It’s Friday again! Do you know what you’re doing this weekend? I’ll be doing a long bike ride with kids in tow, weather-permitting. There’s more on planning your weekends below. In the meantime…
Bored on your commute? I’m pleased to announce that the audio book of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast is now available. It’s narrated by me, and read in a studio where the air conditioning had gone out on a 90 degree plus day. See if you can hear that in my voice! You can purchase the audio book via iTunes, or via Amazon’s Audible. The audio recording was up to #8 in iTunes’ business downloads yesterday, so it would be great to see some sales continue there.
Support an independent bookstore! Since What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast came out only as an ebook, it’s sold mostly through outlets that have e-readers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, etc. So if you like to support independent book stores through your purchases, you would have been a bit stuck. But here’s a fun solution. The owners of My Child’s Bookshelf, an independent online book retailer that specializes in kids’ books, read the ebook and loved it. So they’re making an offer: email them that you purchased my book (either forward the receipt or explain, honor system, that you bought it) at [email protected], and they’ll email you a voucher for $3 off an item in the store. Some of their books are priced at less than $3, so this is a great deal.
I’m planning sequels. I’m working on some ebooks devoted to weekends and the work day. I floated a test post called “What Successful People Know About Weekends” over at CBS MoneyWatch. If you have great weekend routines or rules you follow, I’d love to hear about it. The idea is that using weekends well is a secret weapon in our competitive world. You need to design weekends that actually help you recreate, so you can hit Monday ready to go. Few of us do this, but more of us probably should.
In other news:
Did you read The Happiness Project? Gretchen Rubin’s new book, Happier at Home, will be out on September 4. You can read an excerpt of the book, on time, here.
I’m reading a book called Overdressed, by Elizabeth Cline. Billed as the apparel-focused version of Fast Food Nation, the book asks why we want T-shirts that cost $5 and fall apart after 3 washes. I’ll plan a more in-depth review later.
I’m getting a review copy of Overdressed soon, and I am SO excited to read it.
I liked your post about the weekends…I’ve written before about using leisure time wisely, and I think we’re on the same page.
@Kristen- given how much you liked Garbology, I was going to recommend this one to you too, so I’m happy to see you’re already getting a review copy! I think it’s an interesting question, if the average family spends $1700/year on apparel why we tend to do that as 100 $17 items, rather than 17 $100 items (yes, I know kids go through a lot of stuff, but that “average household” has 2.3 members – they could probably make it on fewer than 20 new items per year). Of course, I’m also suspicious of any narrative that invites one to feel morally superior for shopping at Nieman Marcus vs. Target. I think she’s getting at the idea that there needs to be a better middle market, but I’m only halfway through the book.
It is a small bit, but I have found that life goes smoother with a little bit of housework Friday evening: run the dishwasher, take out the trash, and start a load of laundry.
We gave up paper towels and plastic milk containers after I read garbology and I got back to composting… dumping grass clippings right from lawnmower into compost and trying not to use plastic bags. really liked that book b/c it talks about the plastic problem. Same thing with cheap clothes though I feel less guilty if I can give it to another tinier kid and my kid didn’t get dirty a valuable outfit…