Recent book purchases

For a whopping total of $4.50 taxes in (and in like-new condition, although they're used):

Marcia Nozick's No Place Like Home: Building Sustainable Communities

From the back: "A book which challenges the conventional wisdom on social and economic development. No Place Like Home provides an alternative vision of how we can develop sustainable communities. Both critical and constructive, and written in language which everyone can understand, this book draws together five major themes, each a component of sustainable communities: economic self-reliance,; ecological development; getting community control over resources; meeting individual human needs; and, building a community culture. How these five themes interact and reinforce each other in practice is illustrated with examples drawn from communities across North America. The result is a book which cannot fail to inspire community workers everywhere and give researchers and urban planners much to think about."

Roy Genders' Money From Mushrooms: Supplement Your Income (which was published in 1969 and seems to be off Google's radar completely)

Charles Long's How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning to Live the Conserver Lifestyle

In a nutshell, this book seems to be all about how to avoid the trap of consumerism and learn to budget and make due with less -- while thriving -- so that you can leave the 5-day-a-week rat race and focus on enjoying living a more meaningful life.