You may be aware that I am an avid reader. I love books and have thousands in my collection. Most are fiction books, sci-fi, mysteries and adventure books but I have many non fiction books on such diverse subjects as building your own weapons, basic chemistry, how to books on various subjects and many different survival topics such as farming, food production and guides on how to live on bugs and how find your way home using a needle and a plastic bowl.
Obviously you can download many of these books for free from various web sites, including this site, but I think there are some subjects that need an actually physical book. However, books are expensive, you don’t want to be spending money there which can be used elsewhere, and also bulky, they take up a lot of valuable space. So you need to buy wisely. I believe First Aid and medical issues are one of those subjects where you don’t want to be waiting for your ebook reader to boot or be recharged whilst someone needs help.
So, my recommendation for you, if you don’t have any First Aid books yet is get at least one of these First Aid books. Basic First Aid, nothing too fancy at this stage. I’m a great believer in the St Johns Ambulance First Aid books and have several of their books myself so I can comment on those.
The first book I will touch on is St. John Ambulance – First Aid Manual: The Step by Step Guide for Everyone. This book is easy to read, informative and has many pictures to help you. A must have book.
The second book is First Aid for Babies and Children Fast. This book is again easy to read as you would expect from Dorling Kindersley, it has plenty of pictures relevant to the subject matter and deals with issues with children. Children are particularly difficult to treat as they do not really describe their symptoms well and this can lead even experienced first aid responders down the wrong path. Currently, you play safe by taking them to the doctors or A&E but when you can’t this book could save a life. I would say this is a must have book even if you do not have children. You never know what the future holds.
I would buy at least one each of these books for storage by the medical cupboard. Although, depending on your situation, you should consider having a book with each medical kit you have. For example one in the house, one in the car, one in the workshop. You don’t want to be searching when something goes wrong.
In addition there is also the Pocket First Aid and Wilderness Medicine book. This smaller size book is designed to be carried or stored in a portable First Aid kit. It has a protected cover, is 10cm x 15cm, so big enough to read whilst small enough to go in a pocket or a pouch and, as you would expect, is informative and clear. It is aimed at outdoor injuries and deals with subjects that the previous books do not. Again, a must have book for a survival situation.
If you have a different choice of First Aid book let me know. Regardless of your preference just make sure you have at least one in your book collection. Preferably, one with every First Aid kit. Just as a reminder, read the books before you store them away. They will give you tips and advice of what to buy for the First Aid kit, which you should buy immediately rather than opening the book when you are by an injured person and find you are missing something when you need it most.
A few books I rely on which might be useful:
A good book on mushrooms and toadstools – there’s good food to be had out there in the way of mushrooms, but its important to know what you have – Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe ISBN 0-7153-0155-1 is a good one as it explains habitat, eatability and a good photograph of each one, as welll as the ones that are poisonous.
Natures Wild Harvest by Eric Soothill and Michael J Thomas is a must for finding food in the wild. ISBN 0-7137-2226-6
I make my own medicines and this is something that can save lives, especially if we have no medical access. The best reference book for this is The Holistic Herbal by David Hoffmann ISBN 0-00-713301-4
I use the book above in conjunction with The Wild Flower Key to British Isles and NW Europe by Francis Rose ISBN 0-72322419-6 every wild flower or herb in Britain is detailed in this little book, it fits nice into a pocket and is the best book I have.
Herbs and medicines is my bag, if I can be of any help please ask
Beladonna,
I’ll have a look at those books myself. I already have some like that but books recommended by someone that knows what they are doing are always worth consideration.
We are always interested in herbs and medicines so I have no doubt there will be questions. Have you considered doing an article on any of those subjects. I’ll be happy to post one.
No problem, give me a few days and I’ll send it in
The Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall ‘River Cottage Handbook’ series is quite handy. All hardback, well written and packed full of useful info. Not written by him so not as ponsy as you think (although I quite like him) and a lot of information is pretty much duplicated in some of my other books but still very good. Two is one and all that.
Justin,
Not heard of them. I’ll add them to my list and have a look at them.
You can never have too many books at hand.
for those of you out there that do not have big gardens or only slabs there is a book id recommend which is (patio produce by paul peacock) we bought it and now we grow more veg than we can eat and our slabbed garden is small all done in pots tubes and hanging baskets one of the best book we ever bought
There are several very important sites on the web that would be of great use to members interested in herbal and homoeopathic medicine. There is: http://www.similima.com and http://www.hpathy.com and these are two homoeopathy sites. There is http://www.herbdatanz.com which contains a complete course on Herbal and Homoeopathy and http://www.swsbm.com and again http://www.7song.com, this last site deals with Herbal medicine used in First Aid. If you are interested , peruse these sites and I am sure you will learn a great deal.
Ken,
I’ll add those to my list and have a look at them. There must be a lot of useful information in them worth knowing.
My SAS Survival Handbook (by John Lofty Wiseman) arrived today from Amazon. Woohoo!! Can’t wait to get stuck in and figure out how I’m going to feed, shelter, and protect myself WTSHTF. lolol
Annie,
Good luck with your quest. It is an interesting read but I’m not convinced it is going to give you what you need though.
Why do you say that? Do you think the information is not useful?
Annie,
No. The information is useful but the reason I said that was that you live in a built up area. There are articles in there about building shelters from tree branches, starting fires from flints, identifying North and so on. All useful stuff. I think you want more about making hidey holes and utilizing shelf space etc. like I do.
It is a good book and well worth having.
Yes, I know it’s about surviving outdoors : ) I don’t plan to stick around here forever. I plan to head for the hills, as they say. I don’t have unlimited resources and I’m alone so my options are limited and I have to make the best of the situation I’m in, so that’s what I’m doing. As soon as I deem it necessary or am in a position to do so, whichever comes first, I’m leaving.
Annie,
Fair enough. I’d plan ahead though and ensure you have a tent, sleeping bag, camping stove, matches, etc. Fairly cheap to purchase and small enough to fit in the car for a quick getaway. Just pick up on the way out and away.
Hi Kenneth
Thanks for the website list I will give them a look. Always looking for more information on this subject.
sorry have been absent for a while, been busy busy, but still here.