It’s that time of year again. Over the next month I’ll be posting a series of Amazon gift suggestions geared toward freedomistas and preppers and those who love them.
Some of these posts will have themes (e.g. home security gear, emergency food, gourmet food, flashlights, cool toys), others not. Expect about two of these posts a week between now and mid-December to help you with your Christmas shopping.
Today’s theme is that Amazon classic: books. Specifically non-fiction books. Will probably have a post on freedomista novels later.
1. 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)
2. Zero to Maker: Learn (Just Enough) to Make (Just About) Anything
3. Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary
4. Living on the Edge: A Family’s Journey to Self-Sufficiency
5. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nicholas Nassim Taleb (not an easy read, but a fascinating one)
6. The Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook: 179 Things to Do ‘Til the Revolution (You didn’t think I’d forget that one, did you?)
8. Saved: How I quit worrying about money and became the richest guy in the world
9. The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic by radio guy Mark Levin (Strictly for those who believe government can be limited by the Constitution.)
10. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything (Brand new from the amazing, amusing Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut whose YouTube videos helped make space exploration compelling again.)
11. The Prepared Family Cookbook by Enola Gay
12. Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities (To be released December 17; by Wired Senior Maverick Kevin Kelly)
13. Luck is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career
14. The Gun Guide for People who Know Nothing About Firearms
15. The Ultimate Survival Manual (Outdoor Life): 333 Skills that Will Get You Out Alive
Well, I’ve been looking at the Cool Tools website. A lot of it is gizmo type stuff, but there’s some good recommendations there too. After going through 8 pages, I’ve bookmarked vintagemachinery.org, and added some items, such as huck towels and emu oil to my Amazon shopping list. The dogbone wrench looks like something I’d want more than one of. And extra large rubber bands.
Well, y’all will have to see what you can find there. I’m up to page 12.
RE: Luck Is No Accident sounds like what I’ve been saying (and fighting about) for years…..Being of the generation caught between the “do it like we’ve always done it” and the “revolution of culture” it sure would have made a lot of life easier if some of the suggestions/ideas in this book had been collected and disbursed sooner….I’m old and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, other than I want to be able to experience whatever crosses my path at any given moment – and not be oblivious due to tunnel vision (that is usually a vision someone else said I should have)….will I read it? I doubt it, since I have lived thru it and spent more time than I cared to already trying to live life my way….
That’s quite a list, I will work my way through it…thanks 🙂
I suppose that Mark Levin’s “Liberty Amendments” could be good reading just for informational purposes, but such suggestions shouldn’t be taken seriously. But you do add, “(Strictly for those who believe government can be limited by the Constitution.)”
The federal government in Washington ignores and violates just about every letter of the U.S. Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights, so why would these incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats suddenly decide to obey these new amendments? Given human nature, central planning is an inherently flawed concept and the federalization of controls over the people’s lives is an inherently self-destructive act.
If Levin is serious about saving our liberty, he should support the total dissolution of the federal government, and end central planning forthwith. For those who are concerned about our “national security,” everything the federal government has done in that area has compromised our security, especially since the Wilson Administration. A free people can protect themselves from foreign invaders, and they do not need central planners to do it for them. And that is another reason to restore the right of the people to bear arms. ANY armaments, that is.
How about a list for animal lovers? (Cats, dogs, farm animals, pet turtles, etc?)
Nice list, numbers 1 and 9 looks especially appealing to me. I’ve been thinking recently about making my own list of Liberty Amendments to thwart the totalitarian trend of ultimate centralization and master planning via Federal Government. I’d like to stop it in corporations too, but that’s a much harder hill to climb.
I think it could be a fairly easy sell though, state governments are the peoples firewall. Centralize and master plan to your hearts content – at the state level. Implement hard rules prohibiting the FedGov in every way possible from ever making any contact with individual people. No direct taxation, no direct law enforcement, etc – they can only collect and enforce by interacting with state governments. How the states choose to handle that becomes an environment for experimentation. Money flows from people to state to FedGov, instead of from people to FedGov to state. Follow the money!
Now, the FedGov can be wholly banned from owning weapons of any sort – excepting of course Foreign Military Operations. Everything domestic goes thru state police forces.
Quite a lot can be accomplished in two or three amendments, a paragraph of text in whole, to restore a competitive market environment in US Government.
Number 1 looks interesting for the Mom for one of my Nephew as a Christmas present. Number 2, I’ve been thinking of getting since I went to a MakersFaire. Plus I took some other things I’ve already had in my cart and “re-inserted” them using your Amazon link. But I think I’ll wait til later in the week to see what else you recommend before checking them out.
Trying to get a little early late start with my Christmas shopping.
Then rescind the Constitution and reinstate the Articles of Confederation — with a Bill of Rights which applies to State governments.
And ALL State governments that wiah to join must agree to the A of C, while the States that do not wish to join may go their own way to set up whatever system of “government” they wish.
Also if the Courts says the Constitution cannot be used either as a defense or a plaintiff’s reason and doesn’t want it in their courtroom, they have and do throw it out and ignore it. Especially the Bill of Rights. Then won’t it stand to reason that they’ll ignore any additional amendments, Liberty or not?
They will not respect anything that takes away any of their powers. The only thing they’ll understand is the tool they used all this time, FORCE. Something George Washington himself tried to warn us about.
I had just ordered “Saved” and “Living On The Edge” this past Thursday… You know what they say about great minds…
Wish I could claim great minds, Ragnar. But the fact is that about half of those book recommendations were taken from recent Amazon orders using my links. The rest are books I’ve read myself or that seemed apropos and were highly recommended by reviewers.
And as always, thanks all for using the links. I love it that even if a linked item doesn’t interest you, you go exploring — and sometimes even go to extra trouble to make sure purchases go on my Associates account.
[and sometimes even go to extra trouble to make sure purchases go on my Associates account.]
Uh, how do we ensure that? 🙂
Oh, sorry, Paul. As a general rule, there’s no “extra trouble” involved. It’s just that some people do things like keep wish lists for themselves, and wish list items might not get credited to my account. So they remove them from their list, then order them using my links.
For most, that’s not even an issue. It’s just enter Amazon through my links, buy stuff … and it magically works!
Sometimes on various blogs or forums I find amazon links to something that interests me. I click the link, copy the item name, close the link, go to Claire’s link, paste in the item name and I’m good to go. Did that this morning with a link to a free kindle copy of Matt Bracken’s Castigo Cay. Unfortunately, since it was free I doubt that it does Claire any financial good, but got to keep in practice.
😉
But now I have a question. If I go in thru your link Claire and put something in my cart, waiting until I get $25 for free shipping, do you get credit when I buy the cart as long as I put all items in the cart thru your link and went in thru your link when I finally make the purchase?
Karen — Yep, that’s the kind of extra trouble I really appreciate (even if the folks at the other websites might not 🙂 ). As to your question about putting items in the cart and waiting … I’m not 100% sure, but I think that, yes, I’d still get the credit.
I used to put things in my cart and wait, also. Never wanted to pay for shipping, ever! Then I half-accidentally ended up with Amazon Prime a few months back (started the free trial and forgot to cancel in time) and … wow. Free shipping, no waiting.
Of course the drawback is I want more stuff from Amazon than ever now that it’s so EZ to get …
BTW, hate to break it to you, but I think Amazon’s free super-saver shipping just went from $25 minimum to $35. 🙁
I never did see how, with shipping costs going up so rapidly, they could offer that service for small orders. Especially on heavy items or orders that ended up bring broken into multiple shipments. Oh, the special deals they must have with all the shipping services!
The good news for people who live in civilization is that they’re starting free Sunday delivery now.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/11/11/amazon-sunday-delivery-usps/3479055/
Yep, free shipping now requires $35 worth of stuff. Don’t forget that Amazon is now charging sales taxes for some states, which probably means that all states are going to want Amazon to charge for them as well.
As for re-putting stuff into the cart using Claire’s link, done that yesterday already before I heard that here.
Take the wood stove off the list; http://www.offthegridnews.com/2013/10/02/epa-bans-most-wood-burning-stoves/
Claire, do you really think any of us in this lot consider NY and LA to be “civilized”?
Anyway, that’s very interesting news. And I’m liking Prime – finally decided to try it again using your links once I saw the new $35 threshold. I tended to buy stuff I didn’t want/need to pad my total anyway, so maybe the Prime membership wont cost as much as I fear…..
I wonder if teaching your kids to shoot at single-digit ages, or teaching them to use a chainsaw before they can legally drive would make drive would make the “50 Things” book? 🙂
How about the biography of Jeff Bezos and Amazon?
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, by Brad Stone.
Almost finished reading it—a well-written, interesting read. Your opinion of Amazon may not be the same.
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Store-Jeff-Bezos-Amazon/dp/0316219266/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384448256&sr=1-1&keywords=the+everything+store