With thoughts of gifts now permeating people’s minds, we look at a beautiful creation from the publisher Hungry Minds titled “The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization.” As indicated by its title, this book contains most, if not all, the knowledge you will need to rebuild society, should things go somewhat ‘pear-shaped’.
Hungry Minds is quite different from many people’s vision of a traditional publisher. Unlike other publishers that print an endless list of titles, the Hungry Minds team’s focus is on quality over quantity. This is why it can devote the necessary time to ensuring that it achieves its goal of literary art.
In the eyes of many, creating a book titled ‘The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization’ would be a nigh impossible task. However, the team at Hungry Minds met this challenge with aplomb.
To ensure they would accomplish their mission, Vsevolod Batischev and Timur Kadyrov, the creators at Hungry Minds, assembled what I can best describe as a ‘dream team’ jam-packed with the knowledge and vision needed to rebuild a modern society.
The Special Edition Book
With the holiday season rapidly approaching, Hungry Minds has chosen to release a special edition of one of its most popular creations: “The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding a Civilization.”
This edition comes in a hand-illustrated jacket containing over 400 illustrated pages jam-packed with information.
It is a piece of narrative and illustrated art that covers inventive concepts and the technologies necessary for reestablishing the foundations of modern life.
The areas covered in the book range from the creation of essential utilities to how to engage in agriculture, complex systems such as governance, and much more, all explored through scholarly research accompanied by stunning hand-drawn illustrations.
A Closer Look Inside
The first thing to note is that this is not a small book. It measures 39x25x6 centimetres and weighs well over two kilograms. According to Hungry Minds, thousands of hours go into creating each of its books, and this is clear when one of its creations is in front of you.
Opening the book reveals pages with an aged look, thanks to a clever use of foxing on the cream-coloured leaves.
The book has twenty-three sections, which range from the basics, such as making fire, which plants to eat, mechanics, building construction, sailing, aviation, art, rites of passage, storytelling, and more.
Each page is adorned with beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, which continue the aged theme and bring a comforting feeling when browsing.
The book’s structure is somewhat akin to handholding. Initially, it teaches the basic things needed to survive, such as finding and storing water and foraging for food. As you progress through the book, the information moves from focusing on the individual to helping the collective.
Areas I particularly enjoyed reading were how to cook and preserve foods, how to build a home with a toilet, and how to brew alcohol after civilisation has collapsed.
The book creates a feeling that you have travelled back in time, accessing secretive information reserved only for a select few, and the beautiful illustrations help to accentuate the special feeling.
Final Thoughts
I rarely agree to write a feature on a book; in fact, the last book I reviewed was in October 2022, at the invitation of representatives of the rock band The Rolling Stones. What made me jump at the chance to read The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization is the strange times we live in.
Countries are at odds with each other in many places worldwide, and people’s egos, greed, insecurity, and emotional issues only exacerbate these situations. Not since the early 1960s have people had cause to consider what might happen if civilisation as we know it needed rebuilding.
Sadly, what many would consider purely science fiction has morphed into a far more realistic proposition than a few years ago, and if certain situations continue to deteriorate, the most valuable commodity might well be knowledge.
While reading the book, it occurred to me that I am one of those from a generation who often points fingers at the generations who followed me, lamenting that life has been made too easy for them and that technology has prompted many to ignore the essential skills one would need to survive.
But if truth be told, if civilisation needed rebuilding, this book has shown me that my skillset would be sorely lacking.
This book gives people from every generation an opportunity to learn new things, brush up on essential skills, and, if they choose to, have some fun doing it.
In a nutshell, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am sure anyone fortunate enough to find a copy under a Christmas tree will be delighted, and I can’t shake off the thought that it could be one of the most valuable things to have in these strange times.
The Book Dream Team
The Researchers and Experts
- Vsevolod Batischev – Creator
- Timur Kadyrov – Creator
- Lewis Dartnell – Scientific and Technical Expert
- Vadim Kulikov – Chief Researcher
- Boris Rybakov – Advisor
- Margarita Fedorova – Human and Social Expert
- Sergey Adonin – Scientific Expert
- Aleksey Payevskiy – Medical and Chemical Expert
- Bogdan Kravtsov – Special Adviser
The Illustration Team
- Lev Kaplan – Main Illustrator
- Oksana Alexeevskaya – Illustrator
- Tatyana Konokhova – Illustrator
- Irina Vinnik – Illustrator
- Marina Rudko – Illustrator
- Gleb Konsulov – Illustrator
- Olga Khodchenko – Illustrator
- Marina Kupkina – Illustrator
- Yaroslava Bogorodskaya – Illustrator
- Sergey Vorobyev – Illustrator
- Victor Zaburdayev – Layout Designer
Editors and Copywriters
- Maria Mernova – Editor-in-Chief (Russian texts)
- Sergey Apresov – Editor
- Dmitriy Mamontov – Science Editor
- Taylor Margvelashvili – Editor (English texts)
- Eddie Cruz – Editor (English texts)
- Aleksandra Markevich – Copywriter
- Dina Apparatova – Copywriter, editor and researcher
- Elena Suvorova – Copywriter
Project Managers
- Oksana Gesina
- Anna Borodina
You can learn more about Hungry Minds at https://hungryminds.art/.
The special edition of The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization has an RRP of US$200, and a hardcover standard edition is also available via Amazon for $119.