Boston on Surviving Y2K: And Other Lovely Disasters [Paperback]

Why would I heartily recommend a Y2K book when we all know Y2K was a complete farce, because this book is absolutely not limited to, and really not applicable anyway, to some kind of post-Y2K Def Con 4 meltdown scenario. This, however, is a book first and foremost about the how-to's of living independantly and being disaster proof. It is also a shopping manual. It is also a ground up survival manual. In detail:

the how to of independant living is Boston's breakdown of just want it would take to keep human beings alive and flourishing if the supermarkets stopped stocking the shelves. You obviously need food and water, but the intricacies of providing those commodities for yourself in ample supply so as to not make yourself a refugee are covered by Boston and a farming friend of Boston in chapters covering planting of some crops, and the raising of animals for food. The best animals and crops are discussed by Boston, along with what the animals need, fencing, pens, animal feed, butchering, and tractors and water supply and even the desireable and undesirable traits of different animals. Unless you the reader are a farmer and butcher combined you know nothing about these topics. I am a city kid, and I never realized what it would really take to supply a family of 4 with food and water on your own. This book gives you a distilled roadmap of how to go about setting this up for yourself. From tractors, equipment, etc., all of it is covered. Although this book cant tell you everything, it is more than enough for you to sketch out most of what you would need to do for yourself.

The chapter on energy generation, the generators and real efficient appliances is worth double the price of the book alone. This is an area I have studied on my own to some extent and frankly, I never really learned anything about it until I read Boston's book chapter on the topic. I know what different currents are, and Boston rated various gas and diesel generators in terms of cost and efficiency. Boston even goes into the storage of gasoline and diesel. Solar and wind power is covered. It runs the whole gamut and will cover the type of climate and conditions in your area.

Boston covers RV'ing, and living in those types of arrangements. It really is amazing how creative people can be, and how guys 'think outside of the box' and come up with all types of ways to beat the power company, the water company, the rotten corporations, high cost of hotels, etc!

Then all these aspects are drawn together and placed into the context of plausible scenarios for disasters and civil disruptions. Tips like, crafts and skills to have if society is forced to go simpler for a time, why and how you should mask the fact that you have generators, and other nice tidy setups when your neighbors stuff is all 'out' and various chapters on problems one faces in disasters.

All in all, this is another bang up Boston book, but I think it suffers from having Y2K in the title. Frankly, Boston should expand all the topics in the book, add a few more, and then retitle the work "Boston on Independant living". Hope to see it soon!