Susannah755 -- thanks! It must be genetic, my mom fully expects to go to the "Great Library in the Sky" when she dies. 😆
But I am a novice compared to my friend, paintergirl, now there is a voracious reader! :ugeek:

I stand corrected...I'm impressed by both of you (and everyone else who reads books by the trailerload). I love books myself but I don't get through as many as you do (not much free time) - but, I also hope there is a "great library in the sky" ...that's where I'd be spending my time! And I have to confess my books have outgrown the bookcases (7)and are now stacked on the floor (shame on me). When I moved there were more boxes of books than furniture (and it was commented on by the removalists too)

I just started reading the Foxfire Book by Eliot Wigginton (printed 1972... I got it for a buck) and it goes through basics of homesteading. Butchering animals, log cabin building, quilt blocks of days gone by, making moonshine (I really would love to learn that!) and as the cover says "and other affairs of plain living" lol I know there is a section on eating squirrels and possums (not that I could... yuck hate rodents) but it is a on the land living book! I have started it a couple of times and put it back on the shelf... now I am about 50 pages in.

I am a second hand book hoarder. I admit it but, I can not resist a book sale where old, knowledgeable books of days gone by are 50 cents to $2. My kids can't resist either... the new house (when we get one) will have wall to wall built in bookshelves 🙂 bah, At least they are reading something and not just gaming all the time hahaha!

You are right on there! My daughter reads more than she does the internet/gaming thing as well.

I am over half way through 'Lights Out' by David Crawford aka Halffast at the moment. It's the story of a group of people living in a subdivision in Texas after North America is attacked by an EMP burst and the power grid and all electronics are wiped out. Realistic mayhem and self-reliance ensues. So far a great book and very well written too. I had trouble putting it down long enough to hit the web tonight. Loss of the grid is a very possible scenario and there is actually a lot of practical survival and self-reliance information in there.

Crawford also wrote a short story a while back called 'The Bug Out' which you can find here: http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-172494.html

I just started reading the Foxfire Book by Eliot Wigginton (printed 1972... I got it for a buck) and it goes through basics of homesteading. Butchering animals, log cabin building, quilt blocks of days gone by, making moonshine (I really would love to learn that!) and as the cover says "and other affairs of plain living" lol I know there is a section on eating squirrels and possums (not that I could... yuck hate rodents) but it is a on the land living book! I have started it a couple of times and put it back on the shelf... now I am about 50 pages in.

I am a second hand book hoarder. I admit it but, I can not resist a book sale where old, knowledgeable books of days gone by are 50 cents to $2. My kids can't resist either... the new house (when we get one) will have wall to wall built in bookshelves 🙂 bah, At least they are reading something and not just gaming all the time hahaha!

Hey is the book called Foxfire or was it by Foxfire Press??
I am interested in this one.

Hey is the book called Foxfire or was it by Foxfire Press??
I am interested in this one.

It is "The Foxfire Book" http://www.amazon.ca/Foxfire-Book-Dressing-Building-Moonshining/dp/0385073534 it is written as it was told and is very informative. It is old way of thinking... backwoods Georgia and now people say it is the new way of thinking lol

The book has a section on planting by the signs... astrological signs and it is pretty interesting reading.
Once growing up my gran said "If that field doesn't get cut by Friday it will never grow back" None of us kids knew what she meant, now I know why she said that. The parts that weren't cut til that Saturday and did not grow back for 2 years, it baffled us (she had dementia so she would always say weird things so we rarely questioned it and went on with our day, I know now she was trying to teach us and we just didn't get it all the time).
I am saving the moonshine chapter til last 🙂 You don't have to read it front to back (I figured that out this afternoon).

Susannah755 -- thanks! It must be genetic, my mom fully expects to go to the "Great Library in the Sky" when she dies. 😆
But I am a novice compared to my friend, paintergirl, now there is a voracious reader! :ugeek:

My name is Paintergirl and I am a book hoarder in need of an intervention... 😉

It has been a while since I posted in this thread and too many books to list, but here are some recent highlights from the last couple of months:

Lights Out (Preferred One Second After but this was a decent read for that genre)
The Long Emergency (James Kunstler ...watch his End of Suburbia doc on youtube if you can)
Alas Babylon (Excellent!)
On the Beach (yes, love the post apocalyptic tales)
Preserving without Canning and Freezing/Traditional Techniques
The Encyclopedia of Country Living ( yum, ultimate book on everything, have been reading through this chapter by chapter as time allows)
The Homesteading Handbook
The Stand ( Stephen King unabridged audio book)
The Pandemic
Survivors ( Terry Nations- there are a few by this title)
How to Stitch up a Wound Suturing Course
Ginseng and Other Medicinal Plants
The Source Field Investigations (Hidden Science and Lost Civilizations...)
The Real Dirt: The Complete Guide to Backyard, Balcony, and Apartment Composting (Excellent, looks like I will be worm composting now)
Several of the home remedy and Old Fashioned Cures books (have 6 of these that I am reading back and forth writing/comparing notes on)

My prep PDFs are getting out of hand now too but I usually try to read through one at least once a week.

Not on topic with prepping but -

The following is for people interested in reading Canadian history/experiences done in an informal conversational style from the people who experienced it : Barry Broadfoot's books.
I love to read and collect Canadian history books but these are my gems. Barry interviewed Canadians from the late 60-s into the 80's on everything from the elderly pioneers and the depression era to war vets, war brides, immigrants and people who experienced the Japanese internment camps. His books are usually found in the second hand book stores but can be tracked down online and are well worth the read. The stories are told in the peoples own words, excerpts or several pages long depending on the topic and how verbal the interviewee was. Each book has hundreds of different voices and you would swear that you know some of them... and quite possibly you do. The stories give such a great shape to what it is to be Canadian and the things that make us distinct. While I adore my history books, these are an enjoyable read and I suspect most of the voices heard in these books are generations have long since passed.

Ten Lost Years 1973 (Depression stories)
Six War Years 1975
The Pioneer Years 1976
Years of Sorrow, Years of Shame 1977 (Japanese experience during the war)
My Own Years 1983
The Veterans' Years 1985
The Immigrant Years 1986
Next-Year Country 1988 (Prairie stories)
Ordinary Russians 1989

** Hey Susannah, I found kindle audio books to be a great way to "read" when I don't have time to sit down and physically hold a book. I have been listening to The Stand and Atlas Shrugged off and on for a couple of weeks now.If I am painting or cleaning, on the bus or what have you, I listen along instead. I have them in hardcopy but try to leave off at a chapter break so I can switch back and forth. Great stuff!

Best audio book to date due to incredible narrations: Alas Babylon (though I read it hardcopy first and then followed it shortly after with the audio book when I heard rave reviews of the audio narrator- fabulous!!
I always have a couple of audio books stashed for when time is under a crunch and I don't have the time or the eyes are too tired to read...

Hoping to borrow the book on "A World Made by Hand" or The Russian Revolution ...or The Great Reset ... * hint hint vanislemom...lol ( I promise not to take it in the bathroom for when I soak in the tub so the pages don't get wrinkly!) 😀

Thanks for the post Paintergirl (I don't think an intervention is in order - there are worse addictions) My problem is that because I'm studying and working I find that I'm taking my study textbooks to bed to read instead of a good "juicy novel".
That doesn't stop me from buying them though - I just picked up my copy of "Wild Foods in Australia" damn thing took three weeks to arrive! (so, no studying tonight)

Just finished 'Lights Out'. Loved it. It was full of practical survival/tactical/organizational info. However, I did find the ending and some parts of the book a bit 'Hollywood'. Maybe that is why the rumor is that it is at this very moment being developed into either a major motion picture or TV series.

Got a copy of 'One Second After' but I think I'm going to read something other than an EMP attack book before I dig into another.

I really enjoyed Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides

*warning* contains spoilers past the plot introduction.

Vanislemom lent me her copy of World by Hand after my earlier shameless post ... a great story so far!

Today's find was "The Mother Earth News Handbook of Homemade Power" ...300+ pages of tips covering wood, water, wind, solar and methane. ( And a biography of the poet Sylvia Plath that I had been trying to find for months)

Cost of the Mother Earth book : 75 cents. I LOVE thrift stores! 😀

Prepnow, I thought the same thing of Light's Out ... good but ... I found a little more realism in some of the One Second After story line, but most of these stories have a bit of a heroic thread to them. Personally, I like stories where people are not perfectly prepped so we can see a bit of ingenuity in how they overcome the obstacles.
... I will be looking for Earth Abides now!

Borrowed The Long Emergency -- surviving the end of oil, climate change and other converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century by James Howard Kunstler, from paintergirl. Am half way through, it's a very good book, plan to get my own copy so I can highlight particularly interesting points. :geek:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Emergency-Catastrophes-Twenty-First/dp/0871138883

Came across this interesting video, The Crime of the Canadian Banking System -- an interview of Bill Abram, a retired teacher from Vancouver Island. It's about 25 min. long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7HMt5MgsDg&feature=related

Am helping a librarian clear out old books from a private library, she's merciless, getting rid of anything that has a hint of old. So I've lucked into a handful of books, two of which could be of interest here. A World in Debt by Freeman Tilden. It was originally printed in 1935, but this copy was printed in 1983, with an new Foreward and Commentary. I am interested in people's opinions and perspectives prior to our current global economic condition.
http://www.amazon.com/World-In-Debt-Freeman-Tilden/dp/0969157908

The other book is Trees and Shrubs -- Food, Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of British Columbia by James R. Anderson, published by the Department of Education in 1925. Has some black and white photos and many good line drawings. The old time typesetting and layout is interesting to me, also. (In another lifetime, pre- marriage and children, I was a proofreader and keyboarder in a small typesetting company. :geek: )

Today I am at my mom's (SWOnt) and we went to the Symphony Orchestra annual used book sale! WOW!
1) I got 25 books to be flown to a library in Swaziland! Classics like Anne of Green Gables, Charlotte's Web, The Red Pony... My friend's cousin is on the team heading to Africa for the library's build this summer (I am very excited for her)
2) Ohhhh indulgence, easy read books for a buck... I got 44 of those lol Maeve Binchy, Jackie Collins, Nora Roberts.
3) Prepper books (aka Reference) The 100 mile diet ($2), The complete guide to Natural Healing ($2), Save $20,000 and use a nail ($3), Cuttings pocket guide (50 cents) and it shows you how to cut the plants to multiply! My kids love it!!! Renerable energy for the DIY'er ($1), greenhouses and glass ($1), wild plant and flower guide ($3) and a bunch more!!!
4) A whole box of books that eventually made it to movies! For a buck a book... Eat Pray Love, Secret life of Bees, Under the Tuscan Sun, Cold mountain, Devil wears Prada, The English Patient.... and a dozen more.
5) History books. We love biographies, wartime stories, recounts of historical events.
All in all great day! Over $1500 in books (easily) for about $115!
I need new bookshelves but, I got a book about that so, I am gonna build some 🙂

Mamaizzy...I am green with envy...well done, and enjoy those books! 😀