Happy New Year! And happy it is indeed, as we have just survived the latest apocalypse of 21. December 2012… However, it’s never too early to prepare for the next one – with 10 gems from our catalog.

The major problem of people predicting the End of the World is that hardly anyone believes them. This happens in H. Beam Piper’s novel The Edge of the Knife: A man sees a nuclear war, the rise of the Terran Federation and, finally, the start of space travel.

If you do meet alien peoples – not necessarily from outer space – being able to communicate is essential. Wouldn’t a language designed for easy learning be perfect for the purpose? Take a class with Helen Fryer, The Esperanto Teacher.

Although uninhabited, comets certainly come from outer space, and the one in Camille Flammarion’s novel is going to hit. Read Omega: The Last Days of the World and see how the world is coping with imminent destruction.

The most popular strategy in such cases is to run and hide. This is what the protagonists in the Decameron do, they flee from a plague to the countryside. To escape boredom they tell each other stories in Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece, which we have staged as dramatic reading.

When a plague strikes, you’ll have a lot of sick people to care for. For a manual on how to do this lovingly and efficiently, read Notes on Nursing by Florence Nightingale, regarded as the founder of modern nursing.

But what if all treatment fails? In the novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Lionel Varney is the only one immune to a violent illness that slowly but surely kills all mankind except him. Find out how he deals with being The Last Man.

At least Adam is not completely alone after natural desaster strikes – luckily he has Robin. How the two strive to learn everything they need to survive is described in The Master Knot of Human Fate by Ellis Meredith.

Food is the primary ingredient to successful survival – but what if the ingredients are scarce? Dr. Albert P. Sy, a professor of chemistry, wrote the WWI pamphlet Food Preparedness about how to get maximum nutrition out of minimum supply.

Avis Everhard witnesses the rise of an oligarchic tyrannny in the US. 700 years later, her diary is published with correcting commentary by Anthony Meredith. Read The Iron Heel by Jack London, only one of many scenarios for a dystopic future.

Judgement day will come for all of us, at least if you are religious. Dante Alighieri’s epic poem The Divine Comedy gives a glimpse of the afterlife awaiting us. This book is also available in German and in the original Italian.

Enjoy – and get prepared!