Richer by the Day regulars know that I read a lot of books.  I often review relevant books here and host book giveaways as well.  In the course of those efforts, I was surprised to learn that there really isn’t a centralized place for people to collect, share, and discuss various book reviews.  There are many book review sites, but they are generally for user’s own reviews or discussions of the books themselves.  I envisioned a site where many reviews for a book could be submitted and users could vote for the best review.  Then, others considering the book could find reviews and opinions all in one place.  They could limit themselves to the best ranking review, or view them all.  Since this type of social bookmarking for book reviews didn’t seem to exist, I took it upon myself to create such a site.  The result is bookreviewmark.net.

The site is still in beta testing, but I’d be thrilled if any Richer by the Day readers would give it a try.  To help entice you, I’ll be hosting another giveaway to coincide with the beta testing period.  I will be giving away 5 personal finance or investing themed books from my large collection on October 1st.  All users of Book Review Mark will be eligible.  Each book review you add to the site or vote you cast for other reviews will count as an additional entry.

Thanks for your help in this effort and happy reading!

I really enjoyed reading The Richest Man in Town and feel confident that it will become a personal finance classic.  You can read my full The Richest Man in Town Book Review.  To help spread the word about this great book, I’m pleased to announce that I have three copies that I’ll be giving away in the next week.  Take one (or many) of the following steps by 5/24/2009:

The first copy will be given to one of my email subscribers.  The second will be given to one of my Twitter followers.  The third will be given to anyone who visits Richer by the Day and leaves a non-spam comment.  Even a simple ‘Count me in’ comment on this post would suffice, though you may want to browse through the site and leave a relevant comment on any interesting posts you find.  You can use all of the entry methods to be eligible for each copy.

For those hoping to score the copy going to a twitter follower, you can get an extra chance by tweeting (or retweeting my original twitter announcement) the following:

Free book (Richest Man in Town) to a follower http://tinyurl.com/olcjgc Follow by 5/24 RT for an extra entry #giveaway

This giveaway is a continuation of the renewed book focus I’ve taken here at Richer by the Day of late.  You may have noticed book reviews coming out nearly once a week.  I hope to continue this practice and offer as many book giveaways as possible.  So even if you aren’t selected for this giveaway, subscribe to my feed by email, follow me on twitter, and continue to visit Richer by the Day and leave comments to be eligible for future giveaways as well.

There are many freebies and promotions available in the United States on Tax Day, April 15th.  Add any other deals I may have missed to the comments section and pass the word about these deals using your favorite form of social bookmarking.  Price and participation often vary for deals, so check with the company directly to see if the offer is available at your location.

Taco Del Mar: Register for an emailed coupon for a free taco at the Taxes Suck. Tacos Don’t promotional page.

Cinnabon: Free samples of Tax Day Bites (usually known as Classic Bites) from 5-8 p.m.

Papa Johns Pizza: Three free toppings with purchase of a large cheese pizza.  Order online and use coupon code “1040″ to get toppings at no additional charge.

McDonalds: Buy one Quarter Pounder with Cheese or Big Mac and get a second sandwich for just one penny.

McDonalds: Free chicken biscuit w/ med drink purchase before noon or free chicken sandwich w/ med drink purchase after noon.

McDonalds(with McCafe): Free small hot McCafes or medium iced McCafe Coffee.

MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream and Treatery: One free single-scoop of ice cream as part of their e-cone-omic ice cream stimulus package.

Chick-Fil-A: Make a purchase and

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For those interested, I can now be followed on Twitter as user richerbytheday. I plan to use Twitter for more interactive discussions and topics that don’t warrant entire blog posts. Twitter followers will also be eligible for free book giveaways and other promotions.  For anyone who hasn’t used Twitter, it is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 bytes in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.  To create a free account, go to twitter.com.  Then you can go to my profile page and “follow” me to keep in touch.

The latest book review here at Richer by the Day is Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) by David Cay Johnston.

Author David Cay Johnston followed a similar formula that brought success to Perfectly Legal when writing his next book, Free Lunch.  He again uses extensive research, a breadth of topics, and largely maintains political neutrality throughout Free Lunch, which explores the giveaways, tax breaks, and subsidies that are taking away from the majority to make the über-rich even more so.

Free Lunch covers more topics than time permits me to mention, though everything from Profession Sports Franchises to Eminent Domain, Title Insurance to Exploding Student Loan Debt and many topics in between were included.  Many titans of industry, including Buffet, Bush,

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 The latest book review here at Richer by the Day is Passion Saving by Rob Bennett.

Note to Readers: I was given a complimentary copy of the book by the author, but believe that my review was not influenced by the fact in any way.

Passion Saving is billed as an alternative to the way many of us traditionally try to save, which author Rob Bennett refers to as the Sacrifice Saving method.  He contends that the spending urge is simply too great to overcome.  Rather than fight this urge, we are supposed to redirect it towards saving to achieve more desirable results.  The goal is to transform saving into as emotionally satisfying experience as spending.  Passion Saving is basically about motivation.  If you can’t get motivated to save following traditional methods, then following the Passion Saving method

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The latest book review here at Richer by the Day is Your Money or Your Life by by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.

Your Money or Your Life is one of those classic personal finance books that everyone seems to have read. After finally getting around to reading it myself, I can see why it is so popular. While there are certainly some portions of the book which are outdated, the majority of the content is as relevant today as when the book was written in the early 90s.

One of the main concepts introduced in the book is how to define “enough.” I found this information particularly useful because I’ve been feeling guilty, or at least in the minority, that I don’t want any more than I already have. I’ve been living on the “enough” peak for a while now. Understanding that after a certain point having additional possessions

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The recipient of the first book giveaway has been chosen and notified by email. They will be receiving my copy of Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational. Anyone who is interested in purchasing a copy of the book can find it here on Amazon.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting a review of the book I’m currently reading, Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston.  Be sure to make yourself eligible for that book giveaway, which will be held on June 22nd.

Predictably Irrational made economics entertaining in much the same way as Freakonomics. The fact that I enjoyed both of these books probably indicates my appreciation of behavioral economics in general. In Predictably Irrational, author Dan Ariely presents counter-intuitive theories and backs them up with very interesting experiments. He seems to have one of those jobs that appears more fun than what most of us do for a living.

What follows are quick overviews of each of the chapters. These overviews are not meant to trivialize the work presented but rather whet your appetite for a more thorough explanation.

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As regular readers of Richer by the Day know, I read a lot of personal finance, investing, business, and economics books. Along with my personal experiences, the books that I read have played a huge role in my financial education. I typically list the book I am currently reading in the sidebar of this blog. I often write a review of each book as I complete it.

How does this help you, and where do the Free Books referenced in the title come into play?

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