100 Essential Reads for the Lifelong Learner

Whether you are just starting out in college or are a more experience learner with years under your belt, there is always more knowledge waiting to be discovered. One great way to do that is to read. This list provides 100 books to expand your knowledge and help you keep learning. From literature to non-fiction to history to biographies to science and the social sciences, there are books in this list to help you keep learning for life.
Fiction Classics
Whether you’ve read these classics or not, they are all worth a second (or third) look.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This classic is read by many a high schooler for good reason as it offers an excellent character study to help the reader explore morality, ethics, and society.
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Huxley’s dystopian novel takes the reader to a futuristic society where humanity has taken a back seat to technology.
3. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This story of friendship and the struggle to survive is touching and intensely beautiful.
4. Animal Farm by George Orwell. Check out Orwell’s famous allegory of the Russian Revolution that can teach something to all readers about society and politics.
5. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. This book is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt on the fringe of society.
6. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut’s novel provides a vehicle of hope through the traffic of war and insanity.
7. Native Son by Richard Wright. Get lost in the excellent writing and character development of this story, but don’t overlook the powerful statement Wright makes about the results of a society that devalues humanity.
8. Seize the Day by Saul Bellow. Perhaps this Nobel Prize-winning novelist’s most developed work, this short read delves inside the mind of a man in the midst of mid-life crisis as he struggles with himself.
9. Howards End by E.M. Forester. Explore class and society in this powerful novel set in early twentieth century England.
10. The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway. Read Hemingway’s account of the emasculating effects of war and women in this popular classic.
11. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This classic has interesting effects on the reader, usually based on the reader’s age and current state of mind. No doubt there is something in this book that details the confusion of adolescence with which most can relate.
12. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Marlow’s journey down the river and into the heart of a native Africa is but a metaphor for the even darker journey of self-exploration he makes.
13. The Call of the Wild by Jack London. If you haven’t already read London’s description of survival of the fittest from the dog’s perspective, then add this one to your list of must-reads.
14. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Lee’s popular classic explores racism, justice, family ties, and more in a story that is difficult to forget.
15. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Examine issues of equality and justice in America through the eyes of the Joad family in the Great Depression.

Non-Fiction Classics
From test pilots to boxers to the Civil Rights movement, these classic non-fiction books have maintained their popularity for good reason.

16. Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s account of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 serves as an important reminder of how much progress has been made and how much more work there is to accomplish.
17. Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein. Read essays written by Einstein on a broad range of subjects from science to human rights.
18. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. Orwell recounts his service in the Spanish Civil War and his escape from the country afterwards as he narrowly escapes arrest as an enemy to the state.
19. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West. Those interested in Balkan history will want to tackle this massive, 1000-page classic.
20. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. The American space race didn’t start in the 1960’s, but many years earlier with the test pilots in the jet program, and Wolfe takes readers through it all up to the space race of the 1960s.
21. Working by Studs Terkel. Terkel is arguably the king of documenting oral history from Americans in the early 20th century. This book captures the voices of American workers from all walks of life who describe what they do all day and how they feel about it.
22. In the American Grain by William Carlos Williams. Williams paints his own version of historical figures throughout American history in the essays contained in this classic.
23. Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. This book recounts the battles over water rights in the American West and is a must-read for anyone interested in conservation, politics, or having water to drink.
24. The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow. Learn about the history of JP Morgan and his banking business as it began and evolved up to the 1990s.
25. Pilgram at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. Study the nature of Mother Nature herself in this classic by Annie Dillard.
26. The Sweet Science by A. J. Liebling. Liebling details the world of boxing in its heyday to life.
27. The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross. While not technically a classic, this book by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross is sure to be one. Ross covers composers of the 20th century, including their biographies, the music, and the social context for it all.

Recent Literature
These books are some of the most powerful of more recent literature written.

28. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. This allegorical story follows Indian independence and the events leading up to it via the life of Saleem Sinai. The the huge cast of characters, history of India, and religious mythology make this book a rich and engrossing read.
29. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. The title character of this novel will be difficult to erase from your heart after finishing this hilarious and poignant novel.
30. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Follow this family as they leave the comfort of their southern home to spread Christianity to one corner of Africa, then watch as the heart of Africa takes over the lives of each of the individual family members in their own unique ways.
31. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Atwood’s futuristic look at society and what it does to women is a cautionary tale that should not be missed.
32. Beloved by Toni Morrison. The ghosts of the past haunt this enchanting novel of slavery and freedom.
33. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. The incredible character development carries this book that engages the reader in Cal’s life as both a girl and a boy, and the family history that unwittingly delivered Cal to such an unusual place.
34. Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This easy-to-read tale is a deceptively simple account of one man’s struggle to survive.
35. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. This fictional account of a platoon in Vietnam is based on Tim O’Brien’s experience in the war himself and explores the fear and courage that are necessary to bring one through to the other side.
36. The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Through letters, the reader learns of Celie’s difficult life as a black woman in the south and her transformation as she discovers her inner strength.

Autobiographies and Memoirs
From Tobias Wolff’s struggles as a young black man in the south to Vladimir Nabokov’s childhood in pre-Revolutionary Russia, learn first-hand what it was like to live in a different place and a different era.

37. Black Boy by Richard Wright. Write’s description of life as a black man in the south is both painful and beautifully written–and definitely worth reading.
38. The Autobiography of Mark Twain by Mark Twain. Read about the amazing life of this American legend through his own eyes.
39. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov details his idyllic childhood in Russia, then emigrating to America at the age of 18 as a result of the Russian Revolution in his brilliantly written autobiography.
40. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X. Alex Haley and Malcolm X do a remarkable job conveying the many experiences and transformations experienced by Malcolm X on his journey to overcoming racial barriers.
41. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen. This popular memoir details life in colonial Africa as Dinesen embraces Nairobi and the people who live there.
42. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein. Learn about Stein and her life as an ex-pat in Paris through the frame of a biography of her partner, Alice Toklas.
43. This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff. Wolff recounts his life as a boy and teen struggling with his identity as he lives with his divorced mother and her second husband in the 1950’s.
44. Autobiographies by W.B. Yeats. Yeats’ account of his life as a poet and playwright in Ireland up to his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Biographies
Learn about such famous people as Florence Nightingale and Thomas Jefferson with these biographies.

45. Florence Nightingale by Cecil Woodham-Smith. Read this classic biography of the astonishing woman who was Florence Nightingale.
46. Samuel Johnson by Walter Jackson Bate. Bate takes readers beyond what is known publicly about Johnson and delves deep within the man in this outstanding biography.
47. The Age of Jackson by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. This biography looks at both the president and the politics surrounding his administration.
48. Jefferson and His Time by Dumas Malone. This six-volume biography is likely just for those obsessed with Thomas Jefferson, but it is the pinnacle of information on this amazing man.
49. James Joyce by Richard Ellmann. Considered one of the best biographies on Joyce, the writings of Ellmann capture the true nature of the man.
50. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. Learn about Roosevelt’s early years with this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography.
51. Vermeer by Lawrence Gowing. This much-beloved biography informs about the life of this famous painter and also contains plenty of reproductions of Vermeer’s art.
52. Up From History by Robert J. Norrell. This account of Booker T. Washington’s life as a slave to a soft-spoken, educated advocate for civil rights is an informative read that reminds Americans of the beginnings of the the modern day fight for civil rights.

World Literature
Read these books and step into a different culture or sometimes, a truly unique perspective of a familiar world.

53. The Assault by Harry Mulisch. In Nazi-occupied Holland, a young boy witnesses terrible tragedy. Follow the boy as he grows into a man and must come to terms with what happened while he learns truths about humanity with which all readers can identify.
54. Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgokov. This novel is steeped in magical realism, but below the fanciful stories of a magical cat and the devil himself, this book explores power, corruption, good and evil, and human frailty.
55. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundara. The history of Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia is as much a character of this novel as the bumbling people who struggle to find their way amidst personal insecurities.
56. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. Murakami’s unusual style of writing carries readers on a wild ride as a man looks for his missing cat in the midst of his personal crisis.
57. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The main character, Okonkwo, grapples with preserving his cultural history in the face of Western domination in this tragically beautiful novel.
58. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Recounting the history of a village through the Buendia family, Marquez’s lyrical writing and magical realism create a funny, yet hauntingly beautiful read.
59. Hunger by Knut Hamsun. Feel the hunger of the starving young artist in Hamsun’s novel that is a classic from this Norwegian author.
60. Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. Zorba’s unabashed embracing of life parallels that of the stoic narrator as this novel explores the dual nature of humanity and the repercussions of both approaches to life.
61. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Discover how to find the beauty in life no matter what your experience as you follow the life of a young shepherd who gains so much from his journey of life.
62. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. The tale of a young Brahmin’s spiritual journey throughout his life is told in this popular novel.
63. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Love and loyalty in the time of the Russian Revolution are the driving force behind this classic novel.

History
These books are some of the most famous and widely read history books around.

64. The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams. This autobiography that isn’t really an autobiography excellently captures the feel of the American history throughout the 19th century and into the 20th as told through the eyes of Henry Adams.
65. The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner. Turner’s classic work explores the idea of American uniqueness being shaped by the specific ordeals confronted by the settlers along the frontier.
66. The Civil War by Shelby Foote. This three-volume set describes the Civil War in easy-to-read language that captures the reader’s imagination.
67. The Second World War by Winston Churchill. Churchill’s account of WWII is beautifully recreated in this six-volume account.
68. The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward. Take a hard look at the history of segregation, segregation myths, and more in this book that helped spark the Civil Rights movement.
69. The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Learn about the unique time in the early 20th century that saw four countries working diligently to design an atomic bomb and the motivation behind this work.
70. A Study of History by Arnold J. Toynbee. Considered one of the most comprehensive and complete pieces of scholarship written and includes 10 volumes covering the rise and fall of virtually every civilization known.
71. The Great Bridge by David McCullough. This book tells the story behind building the Brooklyn Bridge by one of the great modern-day historians.
72. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War by Edmund Wilson. Read 16 essays each providing a unique perspective to the Civil War.
73. The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell. Fussell uses this book, which includes literature mostly from WWI, but from other wars as well, as a testament to what warfare does to those involved in it.
74. The Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson. McPherson’s book details the events that lead up to the Civil War and delves clearly into details of the actual war that can often seem confusing when written by other hands.
75. The Contours of American History by William Appleman Williams. This book has been used in college classes throughout the years as a text to illustrate the economic systems of America throughout history. While sometimes controversial, this book remains widely read and discussed.

Political Science
Justice, economics, and capitalism are just a few of the topics in these books.

76. The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith. This book, written in 1958, provides a remarkably timely look at American economics and the American way of life.
77. The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper. Popper’s famous work discusses the role of the individual as separate from the state, while also tackling Marxism, despite his belief that Marx’s intentions were good.
78. A Theory of Justice by John Rawls. Rawls has updated his classic text from 1971 and continues to promote his theories on justice and fairness in a democratic society.
79. The American Political Tradition by Richard Hofstadter. While Hofstadter’s book sometimes comes with harsh criticism, it also serves as an important reminder that citizens should not blindly follow long-held beliefs or reputations without questioning why.
80. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter. Schumpeter’s economic theories continue to arise in current analysis. Find out the basis of his beliefs in his landmark book.
81. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by R. H. Tawney. This classic explores the interconnectedness of religion and capitalism within society and includes historical support for the theory.

Language Arts and Literary Theory
From awesome reference books to books that can take your study of literature to the next level, check out these books about the English language.

82. The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White. Strunk originally wrote this rule book of grammatical style in 1919, and in 1959, White revised what has become an icon of the American written language.
83. The American Language by H. L. Mencken. Mencken was an early advocate for "American" as a language and style to be recognized as the powerful world force it has become.
84. The Mirror and the Lamp by Meyer Howard Abrams. This classic text of literary scholarship examines the role of the Romantic era on literature and the arts.
85. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. Woolf discusses the historical differences between men and women writers and how these differences come down to the availability of freedom and money that men have in plenty compared to women.
86. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory by J.A. Cuddon. This classic text is an awesome reference book that every English language student should own.
87. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Jonathan Culler. Arranged by theme, this book covers the different types of literary criticism and the people behind each.
88. Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton. Eagleton’s easy-to-read book has shown up in graduate classes around the country as well as on the shelves of just about anyone interested in learning about literary theory.
89. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory by Peter Barry. Barry’s engaging text covers the basic principles of literary theory for beginners.
90. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by Vincent B. Leitch. This book offers comprehensive coverage of literary theory from the classical era to current schools of thought.

Science, Math, and Social Sciences
Find classics alongside more modern works from the fields of science, math, and the social sciences in this list.

91. Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton. Written while Cambridge was closed due to the plague, Newton penned his famous thoughts on gravity, mechanics, calculus, and light and color.
92. The Art of the Soluble by Peter B. Medawar. Medawar’s book of essays explores the role of scientists in the world of science.
93. Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman. This science classic presents six of Feynman’s lectures that explain the basics of physics from his perspective of understanding science in the context of history.
94. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Carson’s powerful writing on the topic of environmental justice creates a book that will make the reader think seriously about humanity’s relationship to the Earth.
95. The Ants by Bert Hoelldobler and Edward O. Wilson. Written by two of the leading authorities on ants, this book covers it all, is well-written, and even won a Nobel Prize.
96. A Mathematician’s Apology by G. H. Hardy. Those with a love of mathematics will appreciate this work that extols the beauty of math beyond the expected.
97. The Art of Memory by Frances A. Yates. This book provides a look at the art of creating memory that was so important in days past.
98. The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud. Freud included the basics of his theories on psychoanalysis in this landmark work that is still read worldwide.
99. Pioneers of Psychology by Raymond E. Fancher. This fascinating book explores the beginning of psychology by exploring such thinkers as Descartes, Kant, Skinner, and more.
100. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. Psychology student or not, this book will appeal to anyone who has an interest in the curious way the mind works–and how it does not work. Several of the most bizarre cases are detailed here.

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PokerStars MicroMania - Play small stakes online poker

Get ready for MicroMania – a whole month dedicated to PokerStars smallest games. If you’re a micro-stakes player, then you have something special to look forward to this July.

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Bonuses

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Microsoft Office 2010 Hits Stores Worldwide

After years of development and beta testing, Microsoft Office 2010 is now available for purchase by consumers worldwide.

Microsoft Office 2010 hits stores today with three versions: Home and Student, Home and Business, and Professional.

In stores, the versions will cost $149.99, $279.99, or $499.99 respectively, but by downloading the software and just purchasing a Key Card, the price drops to $119.99, $199.99, and $349.99 respectively.

The newest version of Microsoft’s productivity software provides some major additions and upgrades to the 2007 version, including Outlook Social Connector and new multimedia editing tools.

The biggest addition is Office Web Apps, a slim but very functional version of its desktop counterpart that allows for live document collaboration, online storage, and integration with Hotmail and other Microsoft products.

The release of Office 2010 comes one month after Microsoft Office 2010’s upgrade release and two months after it was released to manufacturing.

Microsoft has revealed the four editions of Office 2010 that it will be selling at retail, along with their prices. It’s also trying something new by offering what it calls Product Key Cards.

While you can still buy them at retail, they don’t actually contain the software; rather, they contain keys to unlock installations of Office 2010 that are pre-loaded on some new computers.

The keys are cheaper than the full retail boxes, but there aren’t many people who will be thrilled with any plan that involves pre-loading software that they can’t use without spending more money.

The other notable thing about 2010 is the inclusion of Office Web Apps, a cloud version of Office.

Here’s a list of the four retail editions of Office 2010, which applications they will include, and how much they will cost.

Office Professional Academic

Priced at $99, this edition includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access and Office Web Apps.

It’s basically a cheaper version of the business-aimed Professional edition, but it’s reserved for “qualified students and educators.” It will be sold through campus bookstores and retailers.

Office Home and Student

This one will set you back $149 for the boxed version and $119 for the Product Key Card. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Office Web Apps.

It will be the most basic retail edition, separated from its peers primarily by its lack of the Outlook e-mail application.

It will also be available in a Family Pack that will include licenses for three computers in your home, but Microsoft hasn’t officially announced the pack’s price.

Office Home and Business

The price: $279 for the box, $199 for the Product Key Card. For that, you’ll get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and Office Web Apps.

Yep, compare it to Office Home and Student and you’ll find that Outlook alone will cost you either $130 or $80 depending on whether you buy the disc or the key.

Office Professional

At $499 boxed or $349 for a key, Office Professional will give you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access and Office Web Apps — the same as the much-cheaper Office Professional Academic version.

This is the full suite for small businesses; apps like Access aren’t necessary for most home users.

Other SKUs

Microsoft hasn’t announced pricing for its non-retail editions, which include the two enterprise SKUs for big businesses. Office Professional Plus will add SharePoint Workspace to the mix.

Office Standard will also be an enterprise option, and it will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and Publisher. Finally, there will be Office Starter edition. It will cost nothing, but it will be supported by in-app ads. Limited versions of Word and Excel are all you’ll get out with that one.

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How to Complete your 1st Offer

CashCrate provides you with hundreds of offers to complete every day. The key is to pick and choose offers that are easy to complete and have high payouts. The more high paying offers you complete, the more money you will make. Simple as that. So how do you find the best offers?

1. Go to the members area, and under cash offers, select sort offers by highest payout.

2. Read the description for every offer first before you choose an offer to complete.

3. Once you find a suitable offer, click the link and begin completing the offer.

4. When finished, either click the submit box at the top of the page, or return to the offers page and click “submit”. Make sure to clear the cookies after every offer you complete. This is the #1 reason for causing offers to never confirm.

Complete Your 1st CashCrate Offer

Build Up Your CashCrate Earnings

You’ll want to pursue the high dollar offers, which make more money than the smaller $1 payouts. If you check everyday, there are tons of offers paying out over $10+. Use the e-mail & phone numbers you created to enter information so you will receive credit for the lead.

If you complete 1 $10 offer each day, you will end the month with over $3k in earnings. You have the potential to earn between $100 to $3k per month; the choice is yours.

Getting Paid

Cashcrate members must accumulate at least $10 in earnings before receiving a payout via check. Payments are processed on the 20th of every month, which is similar to Google Adsense’s payout schedule.

Tips on Getting CashCrate Referrals

CashCrate members can earn referral commissions when they refer their friends to the program. If you’re making decent money with CashCrate, why not tell your friends as well so they can earn some money online too?

There are a number of ways to tell your friends to join your referral network:

• Add your referral code to forum signatures
• Use business cards to promote your referral code
• Start a CashCrate blog
• E-mail your Friends and tell them about CashCrate
• Make a flyer that promotes Cash Crate and your referral URL
• Participate in the CashCrate forum and possibly sign up new visitors to CashCrate
• Promote your earnings in a forum or message board, and tell others how to make money with CashCrate

Debunking CashCrate Misconceptions

1. Is CashCrate a Scam? – No! Cash Crate has never missed a payment since I’ve been with the program.

2. Is CashCrate Hard Work? – As long as you utilize the tools listed above, you can complete multiple offers within minutes.

3. Is Your Personal Information Compromised? – You never have to give your real credit card number, social security number, phone number, e-mail address, etc. Always use online tools to create non-personal information for offer completion purposes. When asked for credit card numbers, use gift cards instead.

4. Will You Make Any Money with CashCrate? – Just like anything other program, you get what you put into it. If you stay disciplined, continue to complete offers and build your referral network, you are guaranteed to make money. Pay no attention to naysayers. They are just jealous of your success!

Sign Up with CashCrate

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Affiliate Marketing Intro

Most people don't realize how much money there is in blogging. The first time I saw people blogging; I thought they were completely nuts! But that's until I figured out they were make thousands of dollars per month.

I then figured out I was the was the nuts one... So now that I know exactly how to make money blogging, and have done it myself, I'm going to explain to you exactly how they are doing it and how you can get started too!

It's also extremely easy... Let's just say it takes about an hour a day and you're good to go making a lot of money online. But that's only if you know the secret that I'm about to reveal to you!

Most of the people out there blogging are missing out on thousands of dollars since they don't know the simple secrets! If you are one of them, or if any of them are reading this now, I guarantee you/they will smack their head on a wall multiple times for not realizing this earlier.

The BIG secret to blogging is, becoming an affiliate to products related to the blog you own, that's it! Now let me explain to you exactly what I mean by this... Lets say you have a blog about training dogs. Now you can place ads on the blog, which is what most of the people out there do.

Yeah, you can make a good amount of money if you have MILLIONS of people reading your blog, but chances are, you will never have that. Sorry to burst your bubble. But lets say you do have 30k people a month reading your blog.

If you become an affiliate of a dog-training product and write a short 300-word article on it to your viewers, I guarantee that you'll make a lot more than ads will make you. The reason for this is because you can earn up to 75% promoting peoples products.

So if the product sells for $100, you'd make $75 per sale! Out of 30k viewers, you'd probably get around a 2% conversion rate since they all want dog training information, meaning you have targeted readers.

That's around $45,000 dollars you're missing out on... Now just do this once a month and I think you'll be happy with that right? But hey! You don't have to take the ads off your blog, leave them on for some extra money.

But if you're not doing what I just told you to do already, go out and do that right now, if you don't, I don't know what to tell you. If you want more information on affiliate marketing, and how you can join my free 7-day Bootcamp, go here now!

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Promoting On The Streets

I think one of the least talked about ways of making money online has to be promoting on the street. The reason is because as soon as the Internet became popular it was literally kicked to the curb!

Originally, everyone was making money on the streets, either by handing out flyers, or placing lawn signs everywhere. If I were to tell you that you could still make money by doing this, you'd probably call me nuts! Well, if you really want to think that, go ahead because I think this needs to be talked about.

If you want to make a lot of money extremely quickly, do this, I promise it works! What I want you to do first is go to a website called ClickBank and sign up (it's free). What they do is manage a bunch of different products that you can promote for a commission.

All you need to do is send traffic (people) to that product page, and if they buy, you make your commission. The correct term for it is, becoming an affiliate. Now the good part... Once you've done that, the promoting on the streets comes into place.

After you pick a product that you want to promote on ClickBank, I want you to open up Microsoft Word, Notepad, whatever you use on the computer to write things. You will need to write 2 sentences about the product you are promoting, and make it catchy! Make the font extremely big and bold so that people can read it from far away.

Then place your custom link to the product you are promoting at the bottom of it. (It's called your "Hoplink" and ClickBank creates it for you, it's extremely easy.) Now after you have done that, I want you to print out about 100 of these.

Fold them in half and take them with you on a walk around your neighbor hood. When you're walking, place them on the windshields of parked cars... After you've run out, go home and log into you ClickBank account later that night. I guarantee you'll be surprised! This is exactly how I started affiliate marketing.

I know you're probably thinking that this would never work and that it's a waste of time. Well let me tell you something. When I used to do this, for every 100 I would hand out, I'd get around 10 people buying. So lets say that I received $50 a sale.

I would make $500 dollars every time I'd go out and do this! Sounds a little more appealing now, right? So go out and do this, I promise you if you just try it, you'll start seeing great results immediately.

If you want more tips like this about affiliate marketing, I highly suggest you join my free 7-day Bootcamp where I explain exactly how to make money with affiliate marketing, from scratch! And it's free, what's better than that?

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Affiliate Marketing Intro

Many people don't know that it's possible to make a living online, or at least a good extra income. Most think you have to have to go to college and have a great job to make a lot of money these days.



Well if you think that way, I'm about to really surprise you, and show you exactly how you can make a lot of money online starting now! Don't worry it's not a scam, pyramid scheme, or any of that fluff. I know, when I first heard about making money online that was the first thing that came to my head too.

But when I started collecting checks every month, my whole theory changed! So enough of all that, I'm actually going to show you how to start making money online now! What I want you to do first is go to a website called ClickBank and sign up (it's free).

What they do is manage a bunch of different products that you can promote for a commission. All you need to do is send traffic (people) to that product page, and if they buy, you make your commission. The correct term for it is, becoming an affiliate.

Here's a quick example to clear your up your confusion. Lets say one of the products is selling for $100 and you get a 50% commission. Every time you make a sale, you'll obviously make $50. So if you get 10 people to buy it, you'll get a check for $500! See what I mean, it's possible to do and extremely easy!

Once you've signed up in ClickBank, the next important thing to know is obviously picking a good product to promote. Now this is where a bunch of affiliates fail to be successful online.

But right now I'm going to tell you a quick tip that helped me become extremely successful, very quickly. Under each product in the "Marketplace" of ClickBank, there's something called "grav", what it means is Gravity. What that tells you is if the product is selling well. You always want to pick a product that is over 50 gravity.

If the product isn't over that, don't go for it! Once you know that, you'll be able to successfully sell products on ClickBank.

The reason you want the Gravity to be high is because that tells you that other affiliates are successfully selling it. Let me tell you a quick secret that most people don't know about Gravity.

The number of Gravity actually means how many affiliates that product has! For example, if the gravity is 75, that means 75 different affiliates are selling the product at that time...

Easy enough right? So now that you have that down, go make some money online! It's seriously not as hard as most people think, especially when you have the right people teaching you. That's how I became successful online, just happened to be around the right teachers at the right time!

If you want to find out more about how you can become successful online through affiliate marketing, and also find out WHERE to promote, check out my free 7-day Bootcamp! I actually explain to you in detail how I did it, and how you can "actually" use the exact steps I did. It's worth it, and it's free, how could you say no!

Check it out here: http://bit.ly/9buxDv

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What Would Happen if You Bought 25 Bottles of Nyquil?

Ever since I was a little girl, I have periodically played a game I like to call ‘What would happen if…’

The very first time I played this game I was 5 years old and riding in the car with my Mother. She had allowed me to sit in the front seat, but the novelty of that wore off rather quickly and I got bored. Almost immediately after we merged onto the expressway, I spied the car door handle. I thought to myself, I wonder what would happen if I opened the car door right now?

Would the door fly open? Or would it stay closed since the car was in motion? If it flew open, would the wind rip the door completely off of the car? My seatbelt was secure, so I was pretty sure I wouldn’t fly out of the car, but would anything else fly out? What would my Mother do?

I looked over at my Mother who was paying careful attention to the road and vaguely singing along with the radio. Then I looked over at the gleaming car handle. I knew that opening the door while we were driving was a very stupid and potentially dangerous thing to do, but it was almost as if the handle was calling my name. It wanted me to open it. I tried to resist, but my curiosity overwhelmed me. Slowly, I reached over…and opened the door.

Turns out the only thing that happens when you open the car door on the expressway is your Mother screams, “OH MY GOD! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?” pulls over, closes your door, and then goes homes and bitches to your Father about her vehicle being unsafe and demands he buy her a new one.

It wasn’t the most exciting outcome in the world, but at least I knew.

This past Friday evening, I found myself inadvertently playing another game of ‘What would happen if…’

My husband has been dealing with a particularly nasty summer cold and it’s making it difficult for him to fall asleep. Shortly after midnight one evening, he asked me to run to the store and pick him up some medicine. I agreed because I’m nice like that.

After selecting a bottle of Nyquil and my Husband’s favorite brand of ice cream, it was time to check-out. I elected to go through the self check-out lane because the group of kids who normally jockeyed the registers looked thoroughly engrossed in a conversation about their parents sucking or their jobs sucking or who de-friended them on myspace recently or whatever and I didn’t want to interrupt them. Besides, I have two fully functioning arms. I am capable of scanning and bagging my own ice cream.

However, after I scanned my items, the computer started beeping.

“You have selected an age restricted item. Please wait for a cashier,” it said.

“What the Hell?” I mused, “Ice cream and Nyquil is age restricted now?”

A teenager with a lip piercing and bad dye job came rushing over. “Can I see your ID?” she chirped.

“What did I order that needs ID?” I asked.

She looked over my purchases and shrugged. “I guess it’s the Nyquil.”

I sighed deeply and handed her my driver’s license. She glanced at it quickly, typed my birthday into the computer, handed it back, and scurried away. Even though I didn’t show it, I was all kinds of annoyed.

I mean, what kind of nanny state am I living in right now? I can’t even buy cold medicine anymore without the government all up in my shit? Why is my right to privacy being invaded in favor of incompetent police officers who lack the ability to catch drug dealers without spying on the average law abiding citizen?

Then, out of nowhere, I thought, I wonder what would happen if I tried to buy all the Nyquil on the shelf?

Would they laugh? Would they get angry? Would they sell it to me? Would they call the cops? Would they interrogate me until I told them what it was for?

No matter how many years pass, I remain easily seduced by my curiosity. The harder I try to shake the wondering thoughts from my head, the more they burrow into my brain and demand recognition. By the time I got home from the grocery store, I simply had to know what would happen if I tried to buy an entire shelf full of Nyquil.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early with the intent of carrying out my plan. Now I’m not really sure how the typical Meth Head dresses, so I took a guess. I clad myself in an old T-shirt and a ripped pair of pants that were covered in paint. I pulled my hair back in a ratty ponytail and slipped on a pair of dirty sandals. My goal was to look as shady as possible without overdoing it.

Upon entering the store, I grabbed one of those hand-held shopping baskets and walked with single minded purpose over to the drug isle. I then proceeded to fill my basket with every bottle of Nyquil sitting on the shelf. There weren’t that many and I really wanted to be obvious, so I decided to buy all the generic versions as well. Then I marched my ass right over to the cashier and emptied my basket onto the conveyor belt. At first she wasn’t really paying attention as she grabbed bottle after bottle and flipped them through the scanner. Then a little light must have gone off in her head because she suddenly paused.

“Are these on sale or something?” she asked.

“Nope.” I replied noncommittally.

“I’m going to need to see your ID,” she responded.

“Sure.” I said as I handed it over.

“I’ll be right back,” she told me as she scampered over to the customer service desk to show my ID to who I assumed was the manager.

The guy in line behind me asked, “Someone sick?”

“I’m having a yard sale,” I replied. Yeah, my answer didn’t make much sense. But it was none of his business, so fuck him.

After about 10 minutes, the cashier came back and gave me my ID. Then she finished ringing me up and handed over two bags of Nyquil. “Um, have a nice day,” she said.

I thanked her politely and headed out to my car thinking to myself that the whole scenario ended up being fairly anticlimactic. This time, bending to the will of my curiosity earned me nothing more than 10 minutes of inconvenience and 25 bottles of unneeded Nyquil. Fucking fantastic.

I went home, unloaded my spoils onto my kitchen table and decided to take a nap on my couch. Right before I fell asleep, I thought to myself, I really need to stop playing that game.

A couple of hours later, my brother and his girlfriend woke me up.

“What the hell is with all the Nyquil?” he asked.

I told him about my game and how nothing really exciting happened. Then, he said, “Probably because you bought the wrong shit.”

I said, “Huh?”

With a smirk on his face, my brother explained, “The ingredient in Nyquil that is used to make crystal meth is called pseudoephedrine. But these don’t have it in them. Look! It even says right here on the front, ‘Now Made without pseudoephedrine.’

“Then why did they card me for them?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? All I know is that you can’t make meth out of these.”

“Son of a bitch!” I exclaimed.

“You are the worst fake drug dealer ever,” my brother admonished.

His girlfriend cut in, “You know what you should get? Sudafed. They sell it behind the counter at the pharmacy and they probably won’t give you more than one or two. But it might be funny if you asked to exchange your Nyquil for 25 boxes of Sudafed.”

For me, failure tends to make me more determined, so I decided that was exactly what I was going to do. But, this time, I wanted to start my adventure with a bit more planning. I decided to call the grocery store and ask if it was even possible to return Nyquil since it was technically a medicine. The manager I spoke to assured me that as long as I had the receipt and the seal wasn’t broken, they would take it back.

So the next day, I packed up my bags of Nyquil and headed back to the grocery store. I plopped the bags on the counter of the customer service desk and amicably said, “I’d like to return these, please.”

The cashier looked shocked. “All of these?”

“Yes please,” I answered mildly, “Here is the receipt.”

“How many bottles are in here?”

“25.”

“25? You bought 25 bottles of Nyquil? Why would you do that?” she asked.

“I wasn’t feeling well.” I answered.

“So why are you returning them now?” She countered.

I slightly hardened my voice. “I’m feeling better.”

“Normal people don’t buy 25 bottles of Nyquil!” she exclaimed.

“So?” I snapped.

She started stammering. “Well….its just that I don’t….I don’t know…if we can take this many back. We’d have to throw them away and….I….uh….”

“I called and spoke to a manager yesterday,” I informed her, “And he told me that as long as the seal wasn’t broken and I had the receipt, you would take them back.”

“Well I’m sure he didn’t know how many you bought!”

“Does it matter?” I questioned, “Is there some sort of store policy that states you can only return so many things at a time?”

“I’m going to get my manger,” she replied.

“Fine.”

The manger came over, obviously perturbed, and we argued back and forth for a few minutes. Finally she said, “I’ll take them back this time. But next time, I won’t.”

“That’s fine by me,” I agreed.

I filled out a form with my name, address, and phone number, got my cash back and walked directly over to the pharmacy.

An older lady walked over to wait on me. “Can I please buy some Sudafed?” I requested.

“Sure!” she said as she held out her hand, “I’m going to need some proof that you’re over 18, though.”

“That’s fine,” I told her, “But I’m going to need more than one.”

“How many do you need?”

“25.”

“25 tablets?”

“No, 25 boxes.”

I’m not sure if my answer extremely shocked her or extremely angered her, but her response was to shriek, “NO!”

Calmly, I asked, “Why not?”

“NO!” she bellowed again.

“But why not?” I repeated.

“BECAUSE OF THE METH!” she hollered.

I smiled a little and said, “I promise I won’t use it to make meth.”

Again: “NO!”

A concerned Pharmacist walked around the counter. “What seems to be the problem here?” he questioned.

“I’m just trying to by some Sudafed.” I answered.

The cashier squawked again, “NO! YOU CAN’T HAVE ANY!”

And I was supposed to be the crazy one!

The Pharmacist gave her a confused look and she said to him, “She wants 25 boxes!”

“Whoa, wait a minute, ma’am!” he said to me.

Just then, out of the corner of my eye, I realized that the manager who did my return and a couple of stock boys were walking up behind me. They were closing in on me!

I thought to myself what better time to walk away, all shifty, like I was a real drug dealer than now. So I abruptly did an about-face and briskly started striding towards the door.

The Pharmacist tried to stop me. “Ma’am!” he called after me, “Ma’am! I’m going to need you to come back here! Ma’am!”

Seriously, I couldn’t believe he actually thought I would fall for that. I mean, what am I? 12 years old? Did he actually think I would be naïve enough to believe that a goddamn Pharmacist had the legal right to forcibly detain me in a grocery store?

But the ridiculousness of the situation was only a fleeting thought in my mind. At that precise moment, I had more pressing matters to concern myself with. Namely, how I was going to shake the manager and the stock boy goons who were in the process of following me out of the store.

I increased my walking speed a little and made it outside. I paused for a second, thinking the chase was over, but I was wrong. The manager had tailed me into the parking lot. Frantically, she started waving the cart boys over to her and pointing in my direction. Before I knew it, I had a small army of grocery store employees following me around the parking lot. It was fucking surreal. I felt like I was starring in the deleted scenes of one of those Terminator movies.

My theory was that they were waiting until I got into my car so they could write down my license plate number. To me, this was odd, considering the fact that they had my name, address, and phone number written on a slip of paper behind the customer service desk.

Anyway, I finally thwarted them for good by electing to simply walk home. Because I live a couple of miles from the grocery store, I decided to call my brother.

“Hey, if the cops show up at my door, do not let them in without a warrant,” I told him, “That’s a violation of my 4th amendment rights!”

“No problem.” He said. He’s learned to quit asking questions.

The end result of my little escapade, however, produced no angry police officers ruthlessly pounding on my door. In fact, outside of a couple of grocery store employees who briefly pretended to be Rambo, nothing really exciting happened at all.

All in all, I ended up fairly disappointed with my most recent game of ‘What would happen if….’ You see, that’s the problem with letting yourself become randomly consumed by curiosity. Things rarely live up to your expectations.

Prayer

Convicted forger A. Schiller was serving his time in Sing Sing prison in the late 1800s when guards found him dead in his cell.

On his body they found seven regular straight pins whose heads measured the typical 47/1000ths of an inch or 1.17 millimeters in diameter.

Under 500 magnification it was found that the tiny etchings seen on the heads of the pins were the words to The Lord's Prayer, which is 65 words and 254 letters long.

Of the seven pins, six were silver and one was gold - the gold pin's prayer was flawless and a true masterpiece.

Schiller had spent the last 25 years of his life creating the pins, using a tool too small to be seen by the naked eye. It is estimated that it took 1,863 sepatate carving strokes to make it. Schiller went blind because of his artwork.