SHTF reading

[derek]

I figured I would start a thread for SHTF books that people enjoyed.

I just finished One Second After. I thought it was pretty good.

I am now currently reading 77 Days in September. Good so far, I just with the main character was a bit more situationally aware.

Both of these are available in the Apple Store, and 77 Days has a Kindle version.

[mclina]

I recently re-read The Jakarta Pandemic for the second time. It's a good one.

[squatch413]

One second after was good, if you liked that I recommend Lights Out.

[coastie]

Lights Out is good. One Second after was good. Tom Sherry's Deep Winter Trilogy is pretty good. I like the first 2 books of it. Lucifers Hammer and Alas Babylon are both classics and excellent.

[Rider]

Lights Out and Alas, Babylon are the best I've read so far. The Rawles books are ok, but if you read his blog you know pretty much who's who and what's going to happen, and the characters are paper thin for the most part.

I've been hearing a lot of good things about the Holding Their Ground series. That is probably next on my list. (a bit pricey for fiction, though)

I also digressed a bit into WW II memoirs. Curahee! And With the Old Breed give you a good sense of what it's like for the people who walked into the killing fields, just how few walked out, and may help you prepare for the potential reality beyond the book/movie fantasy.

[hminsky]

"The Year Startdust Fell" http://www.amazon.com/Year-When-Star...+stardust+fell , about when a meteor leaves some dust in the air which seizes up any metal bearings surfaces, which quickly brings civilization down quite a few pegs.

"Denver Is Missing" , http://www.amazon.com/Denver-Is-Miss...ver+Is+Missing (very hard to find!). When drilling a deep research well, a giant pocket of nitrogen is released, making a cloud of gas which goes around the world causing much of civilization to get asphyxiated.


Lucifer's Hammer (http://www.amazon.com/Lucifers-Hamme...rds=hammerfall) A giant asteroid hits ocean near Los Angeles.

Earth Abides (http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abides-G...s=earth+abides) A plague wipes out 99% of the population. The main character is
kind of a dweeb, in that he is technologically quite inept, who ends up in a small tribe in Los Angeles.

"Day Of The Triffids", (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1332653/) (http://www.amazon.com/Day-Triffids-2...f+the+triffids)
A meteor shower causes anyone who viewed it to become blind. Most of the world's population views it. Chaos results.


"The Scarlet Plague" (http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Scarlet/) excellent plague story by Jack London

"A Journal of the Plague Year" (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/376/376-h/376-h.htm) fiction about the Black Plague, written about 50 years after the 1655 plague, by Daniel Defoe.

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocaly...lyptic_fiction

[P-14]

Some non-fiction SHTF preparation reading:

When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes, by Cody Lundin

Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, by Neil Strauss

The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence, by Gavin de Becker

Tracker by Tom Brown, Jr.

Fiction:

Cold Camp, by TimJ - pdf on the internet

Alongside Night, by J. Neil Schulman - free internet download.

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, by Cory Doctorow

ETA Fiction: Enemies Foreign and Domestic Trilogy. Books 2 and 3 are SHTF stories. But, read Book 1 first! These are great stories written by Matthew Bracken.

Book 1: Enemies Foreign and Domestic
Book 2: Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista
Book 3: Foreign Enemies and Traitors

[jbrandenburg11]

I'd like to add the SAS Survival Handbook to P-14's non-fiction list. Also, for those of us who have spent too much time in kitchens and not enough in the brush, Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game should be in your "go" bag as should A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game.

As for fiction, one of my favorites so far is Stirling's Dies The Fire, which puts a new spin on the post-apocalyptic survival scenario. (Spoiler alert: no guns allowed!)

[Loyalist]

Reading the non-fiction book Contact: A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival
http://maxvelocitytactical.com/Conta...Manual___.html

[sixer]

"+1" for Alas Babylon and One Second After. I enjoyed them both. Thanks for the other suggestions!