Bug Out Location Reading Material
Kevin Felts 05.22.17
Something I have tried to do over the past few decades is make sure the bug out location has an assortment of reading material. This has mostly been various magazines, but I also have a range of books in my personal library.
The magazines at the bug out location are to keep minds occupied, while my personal collection is for education. Sometimes the topics overlap, sometimes not.
The goal is to have an assortment of reading material that will appeal to a range of interest. The more people pick up a book and read, the less they focus on stress causing issues.
Literature Reading Material
After I went through college composition classes, rather than selling the books, I kept them. Each book is filled with classic poems and short stories. This should be enough to keep a mind busy for weeks.
Without Internet, video games or TV, this would be a good time for young people to read the works of Jack London, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hemingway, Mark Twain, Longfellow, Thoreau, and Poe.
All young people should read “To Build a Fire,” “Call of the Wild,” and “Undaunted Courage.”
Science and History
Hopefully someone in the group will have an interest in science, anthropology, and paleontology.
There are various magazines that I used to subscribe to, such as National Geographic and Smithsonian.
Popular Mechanics would probably go under science, and they have a lot of good ideas that could be related to prepping.
Hunting and Outdoor Skills
Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, or Petersens Hunting.
Get a yearly subscription to some hunting, fishing and outdoor magazines. Magazines that cover outdoor skills would probably be helpful to people living in a remote cabin.
Journals for personal Use
Something that is often overlooked is keeping a journal. Document the events, thoughts, feelings, interactions between people in the group.
Document when birds are migrating, days when there was a frost or when the temps dipped below freezing.
For example, if someone knows that on average a given area will receive 70 hours of frost time. Keep a record of the amount of hours that frost was present, and you have an idea when it will be safe to plant a garden in the spring.
Final Thoughts
Reading is not for everyone. For some people, when they leave school was the last time they read anything, which is a shame.
In a grid-down situation, reading will probably be one of the few form of entertainment.
To quote Thomas Jefferson,
“I cannot live without books; but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.” – Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 10 June 1815.
