Gaia's Garden and The Permaculture Handbook (by Peter Bane) are currently my two favorites when it comes to permaculture. When you are very new or are a visual learner like I am, you want an easy to understand entry rather than something more technical like a lot of books. I have Sepp's book on order so perhaps I will add it to the list.
A few books that train your brain how to think BEFORE you get too infatuated with any particular techniques are: How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand; Designing Your Natural Home, by C.G. Woods, M. Wells (awesomely visual, often hilarious); Home Work by Lloyd Kahn (buckets o' funky photos); The Owner Built Home; The Owner Built Homestead by Ken Kern (out of print--library loan?). And "A Pattern Language," of course... .
Not so much a book, but the older more original version of Popular Mechanics had all sorts of DIY projects that ranged from how to build your own tractor, to electric generators and what have you.
Now Popular Mechanics and Popular Science is letting Google archive their old backissues. It's worth it just to look at the old ad's some times.
Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community by Heather Jo Flores. This is activist urban permaculture, but many of the skills/techniques are very useful in any homestead. Toby Hemenway did the forward.
Anything and everything from the Weston a Price foundation, they are huge advocates of the permaculture lifestyle and eating real food grown close to home on good soil.
On self-sufficiency, "professionals", logical thought, and the definition of "quality": Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a life-changing book.
Peter George wrote:The Owner Built Home; The Owner Built Homestead by Ken Kern (out of print--library loan?).
I read and have kept our copy of Ken Kern's The Owner Built Home and Homestead too. I found these books to be extremely useful and very excellent reference for almost anything a homesteader needs to know. Ken & his wife both attended agriculture college in the 40s/50s pulling their information from original and very basic sources. His reference to long used 'polyculture' still makes excellent sense these days. The homestead book covers many many topics all practical and useful for developing and living on a self sufficient/reliant homestead totally in step with nature.
I looked for these titles in the Book Grid and did not find them there. Both have been reprinted and are available (Amazon). Highly recommended.
Id recommend Steve solomon for anyone who is gardening on the westcoast.
Id recommend Braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer
Id recommend sally fallons cook book
id recommend some of the reads by wade davis, one river comes to mind.
Of water and the spirit by maliodoma patrice some
Id also recommend 1491 and 1493
Id recommend tao orion beyond the war on invasive species
For anyone wanting to read about BC indigenous people id recommend books by nancy turner.
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Dinner will be steamed monkey heads with a side of tiny ads.
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