What written material do you regard as necessary...

[DrakeMaiden]

Oh, I thought the constitution was "just a piece of paper" these days.

Encyclopedia of Country Living

various & sundry gardening books

I'm thinking I could use a good book on first aid and natural remedies for common things (like insect bites, burns, etc.)

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Also need to add a complete set of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a towel...

LOVE IT! I have the first 4 of the "increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy"! Really should get the other.

Okay, back to post
My herbals (finding, harvesting & preparing herbal remedies of all sorts)
Where there is no Dr.
Collection of MEN
My notebook of things I've figured out, designs I like, plants that worked, instructions on canning & drying, etc. BIG 3" 3-ring binder filled with all sorts of things
Green Beret Compass Course
Popular mechanics "how to" book set from the 1950's, covers woodworking, metal working, wiring, basic repair, car maintenance, roofing, painting and so much more (sounds like an advert, eh?
Collins' Gem - SAS Survival Guide

 

[sylvie]

Also need to add a complete set of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a towel...

"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

Or as a weapon by snapping a twisted wet towel at exposed flesh out there in the galaxy.

 

[ChickenPotPie]

I guess that depends on the emergency.

Definitely the scriptures.

Then perhaps our Surviorman book and Edible Wild Plants - a North American Field Guide, and (?).

I don't need a cookbook. Even in an emergency I can cook the same things I cook in my kitchen at home if I have the food for it OR swing the other way and eat very simply. Wild plants, and snake or bird for dinner would be welcomed by my little boys.

I know my kids would like books to read so I try to buy complete collections of famous authors so we have them all in one book - makes transport easier. We've got the Beatrix Potter collection, Frog and Toad, Lewis Carroll, and a few others. Oh, and The Dangerous Book for Boys. You gotta have fun.

Edit: If the emergency caused us to leave and never return home, those written documents would also included our safe of important legal documents and our written family histories.