Read this book: "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank

I grabbed this book ("Alas, Babylon") from the library, found through a search for apocolyptic fiction. Brought it home yesterday (Sunday) and finished it today. It starts a little slow, took me 3 chapters to get really interested, but it was worth it.

It was written and published the first time in 1959. It takes place (mostly) in a post-nuclear war, specifically in Florida. Here's a comment that a reader left on the amazon.com page for this book:

This story deals with the Soviet nuclear attack on America that fortunately didn't happen. Where "On the Beach" was written from a British/ Australian perspective, this book is based in the American south, perhaps making Pat Frank the Pat Conroy of post-apocalyptic fiction. In 1960, during the height of the Cold War, Randy Bragg, descendant of an old Florida family, gets a heads-up from his career Air Force brother and prepares his family and his town for when "the button gets pushed". Younger readers who didn't live through the Cold War might find this story a bit campy, but as one of the kids taught by teachers to hide under my desk, I'm in no position to scoff. The book's short length (by today's standards) might make you take it for pulp fiction at first glance, but the fact that it's still in print four decades later is a testament to its quality. Rather than just crank this thing out, certain that no one would notice the picky details, Frank did his homework on this story. Even down to the dog tag on the collar of a wild stray German shepherd in one passage. ... ... (Review by R.L. Miller)

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This is a must-read. It deals with typhoid, radiation poisoning, water, supplies, marriage, responsibility, childbirth, unpreparedness, feral cats and dogs, and much more. It's so much better written than Patriots by James Rawles, and still gives great info for you to think about.

Not Prepared Enuf

We had an electrical outage at our new home yesterday. Couldn’t work online, blog, or write. Couldn’t use my seal-a-meal. Couldn’t use the microwave to make my kid’s lunch (we improvised the menu!). The whole thing just reminded me that I haven’t finished my preparations, and most of my information is either on my computer’s hard-drive or online either in blog-postings or e-books.

I hadn't even printed out my inventory list! I finally found the crockpot but couldn't find my packages of dried food with recipes enclosed.

So I used my cell to get in touch with a person who has expressed interest in publishing, and together we struck a collaborative deal. We’re going to go through a list we made, and write short to-the-point e-books and laminated cheat-sheets for all of the topics we need quickly accessible in case of emergency. These won’t be just for our use, but also for sell, if anyone is interested in them.

We have quite a list, but if you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment on this posting.

And now I have the flu. Well, not THE flu, but a stomach variety. Argh. I'll be back when I'm feeling better.

Re-Reading George Orwell's 1984. Scary.

I'm assigning my kid "1984" by George Orwell as a literature/reading assignment this coming year. Since the last time I read it was in school in the 70's, I picked it up yesterday to get a jump on it.

Geez, it's scary. It feels a lot like the beginning of what we're going through now. Monitoring our every move. Ministry of War making people disappear without being convicted of a crime. Focus on the rich and ignore the poor (except to persecute them). Public humiliation of people who dare to speak out. Subliminal persuasion. Food rations.

I realize it's not exact, but it sure feels like that's where we're headed if we don't start standing up to these people who "run" our government.

A Survival-Preparedness Novel, Patriots

Just wondering... have any preppers who come here read the book "Patriots" by James Wesley Rawles? I got to wondering about it last night, and looked it up on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Patriots-Novel-Survival-Coming-Collapse/dp/156975599X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243346987&sr=1-1).

I can't afford it right now because of some major upheaval in our lives, but thought I'd look at the comments to see if reading it is even worth it. The majority of the responses were very positive, but there are some that say that while it's a great survival-prep how-to manual, the story is lacking on the novel aspect. The characters aren't very well developed, etc.

Just wondering what my readers here think?

And... if you read that, do you generally read any pieces of fiction/novels that deals with prepping, end of the world, schumer-hits-the-fan, etc.?