Best Books for Modern Homesteading

Homesteading and self-sufficient living are easier than ever, thanks to a wide range of modern low-tech tools and techniques. While our ancestors cut sod to build their house, today's modern homesteaders look for the best energy-efficient building materials. Pioneers used buckets to haul water from the creek, but now homeowners can choose solar irrigation pumps or rainwater catchment systems to irrigate their gardens and yards.

You don't have to live on 40 acres to experience the joy and satisfaction of self-reliance and working with your hands, whether it's growing food, raising chickens or undertaking DIY projects. Whether you are a city, suburban or rural 'homesteader,' there are still some basic skills and techniques, ones your great grandparents would have practiced, that will make your sustainable living experience successful and enjoyable. Here are some of our top recommendations for books to inform and inspire you.

The most informative books on all things related to modern homesteading are Carla Emery's The Encyclopedia of Country Living and The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour.

Choose any homesteading question and Carla Emery's The Encyclopedia of Country Living will almost always provide your answer. What sets this homesteading bible apart from other homesteading books are the stories of Emery's personal successes, failures, joys and sorrows as she wrote the book while raising a family on her Idaho farm.

Our other favorite comprehensive homesteading book is The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It. First published in the United Kingdom in 1975, the updated version is filled with marvelous illustrations and drawings that give you step-by-step instructions on making butter, brewing rose hip wine, sharpening a scythe, building a fence, shearing a sheep, laying out a garden and much, much more.