Books about All consuming from Amazon.com

Is your daily grind taking the joy out of life? Don't get glum—get a hobby!

In this entertaining, information-packed guide, journalist and ReadyMade contributing editor Tina Barseghian invites you to explore 101 thoroughly absorbing diversions, from conventional to downright wacky, that'll satisfy every taste, talent, and timetable. The bonus: Practicing a hobby boosts your all-around mental and physical health, as longtime family practitioner Dr. Miguel Figueroa reveals in the Foreword.

Are you an independent, nature-loving, outdoorsy type? Consider beachcombing, caving, or mushroom hunting. Crafty, meticulous, and patient? You might enjoy needlework, knotting, or growing bonsai. Just take the personality quiz to identify those hobbies that best match your aptitude, interests, and even your mood, then it's on to the hobbies. Each hobby entry provides a playful mix of information: overviews, histories, and sample projects to help you get your hobby on, plus profiles of dedicated hobbyists and resources that'll help take you to the next level. Get a Hobby! might just be the inspiration you've been looking for.

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The unqualified victory of consumerism in America was not a foregone conclusion. The United States has traditionally been the home of the most aggressive and often thoughtful criticism of consumption, including Puritanism, Prohibition, the simplicity movement, the '60s hippies, and the consumer rights movement. But at the dawn of the twenty-first century, not only has American consumerism triumphed, there isn't even an "ism" left to challenge it. An All-Consuming Century is a rich history of how market goods came to dominate American life over that remarkable hundred years between 1900 and 2000 and why for the first time in history there are no practical limits to consumerism.

By 1930 a distinct consumer society had emerged in the United States in which the taste, speed, control, and comfort of goods offered new meanings of freedom, thus laying the groundwork for a full-scale ideology of consumer's democracy after World War II. From the introduction of Henry Ford's Model T ("so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one") and the innovations in selling that arrived with the department store (window displays, self service, the installment plan) to the development of new arenas for spending (amusement parks, penny arcades, baseball parks, and dance halls), Americans embraced the new culture of commercialism -- with reservations. However, Gary Cross shows that even the Depression, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the inflation of the 1970s made Americans more materialistic, opening new channels of desire and offering opportunities for more innovative and aggressive marketing. The conservative upsurge of the 1980s and '90s indulged in its own brand of self-aggrandizement by promoting unrestricted markets. The consumerism of today, thriving and largely unchecked, no longer brings families and communities together; instead, it increasingly divides and isolates Americans.

Consumer culture has provided affluent societies with peaceful alternatives to tribalism and class war, Cross writes, and it has fueled extraordinary economic growth. The challenge for the future is to find ways to revive the still valid portion of the culture of constraint and control the overpowering success of the all-consuming twentieth century.

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America's greatness comes from people working hard to fulfill their dreams. But today that greatness is being undermined by people using the government to steal other people's dreams (and money). Rather than participate and innovate in the marketplace, generating goods and services that benefit society, people are increasingly vying for political advantage to live at the expense of others. Something for Nothing reveals the social and personal threats inherent in this emerging "grabbing match" culture, juxtaposing free-market virtues against government vices, explaining how the something-for-nothing mentality corrupts the political system, undermines corporate success, and stifles the individual's ability to prosper and contribute long-term to society. More than exposing the dangers, however, Tracy helps readers set a personal and culture-wide agenda for change.

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A rich narrative that blends social commentary with incisive reporting, House Lust offers an astute, funny, and sometimes disturbing portrait of the behaviors that drove the greatest real estate boom in history—and its eventual bust.

Owning a home has long been considered the fulfillment of the American Dream. But in the last decade, as the real estate market boomed, Americans’ fascination with homes turned into a frenzy. Everywhere we turned, people were talking about, scheming over, envying, shopping for, refinancing, or just plain ogling houses—in the process, we’ve transformed shelter from a basic necessity into an all-consuming passion.

InHouse Lust,Newsweek’s Daniel McGinn travels the country to explore the roots of this mania. Even as the real estate boom has turned to bust, Americans remain obsessed with houses—many of us are still trading up, adding on, or doubling down to buy vacation property. But for others, this zeal for housing has carried a painful price, one that’s evident in the soaring foreclosure rates and mounting despair as millions of homeowners (and their lenders) realize they’ve stretched too far to buy the home of their dreams.

In a compelling narrative that takes us inside the homes—and psyches—of the House Lust–afflicted throughout the nation, McGinn examines the forces that turned housing into the talk of dinner parties. He explores the arms race for square footage and introduces readers to a menagerie of characters from the real estate world—from “renovation psychologists” who treat remodeling-addled clients to a guy who trades vacation time-shares the way kids trade baseball cards. McGinn also jumps into the fray himself by enrolling in real estate school and buying an investment property, sight unseen, over the Internet.

House Lust shows us just how contagious the ideal of owning the best home on the block can be. And as the real estate boom recedes into memory, McGinn offers cautionary tales to help us curb our lust when prices start rising again.


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Sports facilities, laundry services, cappuccino bars. A ready-made set of companions A purpose in life. Sometimes work is such a great place to be, you don't even want to leave--not in the evening, not on weekends, and especially not on vacations!

All of this is fantastic for your company, but seriously bad for you, says organizational expert Dave Arnott. These perks aren't merely altruistic gestures on the part of your company. Instead, they're consciously designed to induce you to devote more and more of your time, talent, and emotional allegiance to the corporation--at the expense of your private life, your family, and your community.

And rest assured, says Arnott, corporate cultism is not an isolated phenomenon or a far-fetched concept. Consider the top three factors that Fortune magazine calls the hallmarks of a great place to work: sense of purpose, inspiring leadership, and knockout facilities. Now read the uncannily similar characteristics that define a cult: devotion, charismatic leadership, and separation from community

Both startling expos and insightful self-help manual, CORPORATE CULTS gives you a clear picture of this deeply rooted, pernicious problem. It exposes the cycle of manipulation and dependency that is making unhealthy, "cultish" behavior a commonplace way of life for millions of people.

* You'll study the symptoms of "encultedness," including crushingly long hours, few (or no) friends outside the workplace, emotional attitudes about a job--and a dangerous blurring of "who I am" with "what I do." * You'll learn about companies like Southwest Airlines, 3M, and Microsoft that forge the narrowly focused traits of their carefully selected employees into fiercely loyal and cultish organizations. * You'll read the real-life stories of people whose jobs have become their lives--such as the USAA Insurance employee so enamored of his "compound's" fine facilities that he wholeheartedly proclaimed: "You become a part of this place, and it becomes everything you're about." * You'll take an eye-opening 20-question corporate cult test that accurately measures your own level of cultedness. * And--best yet--you'll discover practical strategies for escaping the lure of the corporate cult...and restoring a healthier balance to your life..
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