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The Best Homesteading Books (Is your favorite on the list?)

We’ve picked out the best homesteading books to get you started on your homesteading journey. Our top three all have enough detail to take you from start to finish on many homestead projects, but deliver it in different styles.

homesteading books

Looking specifically for information on growing your own food? Check out the Best Gardening Books list.

Our Top Picks for Best Homesteading Books

Modern homesteaders range from those creating your off grid homestead to apartment dwellers looking to be more self reliant. These homesteading books provide practical advice to get you started.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery

The Encyclopedia of Country Living is the best overall homesteading book, with over 800,000 copies sold. It is 922 pages of reference information with a good index.

If you only purchased ONE book, this is the one we recommend. It’s strong on gardening, food preservation, and ideas to save money.

There’s poultry and livestock information to take you from start to finish, and basic seed saving tips.

Carla wrote and updated the book over many years, and reading it is like visiting with her on the homestead.

Cons: It is text heavy and the text is smaller. It does not cover a lot of details on growing trees, brambles, fruit trees etc. There are very few illustrations and the level of step by step detail varies by subject.

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills is a good construction and crafting guide. It has color photos and color illustrations.

Part one on two focus on building, home power production and heating. The third and fourth sections cover home food production and preparation.

Part five is about skills and crafts, and part six is recreation. For the hobbyist, you’d be hard pressed to run out of projects to try.

This book is more impersonal and reads like a reference book, but a good one. Each section ends with suggestions for additional reading.

Cons: It doesn’t cover as much about specific vegetables, orchards, and animal husbandry. There is still more than enough information for the average backyard homestead.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It is 408 pages with color and black and white illustrations (no photos).

There is a very good beginners guide for laying out a 1 acre or 5 acre homestead  What it covers, it covers well and has good color images. The step by step guides are detailed and easy to follow.

It’s a good gardening reference, and easier to read than Encyclopedia of Country Living. The author, being born in 1914, includes some interesting “off grid” options like north facing storerooms.

John is a little more formal in his writing. Each chapter opens with a quote from his earlier work, “The Fat of the Land”. There’s a strong thread of the “back to the land” movement throughout the book.

Cons: The canning and preserving section of the book is much thinner than the other two guides.

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More Homesteading Books

These homesteading books address different parts of self-sufficient living, but aren’t as complete as our top three.

The Foxfire Book Series

The Foxfire Book series is a homesteading classic. Based on Foxfire magazine, they shares stories and lore from Appalachia.

Reading these books is like stepping back in time, but they often lack the details needed by beginners.

The Independent Farmstead

The Independent Farmstead focuses on raising animals on a homestead with little or no outside inputs. They share the latest techniques in pasture management for many forms of livestock.

Read the full review here.

The Woodland Homestead

The Woodland Homestead – How to make your land more productive and live more self sufficiently in the woods. Excellent information about forestry, coppicing, tree-lot, forest use and management.

Cons: Focused on middle to northern climates, and the book covers only tree/forest related subjects.

Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less)

Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) is a good beginners reference guide. It covers the tips and tricks for setting up a homestead/farmstead, and includes almost all the basics.

Cons: It’s text heavy, and might not be enough detail on “how to” do some aspects of homesteading.

Read the full review of Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) here.

The Weekend Homesteader

The Weekend Homesteader – A Twelve-Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency breaks down homesteading activities into seasonal tasks.

This one is likely a best fit for those trying to squeeze homesteading into a few hours a week, working on small scale homestead.

Read the full review of The Weekend Homesteader here.

40 Projects for Building Your Backyard Homestead

This one is for all the crafty people who want to turn their backyards into productive spaces. It’s filled with full color, step by step photos for every project.

In addition to outdoor projects, like garden structures, there’s also a section on basic plumbing and wiring.

homesteading books

Other Homesteading Books for your Homestead Library

We have dozens of homesteading book reviews on the site, all sorted by category on the Homestead Library page.

They include:

For those who can’t wait for their homesteading books to arrive, you can start with articles on the site, such as:

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5 Comments

  1. I think most of these books are go to books many homesteaders have read. A new book I highly recommend which I stumbled upon is. “Build an off grid homestead with next to nothing” This book provides a budget friendly perspective for the many who many not be financially set. This book has great reviews from real life homesteaders who are making it happen on a budget.

  2. Yes, I’ll admit that I do like the books (even if I did write them). But so do readers. Here’s a sampling of reader comments you’ll find on Amazon —

    Book 1: CANDLES “Not totally exhaustive on everything candles, but pretty darn close.”

    Book 2: OLIVE OIL LAMPS &c. “This book is a gem.”

    Book 3: LAMP FUELS “Absolutely a MUST-READ for anyone using non-electric lighting.”

    Book 4: KEROSENE LAMPS “A welcome addition to my library.”

    Book 5: COLEMAN GAS LANTERNS “Yabadabadoo! Read it from cover to cover upon receipt.”

    Book 6: KEROSENE PRESSURE LANTERNS “I learned more about kerosene pressure lanterns in 30 minutes with this book than . . . I’d learned in hours of watching YouTube.”

    Book 7: PROPANE FOR PREPPERS “Outstanding article! One of the BEST I’ve ever read or seen on any preparedness website.” [Book 7 originally appeared as a series of online articles.]

    Book 8: ALCOHOL MANTLE LAMPS “Best in the series. Rare and stellar information.”