Over the Counter #296

What books caught my eye this week as they passed over the library counter and under my scanner. Well, with the end of the year around the corner, many people are looking to simplify as one of their resolutions. So here's some back to basics for you....

First up is Pogue's Basics: Life: Essential Tips and Shortcuts (That No One Bothers to Tell You) for Simplifying Your Day by David Pogue.

From the publisher, Flatiron Books:

Do you know the pinhole-finger trick for seeing without glasses? Did you realize that booking a hotel room with your phone is cheaper than doing it on your PC? Do you know how to get the last dregs of ketchup out of the bottle—in one second?

In David Pogue's New York Times bestselling book Pogue's Basics: Tech, the author shared his essential tips and tricks for making all your gadgets seem easier, faster, and less of a hassle to use. In this new book, he widens his focus—to life itself. In these pages, you'll find more than 150 tricks, shortcuts, and cheats for everyday life: house and home, cars, clothing, travel, food, health, and more. This timeless reference book will shed light on priceless bits of advice and life hacks that already exist in the world around you—you just never knew! Tips include: Insider cheats for cheap air fare, how to read signs in other languages, the three-cent trick for staying awake behind the wheel, how to know which side of the highway your exit will be on, how to quench a spicy mouth on fire, and much much more!"

And how about making things a bit easier in the kitchen with Kitchen Hacks: How Clever Cooks Get Things Done edited by America's Test Kitchen.

From the publisher:

"Innovative solutions to everyday cooking challenges from our team of test kitchen MacGyvers—the test cooks at Cook’s Illustrated magazine

A kitchen hack is an unusual, easier, and/or better way of performing a task that often saves money and time or improves the quality of the outcome. In this wacky but eminently useful collection of kitchen hacks, you will learn how to outsmart tricky tasks and face down kitchen challenges (big and small) with innovative and clever ideas from Quick Tips, the most popular feature in Cook’s Illustrated magazine (900,000 circulation). Kitchen Hacks is a beautifully designed guidebook to hacking your kitchen . . . and beyond!"

(Over the Counter is a regular feature at A Bookworm's World. I've sadly come the realization that I cannot physically read every book that catches my interest as it crosses over my counter at the library. But... I can mention them and maybe one of them will catch your eye as well. See if your local library has them on their shelves!)