Today is going to touch on how to preserve books and such, and part is going to touch on what to save. Now, this is advanced preparation and is designed not for inconveniences or emergencies, but full-up disasters. Just keep in mind that it is duration that counts, and that it doesn’t matter if the cause is natural, natural stupidity, or politics (which I do count as different from natural stupidity).
A while back, I did several posts on long-term storage (LTS) and talked a bit about the need to tuck away books and such just in case. Let’s start with book preservation.
For the books that are truly important, allow me to suggest individually bagging in food-grade mylar storage bags, and sealing after getting out as much air as possible and with an oxygen absorber inside. Getting out the air will inhibit the operation of the absorber, but it also helps with packing the individual bags into other containters. If things are tight, omit the absorber and press on. My suggestion is to put the individually-bagged books into a larger mylar storage bag, such that you can drop two or three such bags into a five gallon bag, and then into a 5-gallon bucket with mylar liner as discussed in the LTS section. Oh, this is also where you should have copies of important legal documents and such.
Again, again, and again, it is all about layers and levels of containment. The more the better, as the last thing you want is a single failure to take out your efforts.
Now, that’s expensive, time consuming, and not necessarily going to be something everyone can do. While less secure in the long term, you can also simply place a 5-gallon mylar bag inside a 5-gallon food-grade bucket with mylar liner, load as much inside as you can fit (including oxygen absorbers), seal the good mylar bag, tie off the liner, then seal the bucket. That gives you three levels of containment, which can work even for a disaster.
Now, some quick thoughts on what to save. These are some personal suggestions, and I hope they give you some food for thought.
In terms of literature, I’m going to want to save books and series that I have enjoyed. Personally, I’m not inclined to save the ‘great works of literature’ which in many cases I don’t consider that good, great, or literature. That’s a discussion for another day, but how we treat literature in school is an abomination. While I would tuck away a tome with Shakespeare’s works, I’m more inclined to tuck away the works of David Weber and others. I would very much want to tuck away John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising series as it focuses on dealing with a true disaster in very practical terms, as does Eric Flint’s 1632 series (which is excellent in terms of gearing down to build back up). And you can bet Lewis and Tolkien will be in there too.
Now, for a disaster, I would also recommend two levels of reference books. The first would be things like the Foxfire series that detail how things were done in the past (and up to the present day) including home remedies and more. There are a number of good books that contain old recipes and formulas for everything from toothpaste to food preservation. These are all very good and practical things to have, and I suspect one could write a book or two on the options. In a disaster, having access to the old ways may be a very good thing.
However, the second level is one that is often ignored. These are the old reference books that contain calculations, tables of data, and the steps to derive information for everything from engineering to basic production. These are the old reference books that detail drugs and usages (PDR, etc.). These are the books no longer being printed (or if printed rarely bought) because the information is all on the internet. Yes, it is now. There are multiple causes of disaster that can take out the internet, temporarily or permanently. A lot of these types of books are being thrown away or given away by libraries of all types. You can find them for pennies in second-hand stores and even garage sales. In a disaster, they may well be worth their weight in plutonium. If you get the chance, tuck them away.
Finally, I do recommend tucking away religious books, particularly Christian and Jewish books. Why? Look at the news. If that doesn’t tell you why, ya need help. If you think the war on Christianity, and the rampant antisemitism, are just going to magically go away in a year or two, I think you are dreaming. I actually expect to see the war on Christianity and Jews get much worse. My thought on that is to tuck away as many copies of bibles, prayer books, reference books, etc. in multiple containers and multiple locations as possible. I would also work to make them hard to detect as well, just in case. It may sound paranoid, but I’m not sure we are being paranoid enough on this score. I’d far rather have such things tucked away at need, than to find we need them and not have them.
Just a few quick thoughts this morning, and I really should do a post on libraries and another on literature (even though Larry Correia and others have been doing a good job on same). Also, more thoughts on what to store for a disaster are coming. More soon.
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That is all certainly easier than memorizing them – or getting martyred for legging them.
One of the books I randomly found and added to my little library last year is “The Care and Feeding of the Offshore Crew” by the Pardeys. I love finding gems like it at used bookstores.
Oh, that does sound good. It is amazing what you can find at good used book stores, flea markets, and library sales.
I’m not inclined to save the ‘great works of literature’
I would be, but in the older sense of “classical” – Homer, Virgil, Herot*, Plato, etc.
(* Herot wrote a book from ancient times about various inventions. Things like doors that open automatically. Wikipedia shows multiple books that could be handy – slightly more than a similar modern book because it shows that stuff wasn’t modern.)
These are the old reference books that contain calculations, tables of data, and the steps to derive information for everything from engineering to basic production.
Like my engineering book from college. That works really well as a doorstop. But also has the entire set of trigonometry tables in it. And materials constants. Absolutely.
tuck away as many copies of bibles, prayer books, reference books, etc.
And something to consider: look through history at all of the libraries that have been destroyed, leaving no ancient manuscripts of certain books. Ponder whether you think your preparations in this area might go beyond you, and what you would want to be dug up after some “total” catastrophe 100 years in the future. It slides from “prepping” into “saving the past.”
Excellent considerations, Wolf. And, yes, one of the things to prep for is the coming persecution of Christians and Jews. Read the stories of smuggling bibles into Eastern Europe (while the Iron Curtain was up – “God’s Smuggler”, for one) and in China, for inspiration. And, add to your prepping activities oral story-telling. They have to work a lot harder to burn those stories.
one of my used book finds last year was an excellent copy of “Heat Engines” by Allen and Bursley
Will agree with you on the classics as you give them, and would add Tacitus and a couple of others. I used to have a book of Japanese poetry that would fit in I think. And, thanks! Again, sorry for the delay in replying.
I might have mentioned before “The Knowledge – How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm” by Lewis Dartnell. (Or, maybe I bought it because I read about it here.) It’s a pretty good look (though not perfect) of things to consider preserving in terms of knowledge. Especially in how to make things like precursor chemicals.
I don’t remember that one, but it sounds great! Will have to look for that. Thanks!
If you have a Goodwill “warehouse” outlet near you, they have big bins of used books for sale really cheap. Whatever isn’t sold goes off to be “pulped”. I’ve picked up medical, classical, how-to, novels, and cookbooks at the warehouse near me.
And, barring them being impregnated with arsenic or such, all of those books have better use in your prepper “kit” as fire starters than in being pulped. (Or in being in your prepper kit as expedient toilet paper! Old paper is usually soft….) Even if (or especially if) they’re really bad books.
🙂
Good point and thanks for sharing that. Need to start checking for the one closest to me. Thanks!
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, you can pick up an relatively new copy off eBay for not much. Let’s face it, most of the material in there doesn’t change much year to year.
True and good to know as I used to have a copy but unsure where it is. That is a great book to have, and good it doesn’t change to much. 🙂