Alicia Bay Laurel

I got this book the year it was published. The fact that, 43 years later, shows that I either still value it or I'm the worst hoarder in the world. No, strike that last bit even if there is a small bit of truth in it.

I love and value this book highly. It is truly an excellent reference book in case one has been (a) stranded on a desert island with only the flotsam that has washed ashore, (b) a person who wants to get back to living a small life, or (c) the lights have gone out because there's been a terrible storm and you need to keep things going for a couple of days.

It has a little bit of everything in it from how to backpack into the wilderness to some stellar-class recipes for eggplant toothpaste to roasted soy beans. Laurel gives instructions on how to sun-dry fruits and veggies, tie-dyeing, making a pair of pants and a shirt without a pattern (I've made both from her instructions), to simple first aid.

If you can find a copy of Living on the Earth, buy it. You'll never know when the lights will go out for a few days.… (meer)

I'm not sure that there are many books that serve as both badge of counter-culture criterion and a modest how-to for general self-sufficiency. It reads like a children's book for hippies, with cute line-figure scribbles that enliven more than they illustrate. Owning this book will save you hours of perusing back issues of Mother Earth News for similar, less well-arranged information of the common theme (I know this because I actually have done this same thing). You can read it to make fun of it, for the neat flower-child tricks, or because you crave the backwoods life but Bradford Angier scares you. For any and all, this book is plainly terrific.… (meer)