BodyTrac Health & Fitness

No matter who you are or what you’re interested in, there are some books that everyone should be familiar with.

Since elementary school, people have been telling you to read certain books. You’ve enjoyed some of them and others you suffered through to make a good grade in English class. But now that you’re an adult, there are a few books you really should read. By reading these books, you’ll have a better understanding of the literature that has shaped our society and be more interesting to talk with.

When you’re ready to be more cultured, pick up these books, have a seat, and enjoy.

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger – Few books have garnered as much attention over the years as Salinger’s blistering portrayal of adolescence. Loved by many, hated by others, and banned by various organizations, Catcher in the Rye is a cultural touch point for every age and stage.

1984 by George Orwell – When it was written, fears of Big Brother loomed large and looked a bit unrealistic. Since then, Orwell’s classic seems to be turning into reality, as it is brought up in the midst of countless debate concerning the size and role of government.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes – A touching story about a mentally challenged man named Charlie who undergoes experiments to increase his intelligence and awareness, Flowers for Algernon brings up many hard questions that must be wrestled with by every person fortunate enough to read the book.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – Though it doesn’t have a coherent plot or take place in the U.S.A, One Hundred Years of Solitude offers something every American can appreciate: a call to remember your history.

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin – With so many backing Darwin’s evolutionary theories brought forth in The Origin of Species, it only makes sense to have a fuller understanding of those theories, whether or not you agree with them.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding – The story is violent, the language is foul, and the kids are horrendous. Yet somehow Lord of the Flies has made its way into the center of culture, for better or worse.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – A magnificent tale of a poverty-stricken young man who suffers immense psychological terror from a crime he planned to perfection, Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment reminds readers why some books are deemed classics, while others dwindle into obscurity.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.
– Mark Twain

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – Forced to cross the country in search of work, the central family in The Grapes of Wrath goes through mind-boggling hardships during one of the most dramatic events in recent history – the Great Depression. Once you finish this one, pick up any other Steinbeck novel for even more culture.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison – Everyone feels invisible on occasion. For the main character of Ellison’s book, being invisible isn’t an occasional problem. It never seems to end. But this isn’t a sci-fi epic. It’s a book all about race and the inner man.

Ulysses by James Joyce – As difficult to read as it is thick, Ulysses has handled more banning bullets than nearly any other book on the shelf. Before picking it up, take note: it is the antithesis of a fast read. But it is top book on many “best book” lists, so it must have something to offer.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara – A sad, heroic tale of the Civil War, The Killer Angels is just as brutal as it sounds. Want to follow Márquez’s advice of remembering your history? This is a good place to start.

Anything by William Shakespeare – Picking one of Shakespeare’s pieces to highlight would be like figuring out which of your children is your favorite. Shakespeare’s works are pure genius that have forced students and graduates to grapple with the finer and unrefined parts of life.

Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkien – You know the book is always better than the movie, so why haven’t you read this marvelous trilogy of hobbit life? The books are long, the details sometimes overkill, but the story is simply delightful.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner – Because it is written in various perspectives, The Sound and the Fury throws many readers off track early on. Once you gain your footing in this novel, you’ll want to sprint to the finish line and start again.

Six exercises that will get your grey matter working harder, smarter, and stronger.

You eat the right foods, spend an hour of every day in the gym, and get plenty of sleep. But if you’re not working out your brain, you’re leaving a big gap in your overall strength. If you want to beef up your brain, give these exercises a shot.

Learn and Connect: Sure, you might tell your family and friends that you know everything, but you know deep down that there is a world of information that you’re unaware of. Increase your knowledge by reading magazines and books about things you don’t know about. But don’t just memorize the order of operations for rebuilding an engine. Connect the process with how you perform cardiac surgery every day. Making connections helps you make more sense of and remember information about the unknown.

Riddle Me This: If it’s been a while since you tried your mind at a riddle, head to the library and grab a book full of them. Though riddles may seem to be silly ways to spend your time, working through tough riddles helps you to think creatively. On top of keeping your mind sharp for years to come, this creative thinking will help immediately with any problems you’re dealing with, whether at work, home, or play.

Rubik’s Cube: It baffled you for years during the 1980s, and now it’s back with a vengeance. Show the Cube you mean business by picking one up and solving it. Yes, it will take a lot of time and patience, but you can do it. Need a little help? Grab a how-to book that teaches the algorithms for solving the world’s greatest handheld puzzle. No matter how you go about solving the Rubik’s Cube, you’ll have hours of brain-stimulating fun. And once you get good at it, you’ll finally be able to participate in your neighborhood talent show.

Word a Day: By now, you have a solid grasp of the English language. But as you know, you could always know more words and learn how to use the ones you know more appropriately. To further your language know-how, learn a new word every day. You can do this by scanning your dictionary or by signing up for a word-a-day e-mail from a number of websites. Another way to improve your vocabulary is to spend time figuring out which word to use in which situation. (Example: affect vs. effect, its vs. it’s, etc.)

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. — Carl Sagan
Draw It Out: You may not be Monet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from the brain-boosting benefits of drawing. Pick up a pencil and paper and start easy. Try tracing your hand. Pull your hand away and look carefully at it. Add small details and shading to your drawing. Do it again in a week. Your drawing will get better, as will your brain. You can also try drawing a still life such as a basket of fruit. Just remember to start with a rough outline and work your way into exact shapeliness and shading.

Remember Your Day: If you’re like most people, you need a to-do list in order to get things done. But sometimes, your written list can be a crutch that prevents you from maximizing your memory’s potential. Help strengthen your memory by writing down your to-do list, memorizing the list, and sticking the list in your pocket. Then go about your day, performing the things on your list in the order you wrote them down. At the end of the day, pull out your list to find out how you did. For an added challenge, write on your original list what time you plan to do each activity and keep track of when you actually perform each task during the day.

Making the decision of who will be responsible for your taxes this year.

With the dreaded April 15 looming overhead and Uncle Sam knocking on your door, you may find yourself scrambling to get your taxes done. But before you can dot the Is and cross the Ts, you want to make sure you’re getting the biggest bang for your tax return buck.

How can you ensure your taxes are done accurately and to your greatest benefit? By using the right tools or figuring out who should use them for you. If you’re not sure if you should handle your taxes all by your lonesome, get some software help, or hire a pro, read on to begin to get a grip on this year’s tax situation.

Doing It Alone

Taxes may be daunting for some people, but not for you. In fact, you laugh in the face of tax season. As you flex your taxable muscles, losses and gains run away screaming. Okay, so you may not think tax season is a joke, but you have pretty straightforward taxes. You work one job, aren’t married, and didn’t win the lottery in the last 12 months. Knocking out your taxes requires one simple form and only takes an hour. Why pay someone for this?

Of course, you may want to do your taxes on your own because you enjoy the process. You work a job that requires a lot of interaction with the general public, and there is something cathartic about crunching numbers all by your lonesome. Just remember that even you can make mistakes, so you may want to have a close friend or family member run over your return before sending it off to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

You and the CPU

Prefer the feeling of a computer keyboard in your hand when working away? Then you may want to go online and download some software or head to your local electronic store for some tax software. Either way, computer-based tax programs have the same goal: make your tax preparation experience simple and help you get the biggest return possible.

Online tax preparation is a great option for a variety of people. Whether you have simple taxes that would be just as easy on paper, have a full-time job and a small business on the side, or make your money from a number of different ventures, tax software makes it possible to do your taxes on your own without relying on your own know-how. Instead, the program will ask you helpful questions along the way, prodding you to filling out forms that may help you get a bigger return – forms you may have ignored if left all on your own. Use the right computer software and you even have the option of having an accountant go through your return to make sure everything is legal and in order.

Lean on a Pro

For some people, the thought of sitting around, adding and subtracting and subtracting and adding leads to nausea. Others have such a complicated tax situation that starting and finishing their own taxes within a single year is virtually impossible. For both of these people, turning to a certified accountant is the only way to ensure proper tax preparation.

But before you run out to the nearest tax preparing station near you, there are a few things to consider. How experienced is your potential preparer? Is there any guarantee that you will get the largest refund possible, or are you potentially going to find out you could have gotten more a few months later?

Answering these questions and finding an accountant you trust will help as you make your way toward tax season relaxation.

Audit Ready

More than likely, you’ll never be audited by the IRS. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared. After all, it is much better to prepare your taxes as if you will be audited than to run to and fro trying to gather all necessary documentation in the event you are audited.

Here are three tips to help you prepare your taxes in an audit-ready way.

Maintain meticulous records regarding all of your income – including any inheritance, trusts, or other money you may receive.

Keep all of your tax records for a minimum of three years. This includes receipts, medical bills, and record of any deduction you claim.

If the IRS ever contacts you to perform an audit, contact your local tax professional. In the event you did your taxes on your own, this would be a good time to develop a relationship with a local tax pro.

Because no matter what day it may be, nothing looks better and is more inviting than a clean home.

You sweat and slave, scrubbing and scraping to make your house impeccable. And then an hour later, it looks like a disaster zone once again, with magazines cluttering the living room floor and your children’s toys scattered throughout the halls. Is there a way to prevent this from happening again? Can your countertops stay sanitized for longer than 12 minutes? Maybe. If you’re willing to take a few itsy bitsy, teeny weenie baby steps.

Baby Step One: Change Your Mind

If you prefer spring-cleaning and other massive cleaning endeavors, you’ll never keep your house clean every hour of every day. To make your cabinets shine and your sink sparkle from sunrise to sunset, you’ve got to do a little bit of cleaning every day.

But wait there’s more! Want to make sure your dishes wind up in the dishwasher when they’re dirty and back in the cabinets when they’re clean? Don’t waste time. Put them up right away! Nothing will clutter your shelves, cabinets, and chest of drawers faster than laziness. Putting things where they belong is incredibly easy and will make your house much more pleasant for you, your family, and your guests.

Baby Step Two: Make a Calendar

Why do you only scrub your toilet once a year? Because you don’t have a schedule. Why does the mildew on your shower door only get wiped away every three months? Because you don’t have a cleaning routine. Change that by grabbing a notebook and creating a cleaning calendar. It doesn’t have to be ornate or painfully specific. It just needs to be useful.

Some jobs, such as wiping down counters, need to be done on a daily basis. Others, such as vacuuming or dusting should occur weekly, while cleaning inside the stove is done with less frequency. Regardless, they should all be written on the calendar to keep your house in clean shape all the time. To determine when to schedule bigger jobs, such as deep cleaning the carpet or the gutters, take note of how much time passes before the jobs need to be done. Then schedule them accordingly.

I like hugs and I like kisses,
But what I really love is help with the dishes!
— Unknown

Baby Step Three: Get Everyone on Board

No matter if your house is 800 square feet or 8,000, making it clean isn’t a one-person job. Get the entire family in on the act with a chore list. Make it fun by awarding prizes to the person who pitches in the most or performs cleaning tasks without being asked.

After all, if you’re going to make your house shine, it depends on everyone in your household being aware of the need to keep clean! Because while you may be used to following your kids around the house, wiping the floor as mud falls off their shoes, you can’t keep your house clean 365 days a year that way.

Quick Cleaning Tips

Hungry for more squeaky clean tips? You’ve come to the right place. When you’re ready to take your cleanliness to the next level, try these on for size!

Instead of painting dirty walls, give them a wipe down with 1/4 cut baking soda, 3 cups water, and 2 tablespoons ammonia. If that doesn’t work, try spot painting to get a little more life out of your paintjob.

Help your stainless steel appliances look like they just came off the store floor by applying a little baby oil once a week. For the best result (that’s the only kind you want—right?), rub along the grain of the metal. Other option: have your family wear gloves any time they want something out of the refrigerator.

Have small kids with big toy boxes? Tired of having dolls and miniature cars spread all over your house? Pack your kids’ toys into multiple small boxes and let your children only have one box at a time. Every week or so, pack up the current box and break out a new one. It will keep your house cleaner and ensure all the toys that are out and about are being used.