Tag Archives: books
4 Books to Read in Your 20’s That Will Change Your Life
The years you spend in your 20’s are the years meant for making mistakes, learning about love and heartbreak, and growing as an individual. It is the perfect time to navigate through challenges, explore new cities and relationships, and start focusing on career goals. It is also the ideal time to read some amazing books.
You might think that your college courses, new job opportunities, or active social life are too time consuming to ever allow you to read for fun. But no matter what, you should always find at least 20 minutes a day to read something of value. Once you get into this healthy habit, be sure to pick up these 4 books to read during your 20’s – they just might change your life!
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Woolf has come out with quite a few must-reads, but there is nothing like reading A Room of One’s Own if you are 20-something female. Woolf’s writing is typically aimed at empowering young women and thoroughly examining sexism in the modern world.
This book is no exception; it provides eye-opening commentary on influential female figures throughout history. All of you women in your 20’s should head to your nearest bookstore or visit the Kindle store and start reading A Room of One’s Own.
Presence by Amy Cuddy
Not everyone who falls between the ages of 20 to 29 will find Presence a fun read, but you’ll at least find it extremely helpful for the job-hunting process. According to Mike Simpson, an expert on interviewing, making a good first impression during any job interview is key. Cuddy absolutely agrees and she goes over how to do this in detail within the pages of Presence.
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed
Perhaps you are familiar with Cheryl Strayed’s work, or at least you have some idea of it if you watched the feature film Wild. Strayed is a frontrunner when it comes to providing people in their 20s with long lasting life lessons. She has experienced some serious s*** in her life – as you know if you read or watched Wild – so she has some great insight for young people everywhere.
Tiny Beautiful Things is a collection of pieces from Cheryl’s time as an advice columnist working for The Rumpus. Even if you are familiar with these pieces, invest in the book since there are some never-before-published pieces within its pages. Don’t be surprised if some of the stories make you want to cry, laugh, or just flat out conquer the world.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Mindy Kaling is considered to be one of the funniest women of our time, and you’ll be able to see that as you flip through her autobiography Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). She covers a huge range of topics and touches on her experiences as a child of Indian immigrants, her time working on the set of The Office, and her take on life and love.
Textbooks, Computers, and a Tea Pot: Essential Gear of the Successful College Student
You’re going to college soon – you need to start making a checklist. Aside from the usual costs like tuition and food, you’re going to need a few other supplies. Before you say goodbye to mom and dad for the semester, here’s what to stock up on.
A Good Laptop
A good laptop is absolutely essential for today’s college student. In fact, it’s probably the most important thing you can take with you. Don’t leave home without something at least as good as a mid-tier product either. No Acers. Can’t use ‘em. OK, you could use them, but don’t. Get yourself a Macbook Air, at least. Or, get yourself the top-tier Dell model. Lenovo are also a good choice as long as you’re going for the top-tier – again. Yes, they’re a bit pricey, but you’ll thank yourself three years from now when your laptop isn’t falling apart and the software still runs smoothly.
P2P File Sharing Software
It seems like every college kid these days is doing some kind of P2P file sharing. And, while you should not be breaking the law by downloading and sharing copyright-protected content without the authorization of the copyright holders, there is a legit use for file sharing software that’s wickedly underutilized: sharing original creations you make in college and sharing your study papers with classmates.
Simple P2P software, like the bittorrent client from www.Vuze.com, is really all you need to connect directly with other classmates to share pretty much anything you’ve done in class – from study notes to past homework assignments as study aides.
Free Word Processing Tools
Who wants to pay for Microsoft Word when OpenOffice suite is free? Better yet, LibreOffice. It’s got all of the tools you could ever want from the paid programs at a price you can’t argue with – even with the student discount offered from the competitor.
Used Books
No one likes paying retail for books. So, before you go off to college, verify your class schedule and then pick up some used textbooks from someplace like AbeBooks, Amazon.com’s used textbook section, or Half.com.
A Teapot
A teapot. Yes, a teapot. You need to eat, right? Between 4 hour study sessions, a teapot can heat up the boiling water you need for Ramen – every college student’s staple food.
Food Rations
You can’t live on college food and Ramen Noodle alone. They may be high in calories, but they’re really low in nutrition. It’s weird, but while students are getting your learn on, they’re also wrecking their health.
Your number one priority in college is to get a good education. To do that, you need to be healthy. You must get in all of your required fruits and vegetables, lots of good quality meat, and of course, fiber. Food rations can help you do that – nuts and seeds, dried beef jerky (not the kind with preservatives and artificial flavors. It’s actually really easy to make at home with a cheap food dehydrator and some beef and salt), and dried fruit like apricots, plums, and raisins.
Audrey Brown is a college dorm guru. As a resident director for many years, she loves blogging about the ins and outs of creating a great college dorm experience from decor and organization tricks to gadgets and study habits.
5 Ways Students Can Save Money
With in-state tuition for public universities approaching $10,000 these days, and other costs like housing and books escalating in lockstep, it has never been more important for students to save money while at school.
While it is easy to just use credit to charge all these expenses, the bill will come due someday soon, so you owe it to your future self to not cripple yourself with an unmanageable debt load. As such, here are five ways students can save money so that they can give themselves a brighter financial future, as well as more disposable income for the important things in life.
Like beer.
And video games.
1) Take on roommates
While you might crave privacy after 18 years of living at home with your parents, the unfortunate reality is that college is more expensive than it ever has been. The good news is that you get to choose who you are sharing a living space with, making for a living atmosphere that will be much more lively than if you were to go it alone. This will divide your house or apartment rent to a level that will allow you to enjoy a diet that consists of more than ramen and water.
2) Cook meals with friends
When you share a house with friends, another opportunity to save your precious cash presents itself. Instead of cooking meals individually, you can take turns making meals for each other. This will require coordination when it comes to shopping at your local supermarket, but once you settle into a groove, you will be spending less per person, eating better than you would individually, and the kitchen will be less crowded. So much win!
3) Order as much as you can online
The internet age has made our lives so much easier, with no better example than online shopping. Why burn gas and time running all over town to buy the things you need for school and life when you could just click a few buttons and wait for it all to come to you?
If you want to save money on school supplies, this is the perfect way to do things in 2015, as many coupon sites allow you to spend even less than the already reasonable prices listed, and with many deals waiving shipping charges, you can spend the time you just saved playing Call Of Dut- … er, I mean, studying for that stats term paper coming up. Yeah, that’s right.
4) Have house parties instead of going out to the bars
With prices for booze escalating with every passing year, going out to the bars is a fun pastime that composes an ever-larger chunk of student budgets. While heading out to a venue out on the town is always a great time, the whole point of drinking is to have a killer time with your buds.
Why can’t you do that at home at least some of the time? Buy a 30 pack of PBR or Natty Ice, organize a playlist of awesome tunes from your totally legal song collection, and enjoy the fact that you can socialize without having to pay a $10 cover charge for the privilege.
5) Buy used textbooks
These days, it’s estimated that students in some faculties will have to shell out more than $1,000 for books per semester. This is truly insane, and while books have new editions every six months or so, they often change so little that students can buy them off each other for much less than what it cost new.
