Last week, Slate published a list of children’s books about poverty, unemployment, shoe-eating, dust bowls, depressions, and recessions. From a late-19th century series called The Five Little Peppers through to 2007’s How To Steal a Dog, the list captures over 100 years of poverty-level slice of life–what we might call the Plight of the Raggedy Children.
books
Indoo Ships Your Textbooks To You When They Feel Like It
By 9.19.08
Don’t order textbooks from Indoo.com if you need them right away, because they’re a little casual with their shipping. Joe ordered two textbooks on September 5th. Four days later on September 9th, they sent him an email saying they’d been shipped via USPS Priority mail. They hadn’t arrived by the 16th, so Joe emailed to ask what was going on. They responded that actually the books had been shipped on September 11th via USPS Priority and that “the arrival expectation is 4 to 5 business days.” Joe received one of the two books yesterday, on September 17th, which would have been 5 business days after the 11th. Still no sign of the other book.
10 Unconventional Travel Tips From A Veteran Travel Writer
By 9.14.08
Travel writer Chuck Thompson buried 12 unconventional travel tips in his memoir Smile When You’re Lying. Included on the list: lie, steal, and over-spend.
Morning Deals
By 9.11.08
- Apple: Refurbished iPod touches on sale, 8GB for $180, 16GB for $240, 32GB for $320
- Amazon: Rewards points upgrade for existing Amazon.com Visa holders
- Apple: Free Select iTunes TV Shows in HD (requires iTunes 8
Highlights From Dealnews
- Travelocity: United Airlines Sale: Round-trip flights from $108
- Amazon.com: Amazon.com Men’s Watch Deals: Timex, Marc Ecko, more from $40 + free shipping
- Sears: Seven7 Women’s Jeans for $18 + $6 s&h, more
Highlights From Buxr
- Budget Truck Rental: $50 Gift card when paying w/American Express
- Reverie: T-Shirt Sale: Buy 1 TEE get 1 free TEE
- BestBuy: Westinghouse 42″ 1080p LCD HDTV and portable DVD Player for $749.99 + shipping
Highlights From Dealhack
- Drugstore.com: New Customers: Save $5 or $10 off First Order
- Vann’s: Panasonic FZ28 10.2MP Digital Camera $340 Shipped
- Amazon: Get Savings of up to 75% off Bargain Books
Simplicity Is Best: Why Materialism Is Only Going To Screw Up Your Life
By 8.6.08
Over at the US News & World Report Alpha Consumer blog there’s an interview with Tim Kasser, author of The High Price of Materialism, about why and how materialism will not make you happy. In fact, it very well might make you sad.
5 Thrifty Lessons From Post-Apocalyptic Novel "The Road"
By 6.11.08
I’m in the middle of reading The Road, and couldn’t help draw 5 lessons about frugality from Cormac McCarthy’s tale of a father and son scrapping out their survival in the middle of post-Apocalyptic America.
Professional Complaint Letter Writer Shares His Secrets
By 6.3.08
“Praise with faint damn” is the underlying secret to how professional complaint letter writer Bruce Silverman is able to be so successful in getting companies to give him free stuff. First class upgrades, Room upgrades with views of frolicking whales, Checks for hundreds of dollars… all these and more are the fruits of Bruce’s calculated typewriter clacking. Now Bruce has come out with a small book with a big promise: to teach you How To Complaint For Fun And Profit. Here’s a chapter from it, exclusively on The Consumerist, detailing how he was able to turn a disappointing experience at the Ritz-Carlton in Hawaii into a long-term stream of room upgrades, comped meals, and decidedly above and beyond customer service… [More]
Borders Launches A Website With A "Magic Shelf"
By 5.27.08
Borders has finally decided to launch its own website (previously, its online business had been handled by Amazon.com). CEO George Jones says:
By 5.20.08
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Here’s a list of 21 recommended finance books for people at every level of financial experience, from novice to “I could have written that.” [SavingAdvice]
By 3.20.08
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Borders, the second largest bookstore chain, may try to sell itself to someone. [NYT]
By 3.12.08
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Borders is going to decrease its inventory by 5-10% in order to allow room for more books to be displayed with their covers face-out. Malcolm Gladwell will be so pleased. [Wall Street Journal]
Money For Dummies Book Display Reveals State Of The Union
By 3.11.08
With all the swirling confusion about whether or not we’re in a recession, this Barnes & Noble display completely devoted to Money For Dummies books is a clarion blast of yellow: we’re in deep doggy doo. This wasn’t simply in the business and finance section, mind you, this was the window display.
6 Days In Jail For Overdue Library Books
By 3.3.08
Beloit, Wisconsin does not f*&% around when it comes to library books. When your books aren’t returned to the Beloit Public Library, three overdue notices are mailed out and then you may be issued a citation that could possibly include a court date.
Product Placement In Tween Lit Is "Another Opportunity For Authenticity"
By 2.20.08
Our sister site, Jezebel, has posted something awesome about the product placement that’s infiltrated the teen lit genre. One particularly sad example features a character called “Mackenzie Blue” whose tastes seem to be for sale before the books have even been written.
Oprah Giving Away Women & Money!
By 2.13.08
Now you don’t have to dress up in corporate casual-wear and spend half the day screaming in a studio audience to get something free from Oprah, because for the next day she’s giving away digital versions of Suze Orman’s new book “Women & Money” on her website, from now until 8/7c February 14th. Downloads are available in English and Spanish versions, PDF only.
Barnes & Noble Limited Receipt Policy Won't Go National Until October?
By 2.12.08
A Barnes & Noble insider tell us the new policy limiting returns to 14 days with receipts won’t go in effect nationally until October, according to CEO Steve Riggio’s internal blog.. The policy is currently in testing in New York, New Jersey, California, and Virginia. “The point is to eliminate “customers” who empty their bookshelves of books they’ve owned for years and get store credit. The company line is “to bring our policy in line with other national retailers,” the insider tells The Consumerist. However, “the ability to “extend” the policy beyond the 14 days will be up to the compassion of the store/manager you encounter.” Looks like all you non-VA-CA-NY-NJ shysters have until October to ply your fiendish book return schemes.
Adobe Won't Fix DRM Screw-Up Rendering E-Books Unreadable
By 2.8.08
If you use Leopard on a Mac and plan on buying e-books, be very careful—according to the various complaints on this thread, Adobe’s Digital Editions still doesn’t work on Leopard, and yet most places selling Digital Editions e-books won’t warn you of this, leaving you with activated books you can’t return but also can’t read.
