(From Kiashu, in the earlier thread):

The Complete Handyman, an out-of-print book from the 1940s which tells us everything from making a bookshelf to replacing the acid in a lead-acid battery. Not many books like this exist these days, it's all high-tech, lots of plastics, and/or very specialised, and most books assume the reader is an idiot.

The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, by John Seymour

The Australian Vegetable Garden, which looks at growing fruit and vegetables considering the Australian climate and conditions - rather different from most gardening books which focus on Europe and North America

Well, on the heading of "how to" mentally keep important things in perspective, this one occurs to me. A slim volume, it draws a useful line between spirituality and religion, and describes a nice context for individual peace and perhaps doing our best in a preposterous situation.

The Sacred Depths of Nature, by Ursula Goodenough

I think I'll add, for the heck of it,

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing

I put this in the "how to" section because it doesn't really fall into the other catagories, and it's good to be reminded that simply prePOSterous adversity may be overcome.

and if you can get your hands on a copy:

A Child's Garden of Grass, by Jack S. Margolis & Richard Clorfene

I haven't seen a copy in 30 years, but it has all sorts of useful social and philosophical tips, far beyond the best ways to get stoned.

an eclectic mix of books, I'll agree.

Vegetable gardening? Careful, don't forget the trees! They take the longest to establish, therefore the first thing one should do when starting a garden is planting the trees - first the nut trees (often take seven year to bear fruits) then the fruit trees (three to five years)

How To Books for work with your hands can be a problem. Often they don't cover important items either because they are more art than science or because the people who write them are better with their hands than with words.

Two examples I know.

One key question in farming is exactly when to plant or plow. This question takes into account soil type, moisture conditions, climate(or micro-climate if you prefer), planting method, crop being planted,and other less important variables. Getting this part wrong will often be the difference between a good yield and a poor yield. This is more art than science and you will need to practice or be shown by someone experienced to get it right.

A second example is welding with a stick welder. You have to practice keeping tha arc steady and properly melting the materials to be welded. No book I have ever seen will make you a decent stick welder without a lot of practice. It helps to have an understanding of the theory but it is only a beginning.

My point is that for many skills a good book is only a start and you must practice and be prepared to fail on your first trials.

If your view of the future is dark you can not just buy How To Books and expect to take them out and use them after you really need them.

Nuclear War Survival Skills by the late Cresson Kearny - a free download is available. The book is dated but I doubt that the basic physics has changed significantly.

http://www.oism.org/nwss/

The Health Hazards of Not Going Nuclear. by the late Petr Beckmann -also dated

http://www.amazon.com/Health-Hazards-Not-Going-Nuclear/dp/0911762175

Radiation Hormesis by T. D. Luckey
http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/Radiation_Hormesis/0849361591/

PERMACULTURE: A Designers' Manual Bill Mollison
The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage Evans/Smiley/Smith
The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure Joseph Jenkins

Between them you have the info to build, plant and maintain a homestead with minimal equipment and sans fossil fuels.

Edit:
These 2 volumes round out the Mollison book and take it up a notch:
Edible Forest Gardens (2 vols) Jacke/Toensmeier

Edit 2:
If you are in the SW US, these are probably worth acquiring too
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (Vol. 1)
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (Vol. 2)
Both by Brad Lancaster

Edit 3:
This online library should really get a nod too:
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library.html

Nate (and others) The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency is available as a FREE PDF download at http://www.ebookee.com/The-Complete-Book-of-Self-Sufficiency_167103.html

Its 250+ pages are chock-full of useful information.

I second the recommendation of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. I picked it up two years ago as a new gardener. Growing organic is different from growing with standard fertilizers, and Ed Smith's method of using wide rows of raised beds with deep soil does work well. He also includes tips that save a lot of time throughout the season.

Also I am a big fan of: "Organic Gardening - The Natural No-Dig Way" by Charles Dowding.

My top suggestion is Nonviolent Communication: A Language of LIfe, by Marshall B. Rosenberg. It's basically an excellent guide to getting your way without having to bash people; talking your way out of conflicts with potentially hostile people. Of course, you might want to add a book on physical self-defense (I don't have that one, so pls make a suggestion.)
I also recommend Creating a Life Together, by Diana Leafe Christian. It's how-to form an intentional community. A lot of emphasis on legal considerations, which may become less relevant in the Descent; but also a lot of very practical information and examples relevant to making group cooperation effective. No one can survive alone.
My third suggestion is about survival -- a guide to wild edibles and medicinals. What you choose will depend on where you are. My basic book is the Peterson Field Guide, Edible Wild Plants: Eastern/Central North America, by Lee Allen Peterson. A more general guide (for North America) is Katie Letcher Lyle's Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits and Nuts: How to Find, Identify and Cook them. (Be careful with those mushrooms!)

I'll put in a strong second on:
The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure Joseph Jenkins

It's very important to do this and it's very, very important to do it right.

Adding to the Bill Mollison shelf: The Permaculture Book of Ferment & Human Nutrition

A comprehensive book on preserving foods by various methods, including fermentation. Plus information on methods to enhance nutritional quality, such as parboiling and then drying whole grain rice before milling to preserve more of the thiamin, preventing the nutritional disease beri-beri.

Amazon shows only one used copy available for $120 US. It is worth it.

Any books on water treatment/storage that people like?

Root Cellaring - Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables

Besides food storage, a cool place to take a nap if its sweltering hot and there is a power outage.

"When Technology Fails" by Mat Stein is a mini-encyclopedia of what and how to do.

http://www.whentechfails.com/

There are also the books by John Seymour on more hands-on skills and self-sufficiency. I like:

"The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It"

http://www.amazon.com/SAS-Survival-Handbook-Survive-Climate/dp/006057879...

http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Mammal-Tracking-America/dp/0933472986/...

http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Soap-Book-Making-Vegetable-Based/dp/088266...

http://www.amazon.com/Herbal-Medicine-Makers-Handbook-Home-Manual/dp/089...

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Whole-Foods-Traditions-Nutrition/dp/155643...

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Handbook-Plant-Alchemy-Herbalists/dp/089...

http://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Whips-Bushcraft-Edwards/dp/0870335138/ref...

http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Blacksmith-Traditional-Techniques-Modern/...

Cache Lake Country is one of my favorite books.
Similar in spirit to Walden it details a year in the life of a Northern Ontario woodsman.
It recalls the dreams of childhood for me and rejoices in the splendor of a simple life.
After reading it, the fear of losing much of modern day life vanishes.
Read an excerpt here.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1976-03-01/Cache-Lake-Coun...

I can't recommend this book highly enough, it is simply the best I've read on the subject:

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) (Paperback)
by Steve Solomon (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X

Also:

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A gardener's supply book) by Eliot Coleman
http://www.amazon.com/New-Organic-Grower-Techniques-gardeners/dp/0930031...

The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers (Hardcover)
by John Seymour (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-Book-Self-Sufficiency-Realists/dp/075...

The how to books in my collection would mostly not be of much interest to others here,they are too specialized and deal with things that are not likely to need doing any way if tshtf.

The best how to instruction manuals I have seen(available second hand both in paper and on discs)are the ones put out by the Americam military.There are evidently hundreds of them and they cover everything from how to clean a chicken to emergency first aid to the proper techniques of maintaining trucks and firearms.One I found to be very useful indeed is the introductory diesel engine technicians training manual.

These manuals are well illustrated and very clearly written.You can get them cheap used on the net.

Another gold mine of free or dirt cheap info is the extension servive operated by your land grant university.They have tens of thousands of pubs that explain every thing from sexing baby chickens to grading eggs to raising worms to..well you name it, they got it ...somewhere.Downloads arefree and paper is cheap or free but not always available.

I agree with Kiashu's comment in #1 of 3

I don't agree with the split between theory and practice. It's a failure to connect our abstract knowledge with our practical day-to-day lives that's got us into this mess.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert M. Pirsig, 1974
In general:
1) Some useful tips on motorcycle maintenance
2) Applying 'Quality' in everything we do, however mundane
3) Feeling the essence of the moment
What I took from it:
4) Life is a journey with no destination that we travel completely alone
5) It helps a lot if you are either barking mad or don’t give a monkey’s

If you like gardening,bookmark this link and print your own book from the tons of information you will find there.
http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/

A general comment:

Most of the posters here seem to focus on gardening rather than farming. Basically: growing fruit and vegetables as opposed to growing cereals.

I don't think that survival strategy can be scaled up. F&V are supplementary while cereals are essential –man can survive on bread alone, but not on tomatoes and apples. The human stomach wasn't primarily designed to digest several thousand calories of F&V a day. Besides, you can generate more calories per unit of land by growing cereals than by growing F&V, with the exception of potatoes I suppose. Indeed, in an energy-poor world, consuming F&V may eventually become a luxury, like eating caviar today.

So where's the book on how to grow your own wheat or rice?

Gardening - I refer to these more than anything else:
Seymour, The Self-Sufficient Gardener
Coleman, Four Season Harvest
Hunt & Bortz, High Yield Gardening (OOP, unfortunately)

Beekeeping
Nabhan, Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture
Root, The ABC and XYZ of Beekeeping

Food Preservation
Ball Blue Book
Centre Terre Vivante, Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning
Greene, Hertzberg & Vaughn, Putting Food By
Bubel, Root Cellaring

Food Preparation
Joy of Cooking
Fannie Farmer Cookbook
Campbell's Great American Cookbook (OOP, unfortunately)

Nature Field Guides
Any of the Peterson series. Especially important and recommended:
Peterson & Peterson, A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: (E/C or W US)
Duke, Foster, Peterson, A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: (E/C or W US)
Peterson, A Field Guide to (Eastern/Western) Trees

Maintenance & DIY
Time-Life Fix It Yourself, complete 23 vol. series (OOP, but I have found this to be the most comprehensive and helpful resource for around-the-house maintenance and repair tasks)

On Obamas night stand;

Just a little off topic but as this forum is about resources it is an important book for understanding;

"Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent"

http://www.amazon.com/Open-Veins-Latin-America-Centuries/dp/0853459916

I appreciated everyone's picks but especially want to bolster support for "The Good Life", "Humanure Handbook" and all accounts of Shackleton's Endurance expedition.

To thrive and survive in a rapidly disintegrating world, we need to increase our capacity to improvise, adapt and overcome obstacles. Unfortunately, most of that capacity to improvise, adapt and overcome without the crutch of power tools and materials derived from cheap oil is dying away quickly in the generation born between 1910 and 1945. My suggestion is to find opportunities to talk and work with some of the people of this generation. Without that opportunity, I suggest that you read the old manuals and texts of that era then put some sweat equity into building those skills. Go to http://www.lindsaybks.com/ where you will find a multitude of reprints of these ancient texts and some new ones in the same DIY subject area. Any and all of Dave Gingery's books are highly recommended.

Before cheap oil, cheap carbohydrates and a medical care system largely supported by both, people stayed healthy and fit for survival by eating the right foods. Like peak oil, our government is telling the wrong story about food safety or what constitutes a healthy diet. I suggest that you go to http://www.westonaprice.org and read that information along with a plethora of supporting books and media. Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions" is highly recommended as both a cookbook and a reference.

I appreciate everyone's gardening suggestions but I havent seen much emphasis on raising animals for meat. Both, gardening AND animal husbandry will be required as TSHTF. The majority of people can not tolerate a strictly vegetable diet. (I dont care what the vegans say!) Most soil conditions and climate can not support the magnitude of vegetable production required. We need to revive husbandry skills and understanding the symbiotic relationship between animal and vegetable raising. I recommend any and all books by Joel Salatin http://www.polyfacefarms.com/books.aspx.

Thank you, Nate and everyone who contributed to this thread!

For gardening I can suggest:
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
I have used it in the past and had very good results. Today I raise meat and buy what few vegetables I need. Vegetables from the supermarket (organic) or the farmers market are cheap and meat is all expensive. I save more by raising my own meat.

For basic supplies and information I can recommend Lehman's Hardware. Not the cheapest, but mostly high quality stuff. They have been going a bit towards the Yuppie stuff the last few years, but they do still mainly serve the Amish needs.
http://www.lehmans.com/

I can second the recommendation of all the books from Lindsay Publications listed above in the thread. I have most of them in my library.

For those in the USA who are inclined towards being self defense prepared, I would recommend a membership in the National Rifle Association (NRA) to help protect your Second Amendment Rights.
http://www.nra.com/

For alternative fuels for your own use:
From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank is a good basic book on making biodiesel fuel from either used cooking oil or new vegetable oil.
http://www.amazon.com/Fryer-Fuel-Tank-Vegetable-Alternative/dp/0970722702

There are many good books on building a still for the production of Ethyl Alcohol for engine fuel and also some on converting auto engines to run on alcohol.
http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/id26.html

Both the Government Ag Department and many Universities have many plans for buildings and equipment that your can build for use in raising different types of livestock. (FREE)

IMPORTANT!
Use the WEB to find as much info as you can and print out the important info. The WEB might not always be up and running when you need the info. Digital storage isn't a really good option for vital information either, in my opinion.

If foreign trade slows way down real fast, clothes (mostly imported in the USA these days) may be hard to get and become very expensive. Get some good basic books on sewing and mending clothes, canvas, etc....
Also books on darning, quilt making, knitting, spinning, weaving, upholstery (I don't like sitting on hard wood surfaces for long and I doubt that you do either?)and other crafts to turn raw organic material (cotton, wool, mohair, etc..) into wearing apparel and materials for use around the home/homestead.

A good book on sharpening would be very helpful. Knives, axes, hatchets, chain saw chains, chisels, wood working tools, etc...

I could go on for a while, but think I have taken up my allotment of band width.

The Joy of Cooking. Be careful what edition you get though. Some recent editions edited out the useful canning and preserving sections. The comments at Amazon are helpful in discerning which editions are better.

Carla Emery, The Encyclopedia of Country Living. This book covers how to grow, preserve and recipes for every kind of fruit and vegetable. She has chapters on different kinds of domestic animals and how to care for them as well as some information on soap, fiber, etc. During canning season I use her book, the Joy, and the French preserving without canning or freezing book mentioned above to answer any question I have.

Stephanie

John Seymour: The Self-Sufficient Gardener & Joseph Jenkins Humanure Handbook are both mentioned above and well worth reading.

However, I heard yesterday a call for more legislation to prevent people 'poisoning themselves with greywater' so I am not so hopeful that people can manage their own by-products responsibly but without paranoia.

Cairncross & Feachem: Environmental Health Engineering in the tropics. Info on various sanitary diseases & how to avoid them.

Doris Longacre: More with Less Cookbook. This was written by Mennonites and has lots on preserving and cooking from scratch.

Haynes: The Bike Book-Complete Bicycle Maintenance

How about Free to choose?

I've been a peak oiler for years now, but I feel this book would even help pre-peak. How about that!

Another thought:

Most of what we have been mentioning here are very practical "how to do it" books, which are indeed important. I suspect that this is the emphasis because most of us are already college educated, and we already have studied math, the sciences, and maybe engineering or some other discipline. As has been frequently remarked upon here, college education is going to likely become increasingly unaffordable for all but a shrinking minority of people. Of course, there is also the education of those of high school age, which is going to increasingly have to be with something other than the public schools if it is to really amount to anything at all. Thus, another category of books we could consider are those that would be useful for those who must self-educate themselves. Even those of us with college educations might have missed a subject or two that we now wish we knew more about, or maybe we've gotten rusty and need a refresher.

I am therefore going to highly recommend the Schaum's Outline Series. Most of us are probably familiar with these. Schaum's outlines got me through college, and I'm sure the same could be said for many, many others.

My personal feeling is that most Schaum's outlines are far more valuable and useful as a learning tool than are most textbooks. IMHO, textbooks are a teriffic racket.

First of all, they are revised every few years, just to flush the old used editions out of the system and force the poor students to buy new ones. (Why in the HELL does an algebra textbook have to be revised every few years!?!?!?! It isn't like there have been a lot of new, paradigm-shifting discoveries in algebra. It is done purely for the money.) For most of the basic and introductory level courses that high school and undergraduate students will be taking, even a ten or twenty year old Schaum's outline will cover the material just fine.

Second, I have found most textbooks to be highly verbose. Because textbook authors know that there are some professors out there with pet theories and obscure research interests, and that those professors will be offended and maybe not select their textbook if their pet little side-show isn't covered, textbooks tend to be too non-selective in the material they include. There might be something to be said for being comprehensive, but until a student gets to graduate school what they really need is to master the really important core knowledge. There is also something to be said for lavish illustrations, interesting side bars, etc., etc. However, all of this adds bulk, and of course that drives up the price, which is really what this is all about. In contrast, I have found most Schaum's outlines to be very concise and focused on helping the student to identify and learn the most important points. That is one reason why the typical Schaum's outline is much thinner, and much less expensive, than the typical textbook.

Third, too many textbooks might have exercises after each chapter, but not the answers (except in the instructor's edition). You are supposed to wade through the verbal jungle, give it your best shot, and then find out in class - or maybe a class or two later, after you've already moved on to another chapter or more - whether you really got it right or not. That is a pretty crummy feedback system, and it is not conducive to good learning. In contrast, any Schaum's outline is going to have plenty of really good exercies, AND all of the answers. You can check your comprehension right then and there, and if you got it wrong, you can go back and review and try to figure out where you went wrong. Immediate feedback - perfect!

My recommendation to anyone going through school:

1) Buy the Schaum's outline for every course where they have one. If you can't afford a new copy, search ebay for a clean used copy - older editions are still perfectly good for most subjects.

2) Study the Schaum's outline FIRST, and then do enough exercises to satisfy yourself that you have the material in that chapter down.

3) Then, and only then, skim your textbook. You are mainly going to be looking to see if there is any material that wasn't covered in Schaum's. There isn't likely to be very much. (Bonus: Since you will be relying mainly on Schaum's, you shouldn't need to mark up your textbook, which will increase the resale value.)

4) Then do whatever exercises in the textbook that are assigned. With any luck, there will be similar ones in Schaum's, and that will help you to complete them and be assured that you've gotten them right.

I can just about guarantee that any student that hasn't gotten themselves in totally over their head should be able to earn at least a solid B+ at most schools using this approach. It should even be good for an A for many students.

As for those of us who are past school age, it might still be worthwhile accumulating a library of Schaum's outlines, both for continued learning, for a refresher, and for future generations.

I already know how to make my own that will get you drunk,but I am willing to bet that the average Drummer will need a little help if he/she wants to brew some drinkable beer or make a barrel of decent wine.Some of you folks into this subject far enough to own books please get some titles up before comments are closed.

As far as I know it is legal to talk as much as you like about distilling,but don't post anything that gives you away,I have friends who have done time for depriving the revenoors of thier revenue.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Mountain-Men-Harold-Peterson/dp/0960356665

This simple book tells the story of a "modern day" mountain man. As close to totally self sufficient as possible.

It always strikes me that most of the debate about post peak oil preparedness centers around individual skills and hard survival scenarios.
My suggestion is to emphasize community building. This is important in places where communities exist and thrive , sometimes for centuries (I live in Florence, Italy, which has existed as a city for more than 1000 years and gave its best to humanity centuries before societies started to burn fossil fuels.) All the more important in individualistic societies such as the US: start digging the well before you get thirsty, as a Chinese saying goes.

In this perspective, a book which I found comprehensive and inspiring was
Richard Douthwaite, Short Circuit, 1996 - available here.

As the main agencies focusing on disputes and conflicts will become less efficient (State, formal laws, Police etc.) Conflict Resolution will certainly become important. This has become a huge field, with dozens of books. A first overview can be gained with:
The Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation, Berghof Center for Constructive Conflict Management, Berlin

Nonviolence in general and the work and exeperience of Mohandas K. Gandhi are also a subject worth reading.

Thinking about this thread last night and three other resources came to mind:

First, the entire Foxfire series. Great knowledge about primitive life and self-sufficiency.

Second, a compilation of several interviews with Alex Stewart, an Appalachian pioneer with knowledge spanning generations as far back as the Revolutionary war by the founder of the Museum of Appalachia. http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Stewart-John-Rice-Irwin/dp/0887400531/ref=sr_... Sidenote: Last week I visited this living museum in Norris, TN (twice), took 223 pictures of various tools (amongst a collection of 40,000 items) and buildings and met Irwin. Highly recommended if you have the opportunity.

Third, both Mother Earth News and Homepower magazine have searchable DVD sets of past issues with an enormous wealth of information on alternative energy and self-sufficiency.

I have been reading the Foxfire series and, now, the Alex Stewart book to my 10 year old. Although I wouldn't wish those conditions on any generation, my hope is that it will prepare her on some levels for things to come.

This may be beyond the means of some TODers, but I strongly recommend obtaining a Frenchman. Better still, a couple - that is, one of each gender. Preferably quite old but still active. The best can be found out in a small village. I've got two, and they've become irreplaceable companions.
While not strictly adhering to the criteria of being in print, they are nevertheless walking compendiums of useful knowledge - be it where to find the best mushrooms, or how best to incorporate them in a homemade 'terrine'. They are repositories of all things gastronomical, agricultural, horticultural and cultural.
I've just spent a few days working in their vineyard ( www.bloodyparadise.wordpress.com ) and I've learnt a packet.

Failing that, I second Nate's recommendation of John Seymour's classic : but would insist it be the original, in all it's 70's glory.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37615040@N02/357

The drawings are accurate and earthy, in this edition. There's no prettying-up. Ideals and perfection are one thing - bodgeing it is what we may have to put up with in the meantime.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37615040@N02/357

I'm with OldFarmerMac, and Biologist, and SMN when he says 'a good book is only a start'. There's nothing like doing it - and doing it with others who know.

I will add something similar to the start of this topic; from Asimov's hat: http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/future_of_humanity.html.
That, IMHO describes the best where we are going and what to do about it.