I'm building a library for post-2k in case it comes to TEOTWAWKI. I wonder what books you wouldn't be without and are stocking up on. It is also useful to know if they are readily available in regular book stores or if I'll need to haunt the second-hand stores even more than I already do. ( In case you haven't guessed, reading is hobby #1 8-) )

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), October 07, 1998

Answers

Making the Best of Basics Country Living Encyclopedia

E.

-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), October 07, 1998.

Those are two titles:

"Making the Best of Basics"

and

"The Encylopedia of Country Living"

E.

-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), October 07, 1998.

The entire set of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin novels. Seriously, entertainment is going to be nearly as important as food. Don't neglect the social aspects of this crisis! Being stuck in difficult situations like this can bring out the best in people, but more often than not tempers fray and quarrels start. Make sure that you've got plenty of pleasure reading and reusable games (chess, cards, go, etc.) as opposed to games like Trivial Pursuit which get dull after everyone knows the answers. I'm bringing along lots of philosophy. I figure it'll take me a good couple of months just to get through "Critique of Pure Reason" alone!

Cheers,
Alex

-- Alexander Garrett (agarrett@demiurge.org), October 07, 1998.

"The Demon-Haunted World : Science As a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan

-- Arnie Rimmer (arnie_rimmer@usa.net), October 07, 1998.

"The Way Things Work" "I" & "II"

ANY circa 1950 encyclopedia as well as any current encyclopedia. You Do want to try to maintain a small spot of light if the gloom decides to descend

cr

-- Chuck the Night Driver (another@computer.nope), October 07, 1998.

For pure entertainment Stephen King's (no groans, please...) "Gunslinger" series; "Dune" for the same reason; anything by Issac Asminov (sp?); all Calvin and Hobbs books--good for kids and adults

-- Okum (ws000@aol.com), October 07, 1998.

A complete edition of any one of Charles Dicken's novels. Not a readers digest version. Humorous, thought provoking, and inspiring. If your ancestors could 'make do' in their material conditions, we should be able to 'make it' thru year 2000.

-- George (newsrc@txcyber.com), October 07, 1998.

"The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science", by Robert Anton Wilson

-- Lister Baby (lister@starbug.net), October 07, 1998.

The Collected Works of William Shakespeare, any poetry by Pablo Neruda and anything by Aldous Huxley and Harlan Ellison and Robert Heinlein, Kate Wilhelm's "Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang", "The Fourth Turning, anything about systems thinking, anything by Ram Dass...for starters...LOL

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 07, 1998.

Science fiction -- especially by Mercedes Lackey or Marion Zimmer Bradley.

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), October 07, 1998.

Okum, Donna, Libby - You forgot to mention Ed Yourdon's recommendation: Asimov and Silverberg's "Nightfall". As I drove to work today, a 2-alarm fire had thrown a brown-grey haze over the Sorrento Valley. Buildings were silhouetted in the smoke and the sun was orange, heading for red. Eerily reminiscent of the description of the capital city the morning after Nightfall...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), October 07, 1998.

MS-DOS 6.0 User's Guide - Burns for 5 minutes

MS-DOS 5.0 User's Guide - Burns for 10 minutes

Windows 3.1 User's Guide - Burns for 10 minutes

Windows 95 Resource Kit - Burns for 25 minutes

Windows 98 Resource Kit - Burns for 30 minutes

Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit - Burns for 1 hour and 10 minutes!

A stack of Microsoft End User License Agreements - Good for kindling

-- Mike (gartner@execpc.com), October 07, 1998.

Ah,...read Nightfall 15 years ago, in short story form and emailed Mr. Yourdon on it... LOVE IT!...Also of note is a SF book...old...don't remember the author, title "Canticle For Leibowitz"....

Hoping we don't see the landscape burning....

Donna, her attractive sheet flapping in the winds of change.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 07, 1998.

I vote for 'Nightfall.' I hadh't thought of the parallels until it was mentioned here.

-- j (hemwat@bellsouth.net), October 07, 1998.

Formulas, Hints, Tips and Data - tells you how to make everything from make mouthwash to paint to soap. Also good is a book called something like Things They Wish you Didn't Know - it gives unofficial formulas for things like Coca Cola and so on.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 07, 1998.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein

Coversations with God by Walsch

Mutant Message from Down Under by Morgan (actually, this makes some applicable points)

And a journal. Have everyone keep one - may be a way for people to vent, communicate, cope, etc

-- Melissa (financed@forbin.com), October 08, 1998.

Mike -- ROFL. Guess I really shouldn't log onto this site at work. Attracts too much unwanted attention.

-- libby alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), October 08, 1998.

A good book would be any history of technology. My uni has an awesome 8 volume history of technology, some of which i will borrow (?) sometime in dec '99. The stone age through to the bronze age might be the most apt sections i fear.

-- ace rimmer (smokeme@kipper.com), October 08, 1998.

Might I add the Merck manual. Gives the treatments for diseases. Also Will and Ariel Durant's The History of Civilization. Best and most complete history of the world ever written.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 08, 1998.

Also Complete Works of Shakespeare, and Complete Works of Mark Twain. Couldn't live without em.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 08, 1998.

Autobiography of Ben Franklin.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 08, 1998.

Now is a good time to head on down to the used book store, paperbacks for a quarter, ya cant beat that. I do most of my reading via my library card, I think that they will see a big increase in book borrowing in Dec. 1999.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), October 08, 1998.

Thanks, all for the great ideas! Many of your suggestions I already have, or have been looking for (Mercedes Lackey, Asimov and Making the Best of Basics, eg). Others are new to me, and sound really good, I'll add them to my list. I had a book out from the library some time ago that was a book of parlor games, I want it or something like it. Also I want to get some educational books, especially maths and sciences (for my girls). In fact, the more I think about it, the more I add to my list. sigh...

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet. net), October 09, 1998.

Tricia- Check out the Lindsay website and order a catalog or two- they have books on all kinds of arcane things, from building your own machine tools to making generators out of alternators. Really, it's a great service, and the catalogs are a kick to go through.

-- Damian Solorzano (oggy1@webtv.net), October 10, 1998.

Tricia -- go to rummage sales and yard sales, etc. I just went to one yesterday and came back with an armload of books. Oh yeah. If you don't already have them -- the books put out by the Boston Women's Health Collective are great: Our Bodies/Our Selves and Ourselves Growing Older. Great resources on women's health issues. Happy reading!!! Be sure to get your eyes checked. I think I need bifocals...

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), October 10, 1998.

Bible, Koran or text of your choice.

A good unabridged dictionary (Webster's Second IF you can find it, I lucked onto a first ed. Oxford English Dictionary cheap, a find of a lifetime) and a thesaurus. Gotta keep the language alive. Strunk and White's Elements of Style while you're at it.

A good encyclopedia, possibly the older the better. I found an 11th edition Britannica at a yardsale, a 9th edition would even be better. Personal preference for newer stuff: World Book. NO CDs unless the computer is guaranteed forever.

An almanac or two, World Almanac and the Old Farmer's Almanac for your region at least (the '99 is out now).

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations- any edition

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

A decent world atlas, or a good globe

The Great Books set

High School Subjects Self Taught

Paul Johnson's History of the American People

EMT text (keep it after you take the course) or Red Cross first aid (ditto). Where There Is No Doctor, Where There Is No Dentist, Medicine For Mountaineering, any decent human anatomy/physiology text (used book store), Ditch Medicine, Emergency War Surgery, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (ditto used). Physician's Desk Reference if you're close to a pharmacy... .

Tom Squier's Wild and Free Cookbook (Eat more weeds and roadkill!), Petersen field guides to trees and plants, good herbals for your region (ask locally).

Generic survival stuff- the Army FM, etc. The SAS books are good too.

A couple of things like Nick Rowe's Five Years To Freedom (Dieter Dengler's Escape From Laos, or Richard Stratton's Prisoner at War) to show you what the proper mindset for serious tough times needs to be. (Hint: read at least one, soon.)

The first half dozen Foxfire books (they're still in print!!!)

Best scenario novels: Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon, Pournelle and Niven's Lucifer's Hammer. Might not work out that way but you'll get the drift of worst-case and it might motivate you to get moving.

How-to books for any of the critters or tools you need to acquire or have and don't know what to do with (this includes husband/wife or kids). Ditto any skills you need to work on or develop beyond those mentioned.

Kid books- ancient schoolbooks like Webster's speller as well as teach-them-to-read stuff, if you have munchkins or expect to. Look at the homeschool sites for tips on new stuff. Hint: Homeschool 'em anyway if 2K turns out to be a speed bump... .

Could go on but this list already costs as much as a used car... an old used car anyway .

nemo... (librarian in a former life)

-- nemo (nemo@deepsix.com), October 10, 1998.