Thursday, April 2, 2009

Book Review - yeah, I was the last person to read The Patriot...

I have read A TON of books since my last "Book Review" but this one deserves a few words.

Just finished The Patriot by James Wesley, Rawles. It took awhile as my Hubs grabbed it first, passed it to a friend, who passed it to his wife, who I think passed it to a neighbor. All in all it was about a month before I got it back....I was pretty impressed with how many read it in just a couple weeks. The friend that my husband passed it to, turned around and bought several copies to reread and pass around as well.... Anyhoo, I did not read the brand NEW edition, but the one right before....

On a side note, I went to Barnes and Noble to get Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and right next to it (actually about 3 books down) was The Patriot with its new book cover any everything. Couldnt believe this "fringe" book would be in such a mainstream store and a left leaning one at that....

So here is my review....

In a nutshell, it is a "How To" manual wrapped in a story and dialogue. I knew that going in to the read and so the DETAILEDNESS (look at me making up words) of the descriptions of guns, cars, and radio equipment didnt annoy me like it would have if I had expected just a straight read.

It was informative and the author definitely knew his audience and to whom he is writing. It is something that everyone who is concerned with the direction of this Country and upcoming events should read....

I did question that if the Crunch was world wide, how did the UN find men, soldiers, equipment to mount an invasion into North America to subdue the United States as well as Canada....or at least attempt it ;)

I liked the ending with the Constitutionalists Party and the Libertarian Party but with the 2 party system we will end up at the same point sometime in the future, even though the distant future....we need a strong 3rd party. Competition works best in 3's, not 2's.

All that said....It had a personal affect on me (or is it effect....or is it both?) About 4 pages into the book there is a line that stuck with me the entire time.....It struck me so much so that I had to put the book down immediately and didnt come back to it until the next day. Mr. Rawles was describing how people were leaving to "double up" and then he wrote: "We never saw them again."

I am one of those people who internalized just about everything I read, see or hear....I ask myself questions in the neighborhood of "would you do that?" "how would you react?" "what would I do differently?"

"We never saw them again."..... It stuck with me and it stuck with me DEEP....

Are you ready to say "goodbye" to the neighbors with which you have cookouts? What about the neighbors whose kids play football in your front yard? What about the family that sits behind you at Church every Sunday?

Are you ready for the daily reminder that these people are no longer in your life? For the rest of the book, it was The Anderson's Farm.....The Anderson's Barn.....

Another question I kept asking myself was "How far will you go?" Will you raise your kids in the forest in active defiance/Revolution? Will you quietly provide support from your home to those actively fighting? What are you willing to learn or spend now to prepare for "What if?"

I plan on buying this next edition on April 8th through Amazon as requested by Mr. Rawles. I will go through the book again, this time with a highlighter. I will continue to pass along my very worn copy I just read.

What were yall's opinion of the book -of course, I am assuming everyone has read this and I was the last one :)

As ALWAYS, Pray, Praise and Prepare and today PATRIOT.

14 comments:

Asphyxiated Emancipation said...

I only recently read this book a couple weeks ago. In fact, the day after I order my copy from Amazon, the new version was announced. Doh! So, I plan on buying the new one on April 8th, as well, and using my current copy as a loaner.

The book was great, packed full of useful information disguised as fiction. I think it could be overwhelming for someone brand new to prepping, but for someone who has made a start at it, and needs direction, it is a great resource. Lots of good tips even for those who are well informed already.

Mr. Rawles has given a great gift to the preparedness community by writing this book.

Meadowlark said...

Um, I haven't read it. So neither of you is last.

Sam said...

I read Patriots over a year ago and assumed I was the last person to read it. :o)
Patriots got us into high gear. It also got me to think about many of it's suggestions. Our minds are our most powerful weapon.
We realized how much prepping we had before us, and there would never be enough money. Thank you Mr. Rawles, again.
So we made careful choices and compromises. Now we have over a years worth of food and gear. We chose such things as the SKS instead of the FAL. The difference in ammo alone was over $1,350. But then we had the cash to get so many necessary things we couldn't otherwise.
I must admit that my copy of Patriots is marked up just about as bad as my first Bible!

wrm said...

Couple of years ago I saw a sign in Zambia "A government without women is like a pot with two legs".

Yes, threes work better.

LauraB said...

I just cracked it open (new ver) myself. Hubby will probably read along with me - two bookmarks helps. LOL

I had SOME issues with TOO MUCH detail - as in dialog that would not happen in the moment. Perhaps it could have been better noted as memories than dialog. But that is rather picky of me.

I do know that I could NOT sleep after reading the first few chapters. My mind just tried to stack things up - Must Have, Nice To Have and Luxury...I had a hard time considering it all...

I am glad to know so many people are reading it and learning from it.

Ryan said...

I read it awhile back. Got some good lessons out of it. If nothing else it has slipped into our vernacular so much that you almost need to read it to know what people are talking about (that is why I originally bought it).

Anonymous said...

I read it about a year ago and yes I'm ordering the new version on the 8th if only for the index of "The Manual" and so I can loan out my older copy.The detals were good for a detail oriented person like me and helped me in my preps.A good read also was a free one for me lightsout in pdf form a similiar character and similar circumstances but they were living in a planned community in Texas. George

Anonymous said...

http://www.survivalmonkey.com/SF%20books/LightsOut!/LightsOut-Current.pdf

Sam Adams said...

My copy is packed with other essential tomes such as Rawles' earlier novel "TEOTWAWKI", "Unintended Consequences", "The NEW Way Things Work" and an assortment of medical, bushcraft and military manuals.

Bitmap said...

Three free online books of the same genre as "Patriots" are "Deep Winter", "Shatter", and "Lights Out".

You can probably google them up.

Another couple of interesting ones are "Lucifer's Hammer" and "Alas, Babylon". They aren't available online, but you can probably pick them up at a used book store.

FarmerGeek said...

Another one here still hasn't read it... yet!

But Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are both excellent books. With Atlas Shrugged you can almost start pointing out people in the current government that fit the characters! The Fountainhead is more about personal attitudes and responsibility, but still an excellent book!

Meadowlark said...

Oh yeah... another shameless plug for World War Z.

While on the surface it is a "zombie war" book, the crux of it is how badly we screw up the entire thing as a government and a country. Worth reading. :)

Mayberry said...

I ain't read it yet either. It's always "Hmmmmmmm.... Book? Preps? Book? Preps?....." Preps always wins......

Staying Alive said...

Pearls,

It's time to get ready. Serious business. It looks kinda bad right now.

Michael