100 books like How to Live Off-Grid

By Nick Rosen,

Here are 100 books that How to Live Off-Grid fans have personally recommended if you like How to Live Off-Grid. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers

Piers Warren Author Of How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency

From my list on self-sufficiency.

Why am I passionate about this?

Aged six, I was first given a tiny piece of garden where I grew radishes and lettuces. I haven’t stopped growing my own food since! Everything about it is good for you and I have been writing about this for many years in various magazines and books. I have always been fascinated with the idea of self-sufficiency and love to read about methods old and new.

Piers' book list on self-sufficiency

Piers Warren Why did Piers love this book?

This is the classic book on self-sufficiency that started my interest when I first read it decades ago. John Seymour was the master and teacher and the book is crammed with practical methods with many useful illustrations. Many people I know who are fascinated with the idea of self-sufficiency, and successful practitioners, were initially inspired by this book.

By John Seymour,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Embrace off-grid green living with this all-encompassing guide to self-sufficiency, your new go-to guide for a more sustainable way of life.

For over 40 years, John Seymour has inspired and motivated thousands of people to make more eco-friendly choices to enrich their lives and live sustainably. Now, his bestselling self-sufficiency book offers step-by-step instructions on all things environment-friendly, from preserving your harvest to living off land, this survival guide has it all. So what are you waiting for?

Dive straight in to discover:

-Detailed step-by-step guide for achieving a self-sufficient lifestyle tailored to your needs and environment
-Encyclopaedic knowledge on…


Book cover of Practical Self-Sufficiency: The Complete Guide to Sustainable Living Today

Piers Warren Author Of How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency

From my list on self-sufficiency.

Why am I passionate about this?

Aged six, I was first given a tiny piece of garden where I grew radishes and lettuces. I haven’t stopped growing my own food since! Everything about it is good for you and I have been writing about this for many years in various magazines and books. I have always been fascinated with the idea of self-sufficiency and love to read about methods old and new.

Piers' book list on self-sufficiency

Piers Warren Why did Piers love this book?

This is a very comprehensive book by engineer and TV presenter Dick Strawbridge and his son James. Not only does it cover the usual themes of food production but is also littered with many practical engineering projects that can help you lead a self-reliant life - such as methods for producing your own electricity, water. The many excellent photos help guide you through the projects in detail.

By Dick Strawbridge, James Strawbridge,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Practical Self-Sufficiency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Embrace off-grid green living with this all-encompassing guide to self-sufficiency alongside Dick Strawbridge and his son James.

Introducing Practical Self-Sufficiency, your new go-to survival guide offering step-by-step instructions on all things environment-friendly, jam-packed with tips and tricks for off-grid living to anyone looking to embrace a life of sustainability. So what are you waiting for?

Dive straight in to discover:

-Detailed step-by-step guide covering diverse aspects of off-grid living
-Featuring fully-illustrated step-by-step projecte visually demonstrating how to achieve key aspects of sustainable living from start to finish.
-Encyclopaedic knowledge on a range of eco-friendly tasks such as brewing beer and…


Book cover of Home Farm

Piers Warren Author Of How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency

From my list on self-sufficiency.

Why am I passionate about this?

Aged six, I was first given a tiny piece of garden where I grew radishes and lettuces. I haven’t stopped growing my own food since! Everything about it is good for you and I have been writing about this for many years in various magazines and books. I have always been fascinated with the idea of self-sufficiency and love to read about methods old and new.

Piers' book list on self-sufficiency

Piers Warren Why did Piers love this book?

The photography in this book is so gorgeous you can just imagine yourself on a sunny smallholding or homestead, tending your crops and looking after your livestock. The instructions are clear and concise from someone who lives the good life. It certainly encouraged me to have a go at various aspects of self-sufficiency that other books didn’t. A great book to dream over while you plan your future.

By Paul Heiney,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Home Farm as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There is a part in every one of us that wants to be a home farmer: a part that yearns to get back to the earth and to revel in the healthy experiences of growing rearing and making. In Home Farm well-known journalist TV and radio presenter and part-time farmer Paul Heiney shows you how to turn that dream into a reality beginning from the premise that anyone can bring an element of home farming however small into their life. Country Living for All Paul Heiney addresses the needs of both country livers and country dreamers including advice for those…


Book cover of More Scenes from a Smallholding

Piers Warren Author Of How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency

From my list on self-sufficiency.

Why am I passionate about this?

Aged six, I was first given a tiny piece of garden where I grew radishes and lettuces. I haven’t stopped growing my own food since! Everything about it is good for you and I have been writing about this for many years in various magazines and books. I have always been fascinated with the idea of self-sufficiency and love to read about methods old and new.

Piers' book list on self-sufficiency

Piers Warren Why did Piers love this book?

This is a true story of Chas Griffin’s attempts at living a self-sufficient life on a new smallholding in Wales. Not only is it hilarious but describes all the ups and downs and unexpected disasters yet remains warm and inviting. Rather than just an instruction book, this will show you what it’s really like and possibly give you second thoughts! This was Chas’s first book and so good I went on the read his subsequent titles.

By Chas Griffin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked More Scenes from a Smallholding as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1982 the Griffins left the security of suburbia to grow garlic in West Wales. From the struggle with rurality that ensued grew (organically) the very amusing, and informative, warts-and-all account Scenes From a Smallholding .

Now in this sometimes touching, but always funny sequel, Chas reveals what happened four years after their arrival - when the dream had been well and truly dreamt and they were experiencing some rather rude awakenings. Did they ever achieve the blissful good life? Are they surrounded by organic veg? How have the family coped with their new rural life?

Written with Chas Griffin's…


Book cover of Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism

Max Wilbert Author Of Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do about It

From my list on on environmental books.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a wilderness guide, community organizer, and writer focused on stopping the destruction of the planet. My work, which has appeared in The New York Times and been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, has taken me to the Siberian Arctic to document climate change research, to the Philippines to work with grassroots communities defending tropical rainforests, and to Nevada where I began a protest movement against an open-pit lithium mine.

Max's book list on on environmental books

Max Wilbert Why did Max love this book?

Most environmentalists today believe that wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars represent our path to a sustainable future. In Green Illusions, engineer Ozzie Zehner blows this thesis out of the water.

Green technologies, Zehner explains, require fossil fuels at every step in their production, maintenance, and disposal. But he is not advocating for continuing to use fossil fuels. Rather, Zehner argues that we have a consumption crisis, and that building more industrial products in factories will not solve the issue. He concludes by offering straightforward, common-sense solutions that actually move us in the right direction.

By Ozzie Zehner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Green Illusions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

We don't have an energy crisis. We have a consumption crisis. And this book, which takes aim at cherished assumptions regarding energy, offers refreshingly straight talk about what's wrong with the way we think and talk about the problem. Though we generally believe we can solve environmental problems with more energy-more solar cells, wind turbines, and biofuels-alternative technologies come with their own side effects and limitations. How, for instance, do solar cells cause harm? Why can't engineers solve wind power's biggest obstacle? Why won't contraception solve the problem of overpopulation lying at the heart of our concerns about energy, and…


Book cover of Solar Power: Innovation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice

Clark A. Miller Author Of Cities of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures

From my list on leading the clean energy revolution.

Why am I passionate about this?

My motto is: we are techno-humans. Whatever nature or God created, we re-created. We move in cars, chat via the Internet, and eat industrial food. Technologies shape our bodies, identities, even imagination. That’s why the energy transition fascinates me. We propose to rip out and replace the technological foundations of the global economy. No less than the data revolution, energy transitions are about human re-invention. So, what kinds of human futures are we engineering? And can we design energy futures that make human futures better, more inclusive, more just? Figuring that out is my job as Director of the Center for Energy & Society at Arizona State University.

Clark's book list on leading the clean energy revolution

Clark A. Miller Why did Clark love this book?

Power. We all need it. In the future, a lot of it will be solar. By 2050, half or more of global energy will come via photovoltaic technologies. That’s 100+ billion solar panels, with an annual churn of 2-4 billion. Which makes the solar industry one of the most important on the planet. Solar Power takes a hard look inside the solar industry: its materials, processes, facilities, workforces, waste streams, and landscapes. Mulvaney pulls no punches, but his fundamental message is simple: there are a lot of different ways to make and deploy 100 billion solar panels. The choices we make will have huge implications for how the benefits, costs, and risks of solar energy get distributed across different groups of people. Just like any other giant industry.

By Dustin Mulvaney,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Solar Power as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this important new primer, Dustin Mulvaney makes a passionate case for the significance of solar power energy and offers a vision for a more sustainable and just solar industry for the future. The solar energy industry has grown immensely over the past several years and now provides up to a fifth of California's power. But despite its deservedly green reputation, solar development and deployment may have social and environmental consequences, from poor factory labor standards to landscape impacts on wildlife.

Using a wide variety of case studies and examples that trace the life cycle of photovoltaics, Mulvaney expertly outlines…


Book cover of Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

Joseph P. O'Connor Author Of Off Grid Solar: A handbook for Photovoltaics with Lead-Acid or Lithium-Ion batteries

From my list on understand future potential of renewable energy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve dedicated my career to renewable energy, because I think it really will save us from climate change disaster. Solar, wind, and advanced energy storage will usher us into the 21st century. I’ve seen many innovative people and companies use technology to create a better future. We still have a long uphill battle to reverse climate change, but we now have the technology that can help save our planet. It is time to implement it. These five books (in very different ways) give us the tools and understanding of how renewable energy will shape the future.

Joseph's book list on understand future potential of renewable energy

Joseph P. O'Connor Why did Joseph love this book?

The impending doom of climate change has been stressing me out for over a decade. It feels like my son will inherit a world that resembles the dystopian futures of Mad Max or Blade Runner. But the future we’re entering into will be more nuanced than that. 

This book helped me realize that the future may not be as bleak as I had once imagined. The environmental alarmists may have good intentions, but their efforts might be causing more harm than good.

By Michael Shellenberger,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Apocalypse Never as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now a National Bestseller!

Climate change is real but it's not the end of the world. It is not even our most serious environmental problem.

Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world's last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today's Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions.

But in 2019, as some claimed "billions of people are going to die," contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that, as a lifelong…


Book cover of Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future

Joseph P. O'Connor Author Of Off Grid Solar: A handbook for Photovoltaics with Lead-Acid or Lithium-Ion batteries

From my list on understand future potential of renewable energy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve dedicated my career to renewable energy, because I think it really will save us from climate change disaster. Solar, wind, and advanced energy storage will usher us into the 21st century. I’ve seen many innovative people and companies use technology to create a better future. We still have a long uphill battle to reverse climate change, but we now have the technology that can help save our planet. It is time to implement it. These five books (in very different ways) give us the tools and understanding of how renewable energy will shape the future.

Joseph's book list on understand future potential of renewable energy

Joseph P. O'Connor Why did Joseph love this book?

I’ve been working in the solar and battery industry for over 15 years and I can say firsthand that it is totally feasible to electrify everything in your home and live comfortably. Griffith recommends that you should never buy a new fossil fuel appliance ever again. Switching to an electric vehicle, all-electric kitchen appliances, and heat pumps primes us to have a carbon-free home in the future, even if our electrical usage currently relies on fossil fuels. Appliances with a life of 10 to 30 years will eventually be powered by renewables as they get installed on the grid.

Although this transition won't be easy. Appliance manufacturers need some time to improve the reliability of these new electric appliances. Imagine the frustration after installing an expensive, new heat pump water heater and it breaks after two weeks! In addition, some industries will have a very hard time going fully electric,…

By Saul Griffith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Electrify as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An optimistic--but realistic and feasible--action plan for fighting climate change while creating new jobs and a healthier environment: electrify everything.

Climate change is a planetary emergency. We have to do something now—but what? Saul Griffith has a plan. In Electrify, Griffith lays out a detailed blueprint—optimistic but feasible—for fighting climate change while creating millions of new jobs and a healthier environment. Griffith’s plan can be summed up simply: electrify everything. He explains exactly what it would take to transform our infrastructure, update our grid, and adapt our households to make this possible. Billionaires may contemplate escaping our worn-out planet on…


Book cover of Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

Neil Kitching Author Of Carbon Choices: Common-sense Solutions to our Climate and Nature Crises

From my list on climate change and our natural world.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Scottish geographer and energy specialist. I love nature and snow and don't want to see it destroyed or lost. I wrote Carbon Choices, on the common-sense solutions to our climate and nature crises, to share my expertise and passion to help people to make a difference. People, businesses, and governments all need to understand the serious consequences of climate change. Education is the first step towards taking action. Carbon Choices focuses on the solutions, many of which are 'common sense', to protect people and nature upon which we all depend.

Neil's book list on climate change and our natural world

Neil Kitching Why did Neil love this book?

David MacKay does something unusual for a university professor. He brings all the talk about energy and climate change to life. A fantastic analysis of energy in all its forms, bringing it down to earth. His book answers the real questions that we need to ask, such as how much land would be needed to power the United Kingdom from renewable energy? His answers are detailed in graphs and pictures making them accessible and easy to understand. This brings a sense of realism and raises the conversation to the next level.

By David JC MacKay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Addressing the sustainable energy crisis in an objective manner, this enlightening book analyzes the relevant numbers and organizes a plan for change on both a personal level and an international scale--for Europe, the United States, and the world. In case study format, this informative reference answers questions surrounding nuclear energy, the potential of sustainable fossil fuels, and the possibilities of sharing renewable power with foreign countries.

While underlining the difficulty of minimizing consumption, the tone remains positive as it debunks misinformation and clearly explains the calculations of expenditure per person to encourage people to make individual changes that will benefit…


Book cover of Energy at the End of the World: An Orkney Islands Saga

Clark A. Miller Author Of Cities of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures

From my list on leading the clean energy revolution.

Why am I passionate about this?

My motto is: we are techno-humans. Whatever nature or God created, we re-created. We move in cars, chat via the Internet, and eat industrial food. Technologies shape our bodies, identities, even imagination. That’s why the energy transition fascinates me. We propose to rip out and replace the technological foundations of the global economy. No less than the data revolution, energy transitions are about human re-invention. So, what kinds of human futures are we engineering? And can we design energy futures that make human futures better, more inclusive, more just? Figuring that out is my job as Director of the Center for Energy & Society at Arizona State University.

Clark's book list on leading the clean energy revolution

Clark A. Miller Why did Clark love this book?

At their best, anthropologists open up for readers the infinite variety of what it means to be human. Laura Watts is the best. More than just an incisive cultural analyst, Watts is a skilled poet and storyteller. Her book about renewable energy innovation in the Orkney Islands takes us, literally and figuratively, to the end of the world. We learn what it means to live in a world wrought by energy technologies. We walk among all different kinds of people who have the imagination and the gumption to try to re-imagine and re-energize that world in radically new ways. And along the way, we begin to see how all of those people come together, in one place, in odd collaborations, to make futures for the rest of us.

By Laura Watts,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Energy at the End of the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Making local energy futures, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel, at the edge of the world.

The islands of Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, are closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Surrounded by fierce seas and shrouded by clouds and mist, the islands seem to mark the edge of the known world. And yet they are a center for energy technology innovation, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel networks, attracting the interest of venture capitalists and local communities. In this book, Laura Watts tells a story of making energy futures at the edge of the world.…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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