As a first post on the homestead reference library after introducing the topic and qualifying the statements to be made, perhaps I should go ahead and try to tackle the tough question a reader asked that got us on the topic in the first place.

The basic question was “Do you have a ‘must have’ book list that aspiring homesteaders should start collecting?” The truest answer is “not until now.”

I talked this over with Michelle, who tends to use reference books more than I do (hey, I am a guy, after all . . . ). Between the two of us we came up with a pretty good short list that covers all of the bases. In the future, we’ll profile most or all of these books individually.

These are not listed in any particular order (all links are paid links):

• Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, Your Money Or Your Life
• Amy Dacyczyn, The Complete Tightwad Gazette
• John Seymour, The Guide to Self Sufficiency
• Reader’s Digest, Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills
• Pre-1960 Cook Books, such as Good Housekeeping Cookbook, 1944. (We touch on why in our review of Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet.)
• A regionally appropriate wild plants book. In our case, this is Janice J. Schofield’s Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, The Northwest.
• Joseph Jenkins, The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure.
• Charlie Wing, Boatowner’s Illustrated Electrical Handbook.
• Real Goods, Solar Living Sourcebook.
• Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation. This used to be called Keeping Food Fresh.

That’s 10 good, basic titles. As we pursue this topic, though, it’ll become clearer how we use resource books, and why we have so many more titles than just these to refer to.

I see that I’ve neglected to include a medical book. I’ll cover that in a future post as well.

You can find most of these, and other books, movies, and music that we like and/or depend on for our homestead life at our Book List page. Check your local independent bookstore first, or your local library (they need your support, too!). But, if you can’t, or if you’re a dedicated Amazon.com shopper, buying through our links there will give us a percentage of the book price without additional cost to you.