books

Giveaway: “How I Make Money Blogging.”

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https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=132158&c=ib&aff=219310We’re heading toward September and you know what that means: Christmas shopping!

Or at least the stores seem to think so, given how early they sneak the red-and-green into the inventory. Can’t we have Halloween first?

Some of us shop year-round and then have to fill in with only a few items come the Black Friday madness.  Some realize around mid-December that they haven’t even started.

It all takes money — and one way to earn money is through blogging. Stop laughing. Some people actually do bring in a little extra cash, or a lot. Crystal Stemberger is one of those people. I’m giving away a copy of her e-book, “How I Make Money Blogging: The Beginner’s Guide to Building a Money-Making Blog,” in case you want to be one of those people, too. (There’s a discount code for those who want to buy the book outright; see below.)

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The opposite of obligation.

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imagesEver seen the Pixar film “Up”? In the how-Carl-and-Ellie-met montage is a moment when the two of them sit side by side, reading and holding hands.

That was DF and me on Sunday, reading and hand-holding in adjoining easy chairs. For him it was “Mozart in the Jungle” and for me it was one of the “Anne of Green Gables” books. (I’d never read the series as a kid and recently I found several titles in the recycle bin.)

It was so nice to see DF rooted for a while. Usually he’s in constant motion: cooking, working in the yard or garden, hanging out laundry, tidying up. Even when he sits still he’s often working: paying bills, balancing his checkbook, dealing with his father’s estate. Yet there he was, reading a non-work-related book and smiling.

And me? The day before I’d written a post for Surviving and Thriving and finished my Monday post for MSN Money. Thus I felt temporarily free to follow the adventures of Anne Shirley, even though unread personal finance books are currently stacked eyebrow-high on the desk.

For the first time in who knows when, we were observing a Sabbath. I don’t mean that in a strictly religious sense, but as a day of rest. A chance to recharge. A dozen hours of peace. The opposite of obligation.

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Giveaway: Clark Howard’s new book.

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9781583335253LConsumer king Clark Howard has followed up his New York Times bestseller “Living Large in Lean Times” with another one that’s sure to be a hit. I know this because I’ve read it: Clark has donated two copies for review and/or giveaway.

Review first, giveaway after.

The format of “Clark Howard’s Living Large for the Long Haul” is quite smart: Interview 50 U.S. residents who were body-slammed by the recession and find out how they coped.

This is both shrewd and reader-friendly. Too often personal finance books and articles use people as bad examples: “John Smith had 24 credit cards. For years he was up to his hairline in consumer debt, and ultimately declared bankruptcy. Now his credit score is in the crapper, he can’t get a decent auto loan rate and landlords don’t want to rent to him. John is an idiot. Don’t be like John.”

It’s not that object lessons are bad. It’s that sometimes they’re a little too close to the reader’s own behavior. The temptation is to shut down, i.e., to be unable to learn anything from the example, or to pretend you’re nothing like John (“Yeah, I have a dozen cards but at least I don’t have two dozen – and I’m making the minimum payments on time so everything’s cool.”)

Clark’s premise is swell and once again he’s packed the pages with sometimes obscure and always ingenious tips. It’s a terrific resource, and one that I plan to keep on my own bookshelf along with his previous book.

That said, there’s something else to say: Clark, if you’re reading this, get yourself an editor, son. Please.

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Beat the heat with “Tundra.”

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tundra 100It’s high summer. The heat and humidity are racing each other to the century mark. Your shirt is sticking to your back like a sweaty decal. The air is so thick you could drink it.

Here’s one solution: Look at a cartoon that involves polar bears, snowmen or dog mushers. You’ll get a vicarious chill and the laughter-induced endorphins will distract you from the fact that you’ve got a few more months of this kind of weather.

Yep, it’s another “Tundra” giveaway. This will be the third time I’ve featured a collection of Chad Carpenter’s comics, and the reaction is always tremendous. Why? Because he’s freakin’ funny, that’s why.

Carpenter’s strip is syndicated all over the U.S. and also in other countries. If you’d like to know more, read this post from last year, which contains a link to a profile of the artist.

Or just take my word for it: Chad is a sick and twisted man, which makes for awesome (and occasionally wince-inducing) cartooning.

Beat the heat with “Tundra.”

by

tundra 100It’s high summer. The heat and humidity are racing each other to the century mark. Your shirt is sticking to your back like a sweaty decal. The air is so thick you could drink it.

Here’s one solution: Look at a cartoon that involves polar bears, snowmen or dog mushers. You’ll get a vicarious chill and the laughter-induced endorphins will distract you from the fact that you’ve got a few more months of this kind of weather.

Yep, it’s another “Tundra” giveaway. This will be the third time I’ve featured a collection of Chad Carpenter’s comics, and the reaction is always tremendous. Why? Because he’s freakin’ funny, that’s why.

Carpenter’s strip is syndicated all over the U.S. and also in other countries. If you’d like to know more, read this post from last year, which contains a link to a profile of the artist.

Or just take my word for it: Chad is a sick and twisted man, which makes for awesome (and occasionally wince-inducing) cartooning.

Beat the heat with “Tundra.”

by

tundra 100It’s high summer. The heat and humidity are racing each other to the century mark. Your shirt is sticking to your back like a sweaty decal. The air is so thick you could drink it.

Here’s one solution: Look at a cartoon that involves polar bears, snowmen or dog mushers. You’ll get a vicarious chill and the laughter-induced endorphins will distract you from the fact that you’ve got a few more months of this kind of weather.

Yep, it’s another “Tundra” giveaway. This will be the third time I’ve featured a collection of Chad Carpenter’s comics, and the reaction is always tremendous. Why? Because he’s freakin’ funny, that’s why.

Carpenter’s strip is syndicated all over the U.S. and also in other countries. If you’d like to know more, read this post from last year, which contains a link to a profile of the artist.

Or just take my word for it: Chad is a sick and twisted man, which makes for awesome (and occasionally wince-inducing) cartooning.

Want more money? This book could help.

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thAt age 17 Scott Gamm started his own personal finance blog, Help Save My Dollars. Now a business major at New York University’s School of Business and contributor to websites from The Huffington Post to TheStreet.com, he apparently decided he isn’t quite busy enough.

So he wrote a book.

“More Money, Please: The Financial Secrets You Never Learned in School” is a good primer both for those just starting out and those who, well, never learned what they needed to know in school.

Know someone like that? Enter to win this book and give it to him or her. You might change a life.

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Giveaway: “Deal With Your Debt.”

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thOn Tuesday I participated in a Tweetchat sponsored by FT Press, an imprint of Pearson and publisher of books by my MSN Money colleague Liz Weston. If you missed the event, at least some of the Tweets can be found in the publisher’s Tweetchat room. A spokeswoman for the company says a .pdf summary of the questions and discussion is in the works.

To promote the chat, FT Press gave out a few copies of “Deal With Your Debt” to random questioners. (Did any of you win? Tell us!) Now it’s my turn to hand out the revised and updated version of this book, which I can happily say is written for people in the real world.

Just check the description: “Award-winning personal finance expert Liz Weston reveals why it’s simply impractical to ‘just pay off every dime’ and ‘live forever debt free’ — and why trying to do so can actually make you poorer. It’s smarter to control and manage your debt, and Weston shows you how.”

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7 PF experts, no waiting: Join us for a Tweetchat.

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thGot money questions? One of them might win you a copy of Liz Weston’s updated and revised Deal with Your Debt.

She’s hosting one heck of a Tweetchat on Thursday, May 9, and will be giving away several copies of the book to folks who submit questions ahead of time (more on that in a minute).

Even if you don’t need the book, surely you know someone who does.

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It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Free Comic Book Day.

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STK525975Late yesterday afternoon the UPS left leaving an envelope whose contents — “Superman: Last Son of Krypton” and “Beware the Batman” — sent me rocketing back to my childhood.

They’re two of the books to be given away tomorrow for Free Comic Book Day 2013. Every first Saturday in May the comics industry gives away millions of titles for free at comic shops across the country.

Some 4.6 million comics will be handed across counters this year, which is a 30% increase over 2012.

Comics have moved beyond the POW! ZAP! these days. SpongeBob Squarepants has his own comic series. So does “Sesame Street.” The wildly popular series “The Walking Dead” began as a comic book, although purists would probably call it a graphic novel.

The free-comic lineup is quite the mixed bag: books based on the usual superheroes like Superman, Batman and The Hulk, plus titles whose heroes range from Judge Dredd to MegaMan to the children’s book character Pippi Longstocking. (Go here for a full list of offerings.)

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