Charles Eisenstein’s Sacred Economics changed my life. I know that’s high praise and I certainly wouldn’t have expected anything with economics in the title to do that for me, but it did. So what the hell is this book about that I’m raving over?

It’s about how our current money system is deeply troubled and how it has to change. How our perspective that any economic growth is always a good thing is actually degrading our quality of life. But most of all how a shift has already started, what we can do to prepare for it and why we should be stoked as ever that it’s happening.

Negative interest economics, artificial scarcity, gift culture. To be honest, it’s incredibly difficult for me to mention all the ideas covered in this book and I think it would be fruitless for me to try to explain it all here. What I will say is that there’s a great connection between all of this and moving people away from tedious work to allow them to do truly important work, the work that they love. It heals the planet and builds community. That’s something we’ve always been about encouraging.

Roughly halfway through the book I found myself applying what I learned from Eisenstein to my daily life. Though he doesn’t specifically ask the reader to do any of this, I found myself as insistent as ever to buy local, finally got involved with Kiva loans and continually asked myself how I could be more giving. These were ways I could participate in something I was really starting to believe in. I’m convinced the ideas in this book are important for more people to grasp if we’re serious about evolving and transitioning into a new and better era.The short film below is what originally motivated me to read the book, so that’s an excellent start to gauge whether you’d be interested in what Charles has to offer.

I found his writing engaging and was impressed that he took every opportunity to consider other viewpoints and his critics. If you do in fact want to take the next step, I will personally gift a hard copy to two readers that are excited to check this out. Just leave a Facebook comment below saying why you are psyched to learn more. You can also read the book online or pick up as a physical copy or eBook. Charles even has several TEDx talks and other titles that you may be interested in.

Read this book if you want to live an extraordinary life. It’s gotten me fired up and wishing I had read it sooner. That’s not all I have to say but seriously, trust me. You’ll be fired up if you read it too.

Chris Guillebeau’s The Art of Non-Conformity is the kind of read that gives you a kick in the ass if there’s something you really want to do, but have somehow convinced yourself that it’s not possible. Chris, like many of u,s went through a crisis where he really had to ask himself what he wanted from life. But the difference between him and many people is that he took action on it and experimented until he found a way to get what he wanted. He didn’t make excuses for why he couldn’t live the way he wanted.

For Guillebeau, the thing that gets him off is travel. He’s always had wanderlust and he made it a priority because he knew it was essential to his happiness. Chris shares a lot of his successful experiments in this book like actually taking the time to map out a perfect day for yourself and how to deal with critics that dissuade you from doing what you really want to. While there’s a lot of travel specific advice, he gets that travel is not everyone’s passion but shows you how to apply the same mindset to get whatever makes you happy.

One of the raddest sections for me is when Chris illustrates how people often are a terrible judge of how much time it takes to get something done. There are a lot of things we put off for this because we think it’ll take forever, but many of them don’t actually take very long when we focus. Similarly, there are things that we believe are accomplished overnight (mastering a skill for example) but are really the result of long hours put in.

Another great part is when he talks about how most people don’t really want to roll around in luxury doing nothing. Most of us genuinely want to help others. Doesn’t that restore some faith in humanity? But you have to ask yourself if how you currently spend your days really respects your talents, interests and makes a difference in the world. Life being short is a terribly trite expression, but I don’t think anyone can deny it.

There’s a ton of great wisdom like that in this book so I hope you’ll make an effort to read it and apply what you learn to make your dreams happen. Taking the time to read this and applying nothing would an incredible insult to the author and your dreams.

The Art of Non-Conformity is available on Amazon or even better, your local indie bookstore. If you happen to already have read it, Iet us know if you think it’s helped you.

You’ve probably thought about what powers you would have as a superhero. Extraordinary strength, speed, psychic powers? Hell, I’ll take what I can get – even Ma-Ti’s heart power in Captain Planet. It wasn’t until leafing through Fallen Superheroes though that I wish I had suited up as my own unique superhero and been shot in all my imperfection.

Fallen Superheroes is a photography book showing us the awkward, vulnerable and less glamorous side to failed superheroes. Artie from The Adventures of Pete & Pete would fit in perfectly. They are heroes with special healing powers emanating from over-sized feet. Heroes too self-conscious to fight crime when gum is stuck to their boots.

Each sesh of this project yielded several keeper photos and is accompanied by captions in which the authors play photo association (the caption is the first thing that came to mind when looking at the photo) or tell a unique backstory that was dreamt up during the shoot.The photography is impressive. One might assume that a studio or heavy editing was involved, but all photographs are really just the work of lighting master Eric Curtis using strobe lights and our favorite star with minimal color correction and touch-ups.

This is the type of coffee table book that will catch your friends’ eyes and cause conversation to spiral off into spontaneity. But aside from showing off to pals, I found it fascinating to revisit how this project was created (in the introduction) after going through the entire series. It creates a whole new appreciation for the project and had me wishing Hollywood would put the common superheroes to rest and concentrate on a film about these guys and gals.

Designers & Books is a huge collection of book recommendations. It isn’t a typical “100 books so-and-so should read” type of list and contrary to what the name suggests, it isn’t all about design either. What’s really neat about the site is that designers don’t just list design books. They also list children’s books, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Designer Jonathan Adler lists Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life. I’d totally read it.

The Burning House by Foster Huntington is a semi-new book that poses one simple question: If your house was burning, what would you take with you? A little over a year ago, I wrote about the blog that inspired this book and I’m really happy that it got a publishing deal because the concept is at least ten steps above being just another Tumblr with user-submitted content. It’s amazing how people’s responses can sum up vivid portraits of who they are. If you listed the things you’d take with you, what would your list say about you?

Plastic protected containers cut into the side of an old tree trunk placed onto the street – all with the aim of sharing books. Sounds wild, right? This is a clever new way to promote reading brought to you by BookCrossing, a book swapping club dedicated to building up the “World’s Library”. Residents in Berlin – where this is being tested – are welcome to leave books or take one, the point is just to swap books in the public space. If this were a real tree that grows books, now that would be my dream come true. Hat tip to inhabitat for the find and lovely photos.

Taking pictures of strangers is not easy. Many of them will refuse and being told no isn’t something everyone can handle. But I think that’s why I admire photographer Zoe Strauss. It doesn’t bother her at all. Their answer doesn’t make the encounter any better or worse. She engages strangers and as a result creates memorable images. She has the patience to create a complete body of work when photo a days are trendy and I just love that she refers to what she does as ‘making’ not taking photographs.

For years, she exhibited her work as Under I-95, literally hanging her work under a highway bridge in Philadelphia. And although the annual shows have ceased, Zoe’s photos of portraiture, architecture and signage live on in America. It’s a dope coffee table book complete with her interview, photos (duh) and the special relationships she’s had with those willing to let her into their world.

© 2009 Zoe Strauss/Courtesy of www.ammobooks.com