Usually a BOB might be too small to carry too many books. Books are both bulky and heavy, and unless it is some really useful reference, I would I carefully consider if the weight and space might be better used. Of course a book (normally a source of information) can always be a ready source of kindling, a journal or log for recording your adventure so that others may know what happened to you, a source of wood pulp for sustenance, and (gasp!) even an "emergency" source of.... TP.
Through the years however, I have accumulated a set of very small books, even smaller than a paperback, of useful, interesting, or classic tomes. I call it my survival library and I liken it to those small impractical luxury items that old 19th century explorers used to take with them on safari. Actually, most of them are really nice books, leatherbound, gold edges, with a ribbon bookmark. Still others are just plain useful, jam packed with charts, tables, diagrams, and statistics about the physical world. To me these books are entertaining to just study, maybe a good memory jogger for survivial projects I haven't thought of yet, and perhaps good resources for a practical/educational trivia game to pass the time.
The classic US Army Manual on Survival, Escape and Evasion, FM 25-76, is a valuable, practical, all around survival manual and a very good read. It distills the combined knowledge from decades of combined field experience into a very practical how-to manual for multi-wilderness survival.
Quite by accident, the primary copy of the Bible that I purchased for myself for my reference library happened to be this very small, pocket sized, red letter King James Version. I've been very satisfied with it.
I also fortuitously came across this beautiful leather bound World Atlas on sale at my local mall. I am a map collector, and I do possess many other maps and atlases, but this one had an elegant old-style appearance and a nice compact pocket size. The maps are a bit small and the scale too large for much fine detail, but it's a good basic collection of maps of the whole world.
How to Stay Alive in the Woods by Angier along with my ol' Boy Scout manual is the book that probably started it all for me. I picked up a small paperback copy at this out of the way mountaineering store in an industrial park in the mid-70s. It has an interesting tone, almost conversational, but it is chock full of useful, accurate information on survival techniques and strategies. It contains a lot of useful apocryphal information that the Army Manual does not include. Lately, a "new" rubber-bound edition of this book was published. I still keep this book at my bedside and read it just for pleasure.
I also have lots of those plastic coated reference cards for birds, wildflowers, clouds, stars, rocks/minerals, and animal tracks. These fit nicely in my field vest pocket and allows me to quickly look up the most common Western wildlife. I have larger "Field Guides" and specific reference manuals for each subject.
The Pocket Ref, 3rd edition is an amazing compilation of facts, tables, charts, conversions, and factoids from all the science, engineering, physics, mathematics and construction trade disciplines. Some describe it as a mini-encyclopedia or almanac. For me, it's like a little pocket cheat sheet so you don't have to memorize endless tables and formulas. The thing is, it's actually very practical and useful in the field. I highly recommend it. Seriously, check it out. http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Ref-Thomas-J-Glover/dp/1885071337/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231948154&sr=1-1
Since it's inception in 1996, the Pocket Ref is now in it's 3rd printing, with even more information and updates that incorporate some of the latest discoveries. As far as I am aware, the 2002 3rd Edition is the latest version out right now. By comparison, the 2nd Edition had 542 pages. The 3rd Edition has 768 pages. I'm actually always on the lookout for good, compact books to add to my mini-book "library". Like I wished there was a Complete Works of William Shakespeare in compact form, or perhaps, my favourites Hamlet or A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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