Customer Reviews

The Big Book of Self-Reliant Living: Advice and Information on Just About Everything You Need to Know to Live on Planet Earth

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really do not know where to start with this book. I am a former executive that left that world behind 2 years ago. I am currently working towards more self-reliant living and ways to cut down on money that leaves my driveway. This book will tell you how to do everything from raising little farm animals, to prepping and planting a garden, selecting an appropriate water heater, positioning your new home to take advantage of shade in reducing costs for heating & cooling, building a bench, construction techniques (large and small), home remedies (including making cleaning supplies), country cooking (with numerous recipes and substitutions), to selecting land. There is just too much in this book to cover everything. In every section it gives you the good and the bad. Unlike other books of this type, it does not contain radical, anti-anything, just hard facts, and common sense suggestions.

Examples are: types of solar power, advantages/disadvantages of each, and their ROI (some of which are years [up to 25] to recoup the costs); raising sheep correctly, ensuring that you can rotate pastures to prevent diseases that I haven't heard of since I was in vet school; and, not raising turkeys where you will have animal A or B. Just good stuff!!

I know that many people my age (mid-30s) are realizing that debt is too easy, and we need to take responsibility for ourselves. This book will give you the tools you need, the rest is up to you.

I have purchased a dozen copies of this book so far, to give to people that really want to live self-reliantly, or that just want help in making informed decisions to become a little self-reliant. This book can be useful anywhere for most of it; however, unlike other books that contain information on gardening and small-scale farming, this book covers the southeastern US like a blanket in regards to winter grazing and feeding for animals, and planting times.

I just cannot say enough about this book. This will be the best money you spend on a library of books...it is large, small print, and packed with information, without being radical like other books...its just good, common sense.

...at least it wasn't what I was expecting. The title, "The Big Book of Self-Reliant Living" lead me to believe that it was a handbook for living off the land. However, when it arrived I was dismayed to find that the "health" section did not contain home remedies or herbal medicine, but 40 pages (40 pages!!) of lists of the nutritional value of foods. Who has time to count calories on a farm? Furthermore, the "health" section had oodles of detailed information on diagnosing a wide variety of cancers and chronic diseases. I found this to be frustratingly unhelpful information. The bizarre material can be perfectly illustrated by the bee-keeping page. It instructs the reader to buy factory made hives, and to have a bee-keeper bring you bees. Self-reliant my foot. So, in summary: if you are a hypochondriac who lives in a city and you want a book with tips on environment-friendly heating methods, instructions for removing stains from clothing, money saving ideas for the grocery store or a chart of toy dog breeds, then please contact me because I have the book for you!

The first thing I noticed about this book was the terribly small print. I have 20/15 vision (better than 20/20) and even I considered using a magnifying glass to read this book! I bought this book mainly because I am preparing to build my own house and I will be doing 99% of the labor myself. And because of this, I concentrated mainly on sections of this book that are dedicated to home construction, masonry, brickwork, etc.

I found a lot of usefull information about building a house. But I would not advise using this book as a "stand alone" guide for home construction. However I do highly recommend this book as a companion reference on the subject. I especially enjoyed the section on "before you build", which pointed out a lot of design details that I will incorporate in my own floor plan.

I would have given the book 5 stars for overall content. But the small print still irritates me and is worthy of taking away 1 star on its own. And the lack of detailed instructions on certain key topics can be annoying at times. So a half star loss there.

There is a lot of information in this book, most of which is very interesting and potentially useful. So long as I think of this as a 'reference book' and not a manual or how-to, I'm happy with my purchase of it.

The book's main problem is in presentation. It is a compilation of publication from other sources, primarily the US government. As such the quality of each section varies greatly in age, usability, and legibility. Really, this book should come with a magnifying glass as several sections have been reduced in size to accommodate the format and are made functionally illegible.

In short, if you are looking for a book to tell you how to become 'Self-Reliant', this book isn't going to help you much. If you are approaching self-reliance and need a book to fill in some knowledge gaps, then it is a valuable resource

While a little dry this book had a LOT of good information. Realistically it had too much information. A LOT of information that any highschool graduate will know.

However, if the entire world social structure collapses this is the one book you would need to home school your kids.

This is a wonderful book to use or just to dip into for a wealth of information from how to buy a Solar Electric system to how to get rid of hog confinement odor. It's a compilation of government pamphlets on how to do just about anything you could ever think of doing. Bravo!!

There is nothing in this book that you can't find on the web for free. As a matter of fact it looks like some of the pages are actually photocopies of other sources. If you have an internet connection, save your money and just look up what you want to know online. Also, this book mostly uses a 10 point size font in most places which makes it hard to read.

I bought this for my collection of "survival situation" books, and I think it is a very good addition. This book covers everything from First Aid of Burns, Survival at Sea, Jam Recipes, Hydroponic Farming, to Brick Construction.

My no means is this a definitive book on any of these subjects, but it can be used as a very good general knowledge book on all of them.

It appears (I haven't taken the time to verify this for all sections) that this book is simply assembled from free handouts and flyers which can be obtained from various sources (the sources themselves are listed). The editors decided which flers fit the bill of "self-reliance" and do not outright state a single goal for this self-reliance. The book is therefore, thematically, a little disorganized, though it feels like it is intended for a person who wishes to get off the grid, practically and societally. Most of the contents look photocopied. Some sections are too complicated, some are too simple, and some are impracticable if the book is your only source of knowledge. The hodgepodge of styles, both visual and verbal, add to the sense of disorganization.

It is not, as I had hoped, an instruction manual on how to be more independent and how to have a lesser effect on my environment. It is, however, big. And there is useful information amidst the assembled flyers and brochures. There might be something in there for you.