The Haynes manual for every vehicle I have ever owned. Granted, there are some things in there where the manual assumes a certain level of mechanical experience (“Installation is the opposite of removal.”) But for the most part, it allows me to maintain my own vehicles without having to take it to the shop every 10,000 miles.
SFC Schwartz
“My Descent Into Death” by Howard Storm. I know many here will probably roll their eyes at this one. Howard Storm was an atheist who died. He describes his experiences on the other side from the road to hell to conversations with Jesus and the angels. This book helped me understand why religion can be helpful or harmful to us on our spiritual journeys. In the interest of full disclosure: I am a practicing Cafeteria Catholic who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord God and Savior. I am NOT wanting to start any debates here on that subject; I just wanted people to know where I am coming from and why I chose this particular book.
The Power of Now. One of the few books I have read many times. Very well written and explained.
The Joy of Cooking. For a long time I had no other cooking teacher in my life than this book. These days I have the internet and TV cooking shows. I still reference Joy.
How to Buy Stocks by Louis C. Engel. It is quite old now, although they update it periodically. It doesn’t tell you how to get rich, it tells you how stocks and the market work.
Intuitive IC OP Amps by Frederiksen
Simply a marvelous book. My copy must be thirty years old by now. Best introduction to op amps I’ve ever read and also useful as a go-to reference.
I refer to Joy of Cooking as well as the Fannie Farmer Cookbook all the time.
I really struggled with personal finance and money until I read:
All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan by Elizabeth Warren (yes, that Elizabeth Warren) and Amelia Warren Tyagi
It is clear, easy to follow, and extremely helpful.
Great book, as is the Handbook of Mathematical, Scientific, and Engineering Formulas, Tables, Functions, Graphs, Transforms
Too many programming reference books to count. Lots of SDK, but I still dust off an old Windows API reference book on occasion.
Personally, however, it has to be Home Improvement 1-2-3. I’m not the handiest person in the world, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used this thing.
I used to use UNIX in a Nushell quite frequently, but the internet has really cut into the usefulness of my home reference library.
ATK cookbooks. Any of the season ones. The write ups before each recipe really taught me about how to cook and real techniques.
also Mindset by Carol Dweck. It’s a bit wordy, but it really changed the way I think and changed the way I taught my kids how to think.
The Bread Baker’s Apprentice basically taught me how to bake bread professionally when I was thrust into the job with almost no experience and very little training.
Dare to Repair–it’s a book of household and appliance repair instructions aimed at women. It helped me fix the bathtub drain. Cookin’ Cousins is my family recipe book and it is very helpful if you think you are a bit scrawny and need to add a few pounds via old fashioned southern cooking.
There’s also a book whose title I can’t quite recall–A Field Guide to American Architecture or something like that. My family has had endless hours of fun trying to determine whether a particular house was Italianate Gothic, Queen Anne, Second Empire, or a crazy mix of all three.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I pick Carla Emery’s Encyclopedia of Country Living. Written in the 70’s as a reference for modern homesteaders, it tells how to: find and buy land. How to raise livestock, chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep. How to slaughter and dress out a pig. What to do with too many eggs. How to make butter and cheese. Then there’s the gardening sections…there are probably many better books on living off the land by now, but this one is special to me, it’s so…homey. I can daydream about raising my own chickens, milking my goat, tending my beehives…and actually have used a lot of the advice over the years. Plus recipes!