UPDATED 2024 – Preparedness, at its core, is simply a state of readiness and working together with others to ensure a safe and positive future for everyone. With natural disasters becoming more prevalent, ongoing political unrest and the like, preparedness has been growing fast in popularity. Because of this growing interest, there are many books, websites, pamphlets, blogs, videos, and more on preparedness.
So where does one start? Try reading these.
(I Own, Read, and Approve these books)
19 Best Books on Preparedness right now:
1. The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide
Humans can survive up to three weeks without food, but only around three days without water! Of all the resources needed after a catastrophe strikes-food, heat, electricity, communication, and transportation-none are as important as water. While a substantial supply should be stored, water’s size and weight make storage impractical for long-term survival. Therefore it’s equally critical to know how to acquire and purify additional water supplies over time. This guide addresses all of these factors and more with straight-forward instruction anyone can follow.
2. Canning And Preserving: A Prepper’s Guide To Canning And Preserving For An Emergency
In any disaster, food is of utmost importance when it comes to survival. All major cities only have, on average, a 3 week supply of foodstuffs on hand. If nearby supermarkets or distribution centres have been wiped out and you should find yourself stranded – protecting food and preserving supplies is crucial. Knowing how to pressurize, seal and protect jars and various containers will prolong the expiration of the item stored inside. Keep your food fresh and eat well because there are also preparation and cooking strategies involved in canning and preserving your food. Enjoy the tasty recipes we have included such as tomatoes and pickles.
3. Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook
What if your life was disrupted by a natural disaster, food or water supply contamination, or any other type of emergency? Do you have the essentials for you and your family? Do you have a plan in the event that your power, telephone, water and food supply are cut off for an extended amount of time? What if there were no medical or pharmaceutical services available for days, weeks, or months? How prepared are you?
4. The Ultimate Survival Manual Canadian Edition (Outdoor Life)
Whether you’re lost in the woods, facing an angry grizzly, or trapped in a blackout that takes down Toronto, the experts at Outdoor Life magazine are the people you want on your side. This top-selling book is now available in a special Canadian edition with content targeted to intrepid Canadians . . . at home and wherever they may travel.
5. The Natural First Aid Handbook
Cayenne pepper can stop bleeding. Garlic helps alleviate a toothache. Honey soothes a burn. When an emergency situation arises, simple home remedies can play a vital role in easing symptoms and providing immediate help. Become an effective first responder with a combination of best first-aid practices, herbs, and standard homeopathic applications. This quick-reference handbook spells out hundreds of life-saving techniques, commonsense tips, and time-tested herbal remedies that everyone should know. From how to perform basic CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver to the best immediate response to natural disasters, you’ll find the most practical, effective actions to take to ensure survival.
6. Food Storage for Self-Sufficiency and Survival
With all the uncertainty in the world today, there is peace in preparing. In an emergency, you don’t want to depend on a grocery store or government agency to feed your family. Storing food assures your family’s self-sufficiency year-round and benefits your budget when you plan correctly.
7. Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival
Written by survivalist expert Dave Canterbury, Bushcraft 101 gets you ready for your next backcountry trip with advice on making the most of your time outdoors. Based on the 5Cs of Survivability–cutting tools, covering, combustion devices, containers, and cordages–this valuable guide offers only the most important survival skills to help you craft resources from your surroundings and truly experience the beauty and thrill of the wilderness.
8. SAS Survival Guide: How to Survive in the Wild, on Land or Sea
The original and best survival guide for any situation in every climate is back. Now with added techniques for handling Urban dangers, the SAS Survival Handbook is the complete companion for adventurers everywhere. From making camp and finding food in the wild to security and self-defense in the streets, be prepared in any city, land or sea.
9. Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide
Disasters have the potential to up-end life as we know it. Flood waters that refuse to recede. Hurricanes that decimate coastal cities. Civil unrest that turns metropolitan areas unlivable. This book shows readers exactly what they need to know to survive long-term catastrophes by planning comprehensive prepping and survival strategies.
10. Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit
This book shows you how to create a self-contained disaster preparedness kit to help you survive your journey from ground zero to a safer location. Survival expert Creek Stewart details from start to finish everything you need to gather for 72 hours of independent survival–water, food, protection, shelter, survival tools, and so much more.
11. How to Fight a Bear and Win
From the world leader in fascinating facts and amusing true stories comes a book about how to feed, clothe, and protect yourself in the wilderness… and might even make you want to avoid anything resembling the wilderness forever.
12. Knots: The Complete Visual Guide
With step-by-step color photographs, the highly visual Knots: The Complete Visual Guide is a clear, comprehensive, and practical guide to tying more than 100 knots. From choosing, using, and maintaining ropes, to learning about the different families of knots — from stopper knots; binding knots; bends; hitches; loops; plaits and sennits; and splices and whippings — Knots: The Complete Visual Guide is the ultimate guide to tying knots for every occasion, from outdoor use in a host of recreational activities, to practical functions around the home.
13. Camping: The Ultimate Camping Handbook
14. All New Square Foot Gardening
Rapidly increasing in popularity, square foot gardening is the most practical, foolproof way to grow a home garden. That explains why author and gardening innovator Mel Bartholomew has sold more than two million books describing how to become a successful DIY square foot gardener. Now, with the publication of All New Square Foot Gardening, Second Edition, the essential guide to his unique step-by-step method has become even better. Mel developed his techniques back in the early 1980s and has been teaching them throughout the world ever since. In the process, he has made improvements and refinements and continually adapted his practices to keep pace with modern times. In this new volume, Bartholomew furthers his discussion on one of the most popular gardening trends today: vertical gardening.
15. The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, 2nd Edition:
Smith’s legendary high-yield gardening method emphasizes wide rows, organic methods, raised beds, and deep soil. Succeed with fussy plants, try new and unusual varieties, and learn how to innovatively extend your growing season. With thorough profiles of hundreds of popular varieties, The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible provides expert information and an inspiring roadmap for gardeners of all skill levels to enjoy abundant homegrown vegetables.
16. U.S. Military Pocket Survival Guide
Stranded behind enemy lines? Or in America’s wilderness? Reach for the U.S. Military Pocket Survival Guide. A decade after its original publication in 1999, this classic manual―included in the survival kits of all branches of the U.S. military―has now been revised and updated for 2009 by military survival expert Matt Larsen. Every combatant’s essential guide to outdoor survival, concealment, movement, improvised communications, and recovery in hostile territory, the U.S. Military Pocket Survival Guide represents an invaluable distillation of the information contained in the survival “bible,” the U.S. Air Force’s enormous Search and Rescue Survival Training.
17. Canning for a New Generation
In Liana Krissoff’s breakout success, Canning for a New Generation, home cooks were introduced to a hip, modern guide to canning, chock-full of approachable, time-tested, and accurate recipes, as well as intriguing new flavor pairings. In this Updated and Expanded Edition, Krissoff includes 50 new recipes for food preservation in addition to her favorites
18. The Disaster Preparedness Handbook: A Guide For Families
The Disaster Preparedness Handbook will motivate you not only to become better prepared but will also show you how to prepare effectively. It offers well-researched advice that can be put into practice in the real world by normal families. This handbook is organized around the basic needs that must be met to survive. Each chapter contains an example scenario to help you determine your current level of readiness and contains a quick summary of points for easy reference.
19. The Survival Doctor’s Complete Handbook: What to Do When Help is NOT on the Way
Featuring more than 100 illustrations, along with quick quizzes and real-life examples, The Survival Doctor’s Complete Handbook will take you step by step through the essentials of medical care during a crisis. Perhaps you’ve been stranded by a sudden storm when out camping. Maybe you live alone in a rural area, and can’t easily get to a doctor when you hurt your arm. Or you just want to make sure you and your family are prepared to safely weather the next Superstorm Sandy, polar vortex, tornado strike, heat wave, earthquake, or oother natural disasters Whatever your situation and your health needs, The Survival Doctor’s Complete Handbook is your must-have medical resource.