If SHTF and there’s no access to the internet, where are you going for info? Do you have a book(s) you recommend to all preppers?
Posted by pcsweeney@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 39 comments
Does anyone want to show off their book or info resources collection?
Cute-Consequence-184@reddit
I don't need the Internet for knowledge. I have honed skills.
pcsweeney@reddit (OP)
LOL! You’re one of those dudes who thinks they win a fistfight with a bear right?
Cute-Consequence-184@reddit
No, I was just raised off grid. On a self sufficient farm, almost completely food independent.
I have an almost photographic memory, I am an obsessive reader who used to own a bookstore of 100k books. My ebook library is easily 50k.
This week alone I have made 14lbs of paneer for the freezer, spun enough wool yarn for 1 sock and out so the plants in the greenhouse for the winter- all while working on a farm. And I'm getting ready to can about 20lbs of chicken.
If you don't already have skills when a disaster hits, books will help you very little. Think of the people after Helene and the mud slides destroyed everything. Do you think they had time to sit around and read a book? No, if they didn't already have everything prepared and knew what to do, they were screwed.
You can go back and read the accounts in the archives of what people went through and how they survived. It was heavily discussed in this very group.
AlphaDisconnect@reddit
Did you say vhf radio in less words? Hook up to a repeater. Now you have access to old man strength.
cjenkins14@reddit
Most repeaters run off mains power. Logic follows that there is none in this situation
AlphaDisconnect@reddit
Some have emergency backup generators. But I dont know your situation.
cjenkins14@reddit
Yeah, some of them. In north Carolina during the hurricane only one kept going. In my county out of 3, one has backup power. The two counties beside me don't
AlphaDisconnect@reddit
It is sad they will be reselled at 10 times the price. During an emergency.
Libengood@reddit
This is one thing I’ve been thinking about getting:
https://www.prepperdisk.com/products/prepper-disk-premium-over-512gb-of-survival-content
Michael_AmIGay@reddit
I bought one, and am pretty happy with it. Yes, I could have done it slightly cheaper myself, but this is a plug-and-play solution that took very little time. It has a lot of information already, and I am looking into adding more to it.
experimental_law_@reddit
you can either get kiwix, dolphin llama 3 offline, or just download survival manuals from city prepping, no need to waste money of that when you can invest it in actually preps.
alphatango308@reddit
You can make your own for less money. It's following a YouTube video instructions. If you're tech savvy at all I recommend making it.
Ryan_e3p@reddit
It's a waste of money, honestly.
I get it, the money goes to help fund a project, but one of the core problems with .zim files is that they can not be updated. You have to delete and re-download the updated archive file. There is no "auto updating" or the like. If you need to go out and re-download the files when updated, I fail to see the point of paying for the initial file to begin with.
If the files auto-updated, that would be the thing that flips me from "just DIY" to "sure, I can recommend this to people easily."
Difficult_Fan7941@reddit
I bought this because I knew i would never get around to downloading all that information on my own. Worth the piece of mind, it's sitting in a faraday bag with emergency supplies
Burntoutn3rd@reddit
I have a badass water/dust/shock proof laptop right I've built with a wonderful GPU, 32 gigs of ddr5 memory, and an AMD Ryzen 9AI 12 core CPU running at 4.2GHz. Working on getting backup replacement parts for it.
I also have two solar setups, a backup storage battery at all times in case the main one ever goes out. When it eventually ages, I'll swap it for my backup and buy a new one to have on hand. They last about 10 years.
I also have a methane generator that connects to a natural gas generator. That works as a badass source of nitrogen/phosphorus rich fertilizer as well after it's spent for methane generation.
Working on building a windmill next summer.
I'll have plenty of power, and a machine that's basically hurricane proof that can run up to 33B local AI models (on par with current network based consumer models - GPT 5.1, Sonnet 4.5, Grok 4 etc.
preppers-ModTeam@reddit
Your post has been removed because it covers a topic that has been discussed recently and/or is posted about frequently.
SelectCase@reddit
The world is in your yard when you have a public library card!
One_Dragonfruit_7556@reddit
🎶Having fun isn't hard, when you got a library card🎵
spiraldesigner@reddit
This is a great thread. My main concern is short term blackouts, so I'd be interested in how people who mention things like wikipedia downloads are also planning for long term energy sources to actually access them.
hadtobethetacos@reddit
I have the entirety of wikipedia, and various survival, crafting, farming, etc., books on a hard drive, and some physical books.
fenuxjde@reddit
You can download the entirety of Wikipedia and an offline handler for the info. Just the text is only like 35gb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download
randomPixelPusher@reddit
People suggest this all the time. I wonder what it is like using it offline. Does it host the site or is it just text files?
fenuxjde@reddit
You download the database and then there are a host of programs to access it. You open those apps and then it's just like using the site. The links work, search, etc.
You can also download the media database too for pics, maps, audio, etc but that's way bigger, obviously.
_r_special@reddit
There are apps like kiwix that act a bit like the site, like a search function and working hyperlinks and such
MegaFawna@reddit
Books, neighbors, community
how we used to do it
Ryan_e3p@reddit
Some books in physical form, but the vast bulk are digital. I just don't have the space to hold 40,000+ books.
ImportantTeaching919@reddit
I use thrift books.com and I order a book for every topic I'm interested in since it's super affordable to do so even I find a good amount of books on my other extremely niche hobbies. I love the Internet but I find books more useful since typically to make a book you have to be pretty intelligent at the subject and dedicated to actually go through the process where the Internet can be full of terrible information. Plus I love finding older books or books on old technology I could adapt to building something out of junk. There's some books from Cuba IV been searching for that were made from the embargo issue that explains how to use misc stuff from other broken junk to rebuild stuff like using a bike to power a washing machine and etc
harbourhunter@reddit
Valhall22@reddit
I downloaded Wikipedia (FR + EN) zim files to be used with Kiwix. I also have gigas of offline topo maps, just in case, and hundreds of pdfs, from survival books, to manuals (all guns and cars manuals, plus several others such as my radio's or other stuff I have in my BoB), DIY and gardening books too, all military manuals I was able to find, anything I could think of which could be useful, whatever the case... Besides I have digital copies of my documents (ID, property deeds, etc.) and photos of each of my loved ones (for morale, to ask if anyone has seen them, etc.). All that on my phone, on a micro-sd and a USB key.
RC-3@reddit
Where did you go to find your manuals?
Valhall22@reddit
I spent hours looking for someone online. Look for Olduvai project for instance, they did a really good job compiling pdf and documents. There also are public lists of manuals, for guns or cars for instance. AI, such as Gemini, Claude or GPT could also be useful to find interesting documents (I did my document list a few years ago, before AI, but I would do that if I wanted to update my list)
PrisonerV@reddit
Most of us will be dead.
CloverEyed@reddit
I've seen networks go down due to some sort of internal failure. No Internet, no cellphone service for a day. It could have been longer/permanent if something irreplaceable got damaged. So it can and does happen in a Prepping for Tuesday situation too.
PrisonerV@reddit
A day? I'll survive somehow...
Mysterious_Touch_454@reddit
I have books, then i have E-reader loaded with PDF books, also i downloaded whole wikipedia with pictures on my laptops movable drive 4TB, so if i have solar energy (i have panels), i can use it offline.
DIYnivor@reddit
I'm reverting to the try-to-figure-it-out and try-shit-to-see-what-works methods that we relied on before the Internet.
BallsOutKrunked@reddit
Like others, small library of fiction and non-fiction.
I have a lot of e-books as well in calibre, and an LLM running on a home PC. Plex for movies / tv shows / music. Wikipedia downloaded.
chrs_89@reddit
I have a copy of “where there are no doctors” mixed in with my plant identification, gardening and old timey log cabin carpentry books. I have the feeling the dr book combined with plant books will be more useful than the log cabin books but who knows
gonyere@reddit
We have a smallish home library. Fiction of all sorts, old time life series on building stuff, plumbing, etc, as well as a decent selection of books on identification of wildlife, plants, mushrooms, etc, and homesteading/gardening too.