitution and in particular Christians.

The more I watch and observe history taking place right in front of us...I see this pattern coming to fruition via leftist/progressive victim politics.

The left has been taking heavy advantage of Professional Victimization politics/education to carefully cultivate a group of easily controllable malleable , predicatable voters.

You can see this easily in todays ...what are called "Snowflakes."

Nonetheless...I have caught onto this index or fingerprint carefully being cultivated and exploited in politics by the Leftist/progressives. I am slowly teaching others to spot it around them daily.


Books will be available aplenty if SHTF or TEOTWAWKI takes place. Your problem will be how to preserve them and or transport them....not a scarcity of books.


My non Ishmaelite .02,

Watcherchris.

 

Quite correct here lonewolf....quite correct. I have a book on herbs..and until reading this book was not aware that there were so many herbal remedys...traditionally extracted from them. Such an book would indeed be very valuable.
Would carry my small version of a KJV AV 1611..and a magnifying glass for reading and including for building a fire when the sun it clearly out.

But yes...how many can you carry...indeed. I suspect also that they would eventually be needed for fire starting....preferably a cheap paperback.

Thanks,
Watcherchris.

 

Ahhh....most of my books too are non fiction. A lot of manuals...repair manuals...and such . I always try to get the repair/parts manuals for gear and equipment I intend to keep a long time.

I like books on philosophy , religion. thinking...history in particular...and such.

But a cheap book ..paperback is somewhat portable and useful should one be on the move ..for kindling. I also keep with my BOB A small jar of Vaseline to augment fire-starting in addition to other uses.

Good that you have trees in your area with which you are familiar.

Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

If I had to pick one book I would have to pick the SAS Survival Guide. It's the perfect size for a pack and loaded with survival information.

 

hmmmmm...I'd forgotten about the SAS survival guide. I have that in one of my BOBS. I need to get some more copies.

Thanks for reminding me.

Watcherchris

 

Well I already know how to survive so I would be looking for something to offer entertainment. Unsolved mysteries. Along these lines

 

Paper books are dying out as the electronic books are taking over. As much as I love my many books I have to confess that I own a bunch of electronic reading devices/pad and such and do most of my pleasure reading on them. It is just comforting to go places and have my library with me in my pouch or pocket. Even my phone makes a really nice reader via the Kindle app.

My wife and I are sort of smothered by books and have a just insane number...somewhere around 30,000!!! We look at them as a sort of investment. When the power goes people are going to remember the value of books and once things settle I will have a lenders library that will help me set up a network of intelligent people that hopefully can work together. I see some form of tribal or Clan type structure as the best survival strategy in an uncertain primitive world.

Nearly all of the many disaster scenarios involve a loss of power either suddenly like from an EMP or a Viral system shutdown or a slower just breakdown of a system to complicated to support if something killed a substantial number of the people that actually DO the work. This is becoming a more and more likely occurrence. our power grids are huge, complicated, OLD and more run by computers every day. In the event of some sort of collapse of the system the only people that will count as far as establishing the infrastructure will be the blue collar workers and their numbers are on decline.

Books will be like gold to a people with no power, no phones, no computers, TVs, Radios. pads or lap tops. When I was a kid every home had an encyclopedia. Now they don't even exist. History and information for the common man will DIE when the power goes off. I'm bugging in place so I don't have to choose which books to carry.

 

Technology is a marvel right enough and progressing faster and faster each year. I changed my mind on tech and power failure when I watched lenardo decaprio the flood (check spelling) renewable energy is amazing and it’s only a matter of time before it’s world wide. Still it’s a possibility!

If the lights go out then I am in agreement..... books will be like gold dust

 

The problem these days is that percentage wise almost nobody understands the technology that we now take for granted. To add to the problem we as a people have forgotten and allowed the less computerized methods to get things done. I can't find a real mechanic anymore and am forced to do a lot of the diagnostics myself. Basically all most so called mechanics today can do is plug in and tell you what the computer said and that is usually wrong unless the problem really is a sensor going out.

I quit my last mechanic shop when one of the mechanics identified a tapping sound as a lifter knocking...My car had dual overhead cams and NO LIFTERS. They told my daughter that she needed an alternator, that is what the computer said. The thing would drag when you tried to start it and then later crank right up. I put my electric meter on it and checked the volts and amp draw on the battery when the engine was running and then when you tried to start it. The battery was weak. The alternator was fine it just had to work harder trying to charge a weak battery. When the battery warmed up it would have more power and crank fine but when it was cold it dragged. This isn't rocket science but an entire shop full of mechanics couldn't figure it out.

I learned mechanics from books. Any time I buy a new vehicle I buy a service manual to go with it. I don't need a computer to tell me what is wrong if the issue is mechanical I know how the engine works and with a stethoscope and various old school test instruments I can locate the problem. The computer is only good for computer problems.

Books can teach you the things that you need to know. I've learned and mastered a half dozen trades from books and made a good living from this easily gained and commonly offered knowledge. As the American people have moved from books to TVs and Computers we have slowly gone down hill. I think that part of it is that somehow turning little squiggles on a piece of paper into pictures and knowledge conditions a brain in a way that passively looking at a screen doesn't do. I HATE going to a news place on the internet and everything is videos! I want to read my news.

As we stop reading I suspect that our ability to think is going away. I know that it is hard now days to get people to think. If you haven't tried to find a young person to work for you and maybe learn a trade from you then you probably don't understand what I'm saying. It is frightening how little kids these days know and they are PROUD of it! Seriously what kind of adult male can't even TRY to change a flat tire? It is common now days. Not a CLUE and this is just one of so many things we used to take for common that is gone in the younger generation. Take away their machines and ask them what is 10% of 5 dollars and then ask what 20% is. Their eyes glaze over and they want a calculator. Another problem is even with their calculators they can't check their gas mileage. Even when they have the numbers and the calculator they don't know what to do.

Books do a lot more than just entertain. I think that they do more than inform. I suspect that they condition our brains in ways that we don't understand. I see it sort of like yoga for the mind.

 

30k books -- holy guacamole! And I thought we had gathered too many books!

 

LOL LOL LOL...Texdanm...LOL LOL!!!

You know Texdanm....back in the Ronald Reagan days when someone decided to bring back out the olde Battleships.....they had to look up many of the still living olde timers who used to run that equipment. The newer sailors could not understand it nor understand the tech manuals. I remember those stories going around via the engineers at this shipyard.

I keep asking myself how many of these stupid Pussy Hat wearing feminists are going to keep the air conditioners working when they take over this "Patriarchal Society??" They have no clue how totally ignorant they are in taking so much about their comfort levels for granted as if they are more qualified in everything.

I consider it the same with todays genre of effeminate men...as well.

I try to keep a paper back book in my daily Bob for firestarting...along with a container of Vaseline...but not my good books....they remain on my private shelves.

Good Grief....you guys have a lot of books.

I've said the same or similar ...too many watchers today ...not enough thinkers or doers.

While I watch television and movies...I try not to let them do my thinking for me.

I appreciate certain U tube videos on how to get certain things done...but for specific information and details/specifications...nothing like a manual or even if you have access....detailed blueprints/exploded diagrams/parts lists/material lists.


About reading Texdanm,

In my lifetime I began to read more once I got out of high school. I suspect that I did not like what they assigned us to read in public school. But once I got out I discovered the Sherlock Holmes series of books and expanded out to Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Arthur Connan Doyle's books....in the Sherlock Holmes series...I discovered that I needed a dictionary in order to fully keep up. My vocabulary was rather lacking.

And this pattern continues to day and in particular when I read books which are over a hundred years olde...I still need a dictionary to keep up.
Nothing wrong with that..and it expands out ones vocabulary.

The olde man who taught me ....described in the 1900s a college graduate in having a vocabulary of some 4000 to 4500 words and knowing what they meant. Today most college graduates have vocabularies of some 1000- to 1200 words and most of them four letter words.

I was quite insulted when first he told me this ..but.....

Over the years since...experience has taught me that this olde timer was on the money.

Or to sum it up a bit differently ...too many people today have reading and thinking skills on a newspaper level...and not much more.

I suspect that today ...emotions is what is often substituted for thinking....or even reading.
It is much easier to control people by jerking/appealing to their emotions then it is real thinking.
Machines ....you get machines instead of self thinking people.





Texdanm,

On my recent list of two words I have added to my vocabulary or understanding are

Acerbic...

And

Arc Decay


Acerbic ...come to learn refers to a type of acid or acidity in taste or even in expression.


Whereas Arc Decay ....come to find out is a trade expression. I was, before this week, not familiar at all though I have been around a number of welders...mostly using stick weld.

This word Arc Decay has to do with Tig welding and the use of the argon gas in cooling the metal after welding. According to this inspector ...who was at one time a pipe welder...if you do not allow a certain amount of argon to continue to flow across the weld during cooling...oxygen can over take the metal and cause welding imperfections and even cracks.
I was not at all familiar with this concept before working with this inspector.

This item on which we are working is very heavy weight high grade stainless..and you can see weld cracks in a 5X pocket magnifying glass and or a close up bore scope.

Had I not worked with this former welder...turned Inspector....I would not have received this much education in this aspect of welding. I am grateful for him expanding my vocabulary as well as understanding. I verily enjoy this kind of hands on learning and experience.

I have gotten to where in addition to carrying a steel 6 inch steel scale...and spare AA batteries and folding pocked knife in my pocket...I am also carrying with me daily a Bausch and Lomb 5X folding magnifying glass...with two 5X lenses in it. This has come in very handy in doing certain close in work.

Hmmm.....I've not tried it for starting a fire....reckon I ought to give it a go...

Gotta run,

Thanks to all for their posts,
Watcherchris

 

I have three books on survival that i use. one by the SAS, another by the US airforce and another by the US army . they show , hunting ,trapping, first aid, shelter, water,what to eat, how to test food , how to move in enemy territory. ect. ect ect. they do this in all sort of climates and regions.

 

funny only 1 person said the BIBLE the greatest book for any situation

 

One can speak of being down to one firearm, however I'm surrounded by books as is my wife. We're talking at work and at home. Books to rifles? >50x

 

I also carry a jewelers loop and a small 10'/300cm tape measure that has a pi tape on the back. I got in the habit of carrying the jewelers loop when I was working at a place where we used a 36' and 48' vernier calipers to read our ball mikes. We were cutting high pressure ring grooves in huge blowout preventers for sub-sea stacks.

 

Well said...well said Texdanm,

I too carry a 10 foot thin Stanley Tape Measure and frequently use it.

There was a forklift accident in our shop the other day . The first thing some of the big wigs asked for when they arrived was a tape measure.

Interesting to me how many people in this machinist trade do not think of carrying with them some kind of measuring device...or even a mag lite.

Close in ....six inch steel scale....or tape measure.

Wow...that is a big set of calipers.

I have one of the older vernier types and I too need some kind of magnifier to read them.

Mostly I have the 6" type for which I prefer the olde dial type mostly for reloading. The digitals are fine..but I just pefer dial types...which seem to be going the way of the dodo bird today. No batteries required.
Thinking I need to find a couple of replacement analog .001 dial types and put them away.
I have a special cabinet in my garage in which I keep my precision measuring devices...

This cabinet is "Holy Ground" Highlander!!!!


Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

I have 4", 6" and 12" dial calipers and a 12" vernier caliper. I have never seen vernors as big as that one company used. I don't carry my 6" Starrett scale anymore but I just feel naked without a tape measure, a mini maglite,a pocket knife, little folding screwdrivers, leatherman and a loop.

Have you ever used a pi tape?

 

No I have not ...nor had I heard of one until you mentioned it. I did however look it up. This seems to be a newer system. What I have used is an older system using a tooling scale...and an optical scope.

A lot of this stuff here today is done with photogrammetry ....using laser readings.

Even the olde dual dial indicators for pump alignments .....periphery and face squareness...is being replaced with a newer type laser set up.

I still like my mechanical dial indicators.


So much today is being replaced with electronics.


Thanks for bringing up the concept of a Pi Tape.

Watcherchris

 

A pi tape is really handy and cool. They are flat tape measures. My 10' is pocket sized. On the back side of the tape there are marks that look like super long inches. They are actually 3.1416" long and the long one near the end of the tape is graduated down to 1/64". You wrap it around something that is round like a big pipe and what you are actually reading is the diameter. I used on of these to machine a huge column with plates on the side for a concrete maker. It was 22' 6" and the tolerance was +or- .030" on the diameter.

I usually was running extremely large older horizontal and vertical boring machines and have about a dozen 1" dial indicators so I could spread them around to double check my movements in three dimensions when I was setting for a cut.

 

I picked up a 1 inch Ampex dial indicator years ago at a yard sale along with the magnetic base. Had a fellow in the local satellite machine shop make me a simple V block and use the two to do concentricity run outs on brass for my more precision rifle reloads.


Used to watch the fellows cutting liners to go under the feet of the Steam Catapult cylinders...hundreds and hundreds of liners.

This is one reason most nations use the jump ramp on their aircraft carriers....steam catapults are too complex and expensive for most nations to build and keep aligned/maintain.

While I do not do that kind of machine shop work you are describing ..it is good to have precision measuring tools for certain tasks....and the know how to make them work for you.

Picked up a 1 to 2 inch outside micrometer at the same yard sale...with the calibration standard with it. I seldom use this tool but have it when needed. Mostly use the 0 to 1 outside mic or the 6 inch dial calipers for most things.


Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

I did a lot of job shop work and had to have a full set of instruments. I used to have mikes from 0 to 7 od, tubular inside mikes out to 18" and Starrett stem type out to about 12". 4", 6" and 13" dial calipers Depth mikes to 7" dial indicators of all kinds from a Fowler last word that read in 10,000ths through the Starrett button set and a bunch of 1" an 2" on magnetic bases. I've worked in all sorts of shops and done gunsmith machine work. In general I prefered big heavy work on big machines over small tedious work. I really liked making things from start to finish. I am a pretty good draftsman and would sometimes get to make the print and then work it from there to the finished product.

My problem with machine work was that while it paid real well it was also prone to layoffs. The Shipyard was especially prone to this. They liked to reduce their workforce to the bone in mid November then call us back in early January to avoid paying holiday pay. When it was just me and my wifr this wasn't bad. I would just draw my unemployment fish and hunt and enjoy a long vacation but after my daughter was born my wife stopped working and that didn't work anymore.

Just so one part of this can be slightly on topic...For years a Machinery's Handbook was my must have book.

Most of the survival type books and camping books like the Boy Scout handbook or the SAS manual I have mostly committed to memory.

 

I did a lot of job shop work and had to have a full set of instruments. I used to have mikes from 0 to 7 od, tubular inside mikes out to 18" and Starrett stem type out to about 12". 4", 6" and 13" dial calipers Depth mikes to 7" dial indicators of all kinds from a Fowler last word that read in 10,000ths through the Starrett button set and a bunch of 1" an 2" on magnetic bases. I've worked in all sorts of shops and done gunsmith machine work. In general I prefered big heavy work on big machines over small tedious work. I really liked making things from start to finish. I am a pretty good draftsman and would sometimes get to make the print and then work it from there to the finished product.

My problem with machine work was that while it paid real well it was also prone to layoffs. The Shipyard was especially prone to this. They liked to reduce their workforce to the bone in mid November then call us back in early January to avoid paying holiday pay. When it was just me and my wifr this wasn't bad. I would just draw my unemployment fish and hunt and enjoy a long vacation but after my daughter was born my wife stopped working and that didn't work anymore.

Just so one part of this can be slightly on topic...For years a Machinery's Handbook was my must have book.

Most of the survival type books and camping books like the Boy Scout handbook or the SAS manual I have mostly committed to memory.