If the power and the internet are down, so is every video, app and website you were counting on. That includes this one. That's why I keep a shelf of real, paper books, and why I think every family should.
A good book teaches you how to set a broken bone, can tomatoes, grow food on a small lot, or find your way home with a map. It works in the dark with a candle. It never needs charging. It never gets a software update.
Where to start
- The Encyclopedia of Country Living: the do-it-yourself bible.
- Where There Is No Doctor: medical care when help isn't coming.
- Back to Basics: traditional skills, step by step, with pictures.
Then add one a month: preserving, herbs, gardening, radio. I put my full list, with what each one is good for, on my Books page.
And print your own binder too: my free printables, your family plan and your medicine list. Paper is a prep.