Since this forum is devoted to building after a collapse of some sort, you need a library section. Here you can recomend books, give them a breif review by telling us what's in them, how well the book imparts the skill and what situtation the skill will be good for.

Books will be needed for coping with all the possible outcomes of Y2K, not just the interesting ones that a "8+" will bring. Since Mr. Yourdon started this forum and he predicts a depression, I would hope to see books about coping with depressions and other economic calamity as well as the "Y2K Homesteader(R)" type of skills.

You really don't have time to learn everything that you might need to know, but you have time to purchase quite a library. I can't imagine an outcome where a large store of practical knowledge won't be valuable.

("Y2K Homesteader" is a trade mark of Mr. Decker (R))

Here's a place to start.

http://lindsaybks.com/HomePage.html

Hope to see you all on the other side.

Keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.net), August 27, 1999

Answers

Building a library cheap! Most college textbook stores have many old edition textbooks that they normally throw away. The vast majjority of the time, the knowledge contained within, changes very little from edition to edition. Our stores in Rolla and St. Robert, Missouri sell these textbooks for $ 5.00 or less. There are titles on Nursing, History, Sociology, various Engineering subjects, and etc.. I'd suggest that you contact the "privately owned store" in near your college community and inquire. On a capitalistic note, my stores are named, "Pattys University Bookstore, Inc." www.pattysbookstore.com I apologize for the commercial plug, but it's always struck me that we are a very rich nation indeed, being able to throw away so much incredibly valuable information, simply so we can 're-sell' it. The foreign students go nuts when we sell the old editions for $ .25 per pound....

-- Brad Bolz (bradbolz@cableone.net), August 28, 1999.

I agree! I have a whole library of cheap text books born of the "publish or perish" mandate. We have a book warehouse chain that stocks them. Found lots of basic reference in law, environment and biology.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), August 28, 1999.

That's great for sources of cheap books. I'll look in to that.

Now, what kinds of books do we want to store with an eye toward sustaining ourselves after a Y2K event that alters our society? We may well have to become more versatile and less specialized, at least for a while.

Keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.net), August 28, 1999.

The great miracle of libraries is that they are "public" warehouses of books, so vast that a hundred people could not read them all in one life.

The great conundrum of knowledge development is that the rate of new book printing in any given area is exponentially growing, such that even the greatest mind can hardly keep up in one single field.

The great chance for the future is that not only are there uncountable books written, there are often uncountable copies, sitting in almost uncountable libraries.

Some libraries may burn, but most will remain.

Some people may learn a new trade, but is it worth developing an extensive library for personal survival?

During the last year, I have pretty much read through one book on heating with wood, one on organic gardening, one on seed saving, one on solar technology, along with the novels and such.

For much more than that, I can get down to a library. If one isn't open because nobody has jobs, maybe I can help to open one up. There should still be enough "compliant computers" for a few of us to develop a new interlibrary book loan network.

Hey maybe some of us will even write some new books....crazy as it seems.

Thom

Thom

-- Thom Gilligan (thomgill@eznet.net), August 29, 1999.