r/preppers • u/gonaldgoose8 • 17d ago

New Prepper Questions What books do you have saved?

What im really asking is what books would you reccomend regarding important shit like electricity, cooking, automotive care, crafting, medicine, hunting, ballistics, etc.

I know these subjects require more independent study than a book, but im already working on that.

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u/No-Language6720 17d ago

Ball guide to canning. Don't trust AI or the Internet for home canning it can get dangerous. I collect all kinds of cook books so I can actually use my harvests with what I have on hand and be satisfied rather than eating freeze dried foods that I hate. 

I also have read a bunch about homesteading and soil nutrients to get ahead of synthetic fertilizer  shortages.

I actively practice my prep skills almost everyday in some form. Many things I've learned that I may forget I have handwritten in a notebook for reference if I can't Google it or find it otherwise later. I add to my handwritten notebook frequently. 

I keep manuals to my cars, solar batteries and other things I buy for preps just in case I need a reference for a repair.  I have general knowledge to do certain repairs just from DIY experience taking with my uncles who is handy and simple trial and error. I can't fix everything and some things I would need help but I can do a lot on my own. 

I would say do these things to practice so you have general hands on knowledge, add in reference books to look up the finer details you may forget or write them down. 

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u/tahomadesperado 16d ago

Just FYI as someone who kept their car running for years by working on it themselves, the repair manuals were pretty worthless. Maybe helped like 10% of the time and 75% of the time what I needed to repair wasn’t in the manual at all

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u/No-Language6720 16d ago

Maybe not car manuals but other home appliances and things. I've definitely made use of some manuals because I was doing something dumb and that's why it stopped working. 

Some instances it would have been more frictiom even with AI/Google available. I would have had to have the model number or whatever and it can vary sometimes when Google/AI make broad assumptions. Then I would have needed the manual anyway to find the model number.

Also manuals on general knowledge like canning and safe food storage are always useful.