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23 July 2010

Books That Spur

I believe Angie just talked about closets of the apocalypse yesterday. I'm camping in Glacier National Park this week, and in preparation for the trip, I had to steer my cart down the emergency preparedness aisle at the grocery store.

Holy brown cows, people. Have you been down that aisle lately? And I thought I could possibly survive a natural disaster. But there were things in that aisle I'd never even considered. An ax, for one. See, I live in a townhome, and let's just leave it at the fact that I don't need an ax for anything. Or at least I thought I didn't.

My little trip down oh-man-I'm-not-prepared made me think of a book I read last year. I think some of you know where I'm going with this.

The book?

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

As soon as I finished it, I posted something on facebook that basically said I'd bought 100 pounds of flour and 50 pounds of rice.

Because I did.

That book made me realize that I had nowhere near enough food to sustain my family, and I ran right out and stocked up on some things. My jaunt down the aisle at the grocery store reminded me that I haven't done enough.

Have you ever read a book that spurred you to action? What was it and what did you do?

7 comments:

  1. Any book about a Zombie apocalypse always makes me want to run out and buy food, and ammo. But also Cormac McCarthy's The Road was disturbing in a way that made me think about disaster preparedness.

    I once lived in the Wilderness for six weeks straight, living out of a tent and backpack, so I do have confidence, but that was also a long time ago.

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  2. Haha. A certain member of my family has buckets of wheat and beans and rice, so we'll just go live with her if things fall apart.

    I just thumbed through The Fountainhead- because who actually reads the whole thing?- and it motivated me to get some more canned beets. I love those things and the rest of my family hates them, so I know I'll actually get to eat them. Otherwise I'd have to starve in an effort to save the children, right? That's right, Ayn Rand has taught me to look out for numero uno. lol. (That was a joke. I'd totally be willing to die to ensure my children's survival. I mean, what kind of a mother do you think I am???)

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  3. my family has a running list/discussion of what we're to do during different apocalypses, including who's repsonsible for what, where we're to meat up and skills people should devleop.
    I'd say we're only joking like 40% of the time.

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  4. LOL, we are ready for the apocalypse in my house! Or a major hurricane, which ever comes first! ;)

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  5. I felt the exact same way about this book. Luckily, we are doing pretty well on food. I did buy some flashlights though.

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  6. This entire series of books made me thing again about the shelf of canned goods at the supermarket.... and dog food... and water... and the list keeps going.

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  7. There are some books that have made me want to get out and plant a garden - and yes, stock up too.

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