Life Skills

[jenk]

lisakit posted a question about "The Secret". My reply noted the sort of folks I thought it was targeting (hint: have disposable income*) ~ but that for someone whose life is really not working, more practical advice would likely be more useful.

Some books I came up with for examples were:

1. Leaving Home Survival Guide. Finding an apartment, fixing it up, cleaning it, negotiating with landlords, roommates, bosses, coworkers, and the government, and a few kitchen basics.
   
2. Everything Women Always Wanted to Know About Cars (But Didn't Know Who To Ask). What's really up under the hood, how to check the fluids & change the oil - and why those are useful things.
   
3. Real Life 101: A Guide To Stuff That Actually Matters. I was looking for another "basic life skills", and this one includes finding a job, an apartment, health care, transportation, and so on.
   
4. Job Hunting for Dummies. If you what you've done in the past isn't working for you, it doesn't hurt to try....
   
5. Cooking Basics for Dummies. The goal is to learn enough that you can eat in without giving yourself scurvy or ptomaine poisoning.
   
6. Personal Finance for Dummies. Figuring out what you have, what to do with it, and how to take care of it. (This book was my main guide for getting out of debt, actually.)
   
7. Unofficial Guide to Beating Debt. This gets more in detail on dealing with debt - including negotiating with creditors and when (and when not) to go through bankruptcy.
   
8. Spend Well, Live Rich: How to Get What You Want with the Money You Have. It's all about using your head. On clothes: "If it's on your ass, it's not an asset!" On dating: "It's okay to say: 'Honey, I love you and everything, but if you need money, ask your mama.'" In general: "Is this a need or is it a want?" and "Enough is enough."
   
9. The Complete Tightwad Gazette. The tagline of the newsletter was "Promoting thrift as a viable alternative lifestyle", but it's really about cutting down where you want to so that you can splurge on the things you really want - in the author's case, a big, old-fashioned house with attached barn and six kids.

Moving a bit up Maslow's heirarchy, there's:

10. The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex. From anatomy, communication, & masturbation to outercourse & intercourse to fantasies & bdsm, this book covers the stuff that should be taught everywhere.
    
11. Women and the Blues as a general help-me-get-unstuck book.
    
12. For pregnancy and motherhood, I'd suggest the Girlfriends' Guide series.

I've read most of these; the others (3, 4, 5, & 7) look good from Amazon's info. Any thoughts on other books along this line? What would you give to someone moving out on her own, or want to throw at your unemployable cousin, or have helped you to get yourself together?

*Enough to buy a book. Doesn't need to be more.