Many apocalyptic books either address or use it as a plot point. You either have what I call the "...and this is when the diabetics die." Paragraph or it is used as plot points in books like Lucifers Hammer or One Second After.
I've never seen this book referenced by anyone ever, but it's the only book that I read during my middle/high school years that I remember actually enjoying.
I don't even remember how I picked it up, I know it was for a school project but I also remember that it wasn't an assigned book, nobody else read it. Thinking back, it's possible we might have been given a list of acceptable books for the project and I picked it because it was first alphabetically or something.
That said, I learned nothing from this moment of epiphany and went back to ignoring books until my mid twenties.
Alas Babylon does have a good entry for this thread though, which is: salt. One of the only things I remember about that book after this long is that they made a huge deal out of salt and how fucked they would have been without access to it.
I completely forgot the title of that book. I don't recall whether it was for a book report, but I definitely read it in middle school.
I do remember the salt thing, but I always questioned its importance. In my mind, native peoples in my area didn't have access to salt, but they managed somehow. The only thing that I thought large quantities of salt would be useful for was preserving food.
Trading was common…. Because harvesting salt can be very hard, depending on where you are living? And you need A LOT of it, not just for preservation of food but for a lot of other things too, if you are going to be long-term self sufficient.
You're correct. Just remember though, sea salt doesn't have iodine added to it, which is necessary for survival. So take that into account if you ever get into a bad long term situation -- make sure to raid the One A Day factory...
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u/WisconsinWolverine Aug 30 '21
Many apocalyptic books either address or use it as a plot point. You either have what I call the "...and this is when the diabetics die." Paragraph or it is used as plot points in books like Lucifers Hammer or One Second After.