The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization

TLDR: “An amazing work of art”

Book review by Deane Barker • • tags: books, media, tech • 1 min read •
An image of the cover of the book "The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization"

I backed this project on IndieGoGo for about four years until it finally got delivered. It’s a massive book, gorgeously illustrated, and purports to explain everything we would need to know to restart society in the event of an apocalypse.

Actually, that’s a little dark. It’s really just a celebration of technology and societal progression. It’s divided up into chapters: energy, flight, food, the human body, etc. Each two-page spread is gorgeously illustrated with drawings about how things work. Some are realistic, but some have a really cool steampunk-ish vibe to them.

I didn’t “read” this book, because I don’t think you could. It’s really meant to be browsed or admired. The content is quite good, but the illustrations and the workmanship are what really what shine through.

The paper is a gorgeous parchment-style, and the book is shockingly light – it just weighs about a third of what you think it should based on its size. It’s bound with a cloth cover.

I love this book. I’ll probably keep it open, maybe reading a “chapter” a day (again, really just a two-page spread). I don’t know if I’ll absorb anything in particular, but I just want to celebrate the workmanship that went into compiling, illustrating, and producing it.

Reread

Added on

I just went through it again, looking through every single page. I’m not sure what to do with the book – meaning, how do I absorb everything in it?

I thought about making a list of every thing the book covered, but that’s tricky because it reviews things at such different levels, so the altitude and depth of detail is quite varied.

For instance, “Medicine” is one of the early sections. The pages in it are:

  • Healing Herbs
  • Steam Bath
  • Breaks, Burns, and Wounds
  • Penicillin
  • Surgery Tools
  • Anatomy and Blood
  • Dentistry
  • Childbirth
  • Epidemic
  • X-Ray

For instance, “Society” is one one of the last sections. It has:

  • Rite of Passage
  • Channeling Aggression
  • Storytelling
  • Cities
  • Festivals

See? Just very different levels.

And while I agree that medicine is important, it got 10 pages while all of “society” fits into five, I guess?

I want to spend more time with the book, but I’m not sure where to go from here. I thinking about maybe writing a blog post about each page? But what would I say? What I know about the thing? That might be interesting – it would test my knowledge, maybe force me to do some research, and give me a chance for reflection.

Book Data

Year
Pages
405
Acquired
Not recorded
Open Library
OL37851715W
Wikipedia
Book