My New Books

[Quercus-robur]

If anyone has a market or old/rare book shop near them I recommend regularly checking them for books that may be useful to a prepper. Today, in the old/rare book shop near me, I picked up:

* The Book of Handicrafts (generic handicrafts book that has all sorts from rug making, embroidery, weaving, beadwork and knitting etc)

* The Complete Indoor Gardener - Michael Wright

* Country Crafts and Skills - Monte and Joan Burch

* The Fat of the Land - John Seymour

I paid £3 each for the apart from The Fat of the Land which I got for £2.50. Looking online I can't find it for less than £10 which makes me happy. I already have The Complete Guide to Self Sufficiency and Forgotten Arts by John Seymour and I plan to get The Self Sufficient Gardener soon. Either through good finds in old/rare book shops or bargains online I'm quickly building up a reasonable library of self sufficiency books. Next step is to try and put them into practice.

Qr

[pseudonym]

Some great finds there.

[Arzosah]

Great finds! And different areas may have completely different books too - I got a book about solar power used in gardening (opening vents in greenhouses automatically, stuff like that) for £3.

[Quercus-robur]

Great finds! And different areas may have completely different books too - I got a book about solar power used in gardening (opening vents in greenhouses automatically, stuff like that) for £3.

Yeah, whenever I am in a new town or a town that I haven't been to in a while I always make time to check out the charity shops and book shops. You can often find nice little prepping gems in charity shops too.

That book sounds like it would be very useful on the self sufficiency front. What is the title of the book? Is it one you would recommend?

Qr

[jansman]

The Fat of The Land is a superb book. If you can lay your hands on The Self Sufficient Gardener, I highly commend it. My Wife went through a bookfinder many years ago for thatone. Of course, we have the web now.

[Arzosah]

Great finds! And different areas may have completely different books too - I got a book about solar power used in gardening (opening vents in greenhouses automatically, stuff like that) for £3.

Yeah, whenever I am in a new town or a town that I haven't been to in a while I always make time to check out the charity shops and book shops. You can often find nice little prepping gems in charity shops too.

That book sounds like it would be very useful on the self sufficiency front. What is the title of the book? Is it one you would recommend?

Qr

The full title is Home Solar Gardening, by John H Pierce, printed in Toronto and published in 1981, so its pretty old, but its got a lot of detailed drawings in it. Chapter headings:
- making use of the sun
- building an attached solar grower
- building a freestanding solar grower
- prefabricated solar growers
- the sun pit
- solar garden rooms
- new construction solar gardens
- apartment solar growing
- solar frames and boxes
- solar cloches and crop shelters
- what to grow
- plant beauty care recipes [no idea what this means ]
- solar growing techniques.

So, yep, thoroughly recommended.

[Quercus-robur]

The Fat of The Land is a superb book. If you can lay your hands on The Self Sufficient Gardener, I highly commend it. My Wife went through a bookfinder many years ago for thatone. Of course, we have the web now.

I have heard so many positive reviews that I am glad I found it and for just £2.50 too. Tomorrow I am going to spend 3 days on my own on the fells to test out my new kit so I will be taking The Fat of the Land to read around the fire.

I have just bought The Self Sufficient Gardener from Amazon for a tenner so can't wait until that arrives. I also purchased The book of the Farm by Henry Stephens. It is a book about Victorian era farming practices. It is rare and expensive for the original so I bought the edited and abridged version which should still be really useful.

Qr

[Quercus-robur]

Thanks Arzosah. I have just ordered a copy from Amazon. It's coming from America so I will be waiting 2 to 3 weeks but I'm looking forward to sifting through it. I don't yet have an allotment or my own house but, especially with out of print books, I think it is important to develop your library and knowledge/skill base now and put them into practice when your circumstances allow. As the years go by it is becoming harder and harder to find certain books.

Qr

[tc556guy]

We have this used book sale in my town twice a year.
It is where I get most of my reasonably priced reading material for the rest of the year

http://www.booksale.org/

[Quercus-robur]

We have this used book sale in my town twice a year.
It is where I get most of my reasonably priced reading material for the rest of the year

http://www.booksale.org/

That looks like a really well done event. I am not aware of any big events like that in the UK but in the quiet county of Cumbria we do get small charity book fares every now and then. I think you call them 'flea' markets in America but we also have lots of good local markets and car boot sales. I find car boot sales one of the best places to get books because you often get people clearing out their house and may have some nice out of print books that have just been gathering dust.

Qr