"The quotes in this book are awesome!"

In Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, he described as one of the essential attributes of a good government "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none." While I have never expressed it so elegantly, I like to think this statement could describe my relationship on this blog with the books I write about. It suits me to try and remain independent even if no one is making me.

That said, today's feature is the rare book I do have a personal stake in; I'm not going to review it per se, but here's why I will be checking it out. Buckle in, it's story time!

When I first moved to New York City I didn't have a full-time job, so I made rent doing a lot of different . Nothing glamorous or, alternately, illegal; mostly filling in for vacationing secretaries and taking angry phone calls, that sort of drill. I once abandoned a job after I saw a woman throw a stapler at a wall hard enough to leave a divot, but hey, it's not like she threw it at me!

Anyway, one of the random jobs I was holding was transcribing interviews for a guy who was writing a book. I am a very slow transcriber, but the material was interesting and it was cool to see how he conducted his interviews for the book. So I did that for several months, and then the work dried up and I kind of forgot about it... until I read a review of it in Publishers Weekly.

Let me be clear, I am in no way responsible for the finished product, BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE! TIGHTEN YOUR ABS, MAKE MILLIONS, AND LEARN HOW THE $100 BILLION INFOMERCIAL INDUSTRY SOLD US EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK. Still, I'm excited to see how the book which was described to me in concept over two years ago turned out. It hits stores today -- check it out if you think you might be interested.