Kindle for Survival

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This past Christmas I received a Kindle for Christmas. For those unfamiliar – a Kindle is an electronic book reader. Basically – an entire book with all text and pictures can be stored on the Kindle and read by just clicking a button or two. The text on the screen looks just like what you would see in a book and the graphics look great. Everything is displayed in black & white – however even color pictures look fantastic.

So – you can download numerous books off of Amazon.com placing them onto the Kindle for easy access later. You can also use your computer to transfer any PDF document. What does this mean? This means that besides the thousands of books that you can purchase from Amazon – you can get tens of thousands of PDF documents off the Internet for FREE and place on the Kindle.

What kind of free PDF documents can you get for the Kindle?

  • military manuals
  • guides
  • full books
  • magazines
  • reference sheets
  • basically – anything in pdf format

On my Kindle I have set up a category for specific information related to survival – aptly named – Survival. As I download books from Amazon as well as transfer pdf’s from my PC – I will place them in this category. I suspect that I will have to set up more specific categories like Gardening, Tactical Info, Medical, Wilderness Survival, etc.

Here are a few pictures:

 

Above: My Kindle – showing my category Survival and some of the included material.

Above: Close up shot of screen

Below: Example pdf available for FREE for the Kindle – Ranger Handbook

Below: Screenshot from Ranger Handbook

Above: Another excellent military field manual available for FREE of the net for the Kindle

Above: Kindle in its case (sold separate). I think the case is a good idea to provide some protection.

Kindle can also be viewed sideways - great for websites

The Kindle has many adjustments – including zooming in and out to whatever you are looking at (picture/text/website).

Since getting it I have found that the Kindle is capable of much more than I had thought. First – you can access the Internet with it. Now – realize that it does not have the capability of multiple-tabs, flash, or animation/video’s. However – for reading a blog such as SurvivalBlog.com or this one- it works great. It also play music or mp3′s. This means you can download any mp3 such as podcasts and store them on the Kindle for listening whenever.

Now – what are some benefits of the Kindle for survival & preparedness?

  1. Unbelievable amount of material all in one place.
  2. Easily access and search-able.
  3. Very portable – can be thrown into a backpack or bug out kit.
  4. Very long battery life – up to a month on one charge. With the proper equipment – could be easily charged with a small solar panel.
  5. Relatively inexpensive  – starting at $139.
  6. Can be viewed in full sunlight.

I had one reader mention that they have several of them packed with information and secured in a .50 cal ammo can. You can literally have thousands of books on just one Kindle.

The Kindle is available in different colors, sizes, and versions. For $139 I received a grey model that has wireless access. This version has Internet connection at my house. There is a 3G version for $189 that pretty much has access anywhere – which would be great for traveling.

Take care all -

Rourke

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categories Information, Supplies, Survival & Preparedness | January 23, 2011

10 Comments to “Kindle for Survival”

  1. By Badvoodoodaddy, January 23, 2011 @ 11:22 am

    Great idea, trying to take all the books you would need in a bug out situation would be impractical with out a kindle. This makes your library simple,fast, and light. I have been considering getting one. I will have to look into one more seriously now. Thanks Rourke.

  2. By Josh, January 23, 2011 @ 12:19 pm

    Great minds think alike. http://survivalcache.com/kindle-survival-bug-out-bag/

  3. By JP in MT, January 23, 2011 @ 1:29 pm

    I have something similar, a Nook from Barnes & Noble. I like the fact that it has a memory expansion (which I loaded w/PDF bppks) and a user replaceable battery. To complete my portability setup, I got a solar charger from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-USB-5000-Hybrid-Charger-Digital/dp/B003EW82ZG/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_1) for under $25.00. Right now I have over 500 PDF publications on my memory card that takes up only 2Gb of memory (out of 8 on the card)!

  4. By freeholder 1787, January 23, 2011 @ 4:24 pm

    And, if these things have a weakness, it is, of course, the delicate, solid-state electronics, highly suseptible to an EMP. So – get yourself a Kindle, load it up with all the above mentioned data, plus, for pennies, you can save such classic literature as The Complete Works of William Shakespear for 99-cents! Survival is about making it through the much, yes, but also, there is more than “merely” surviving. There is thriving, and eventual rebuilding. Shakespear, the Holy Bible, and many many classics can be had for absurdly small amounts of money.

    So – the EMP problem? Piece of cake. Buy an old, scrap microwave oven. Cut the cord off, and viola! You have a very convenient Faraday cage. I keep my emergency radios, a few thumb drives with assorted everything I can think of on them, a notebook computer, and a few other things in mine. A loaded Kindle is no extra space at all, really. One possible “why” I might be bugging out is Dr. Forschen’s “On Second After” scenario. The likelyhood that the Kindle would survive is greatly enhanced in that protective storage.

    Our government is hocking our grandkids futures, it’s up to us to protect that, too, to the best of our ability.

  5. By russell1200, January 25, 2011 @ 8:00 am

    I see you like hanging out at the beach with your kindle. You don’t look old enough to have been into survivalism for 20 years.

    If you keep hanging out in the sun at the beach, your going to loose that youthful appearance. LOL

  6. By ToddR, January 26, 2011 @ 10:52 am

    Excellent thread. As an alternative, I have an ipod. The trick to getting PDFs on an iPod is to install the ‘iBooks’ application – then email them to yourself, then open the PDF, then choose ‘open in iBooks’. It will save it locally to the hard drive. The ipod is an extremely tiny footprint, maybe 1/10th the size of a Kindle or Nook – plus it is so customizable and has integrated wi-fi which could act as a communication device (if you can access wireless internet) in a pinch. A solar power source would be a good call … battery life is good – but not near as good as the other readers.

  7. By jollymoon, January 26, 2011 @ 6:42 pm

    I purchased a notebook for about $300 before I realized the value of the Kindle…
    I also purchased a portable solar panel for recharging the battery ($250) and it is 26 watts which means I can use the solar panel real time… this also meant that I had to get a “regulator” so no over charging or feedback problems.

    All this is stored in Mylar bags or boxes wrapped in aluminum foil and then placed inside a metal filing cabinet.

    Currently I have about 40GIG of free info in PDFs and saved webpages (httrack–website mirror utility) especially focusing on http://www.books.google.com for the free downloads and books prior to 1965… and http://www.gutenberg.org

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