Personal Finance Blog by Debit versus Credit

Scratch Beginnings

October 24, 2008 | Filed in: Friday Book Club | 3 comments

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It’s not every day that you get an opportunity to read and review a book before its publication.  You can imagine my delight when Adam Shepard, the author of Scratch Beginnings, contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in reading his book.  Now technically the book has been around for a couple of years now, as it was originally self-published, but now it’s been picked up by Collins to be published.  In fact since I’ve had the book it’s actually been published and you can now find it at your favorite bookstore or at Amazon.com.  You can also enter a contest that I’m holding where I’m giving away three signed copies of Scratch Beginnings.

Scratch Beginnings was a fun read.  It’s an Autobiography that sometimes makes you feel as if you are reading a journal.  For anyone who’s ever read their siblings or significant others journal you know how much fun this can be.  The plot is simple.  The author, Adam Shepard, is to undergo an experiment where he will move to a random city in the Southeast U.S. with nothing but $25 dollars, a sleeping bag, the clothes on his back and an extraordinarily strong will to succeed. His goal is to prove, or disprove, the notion that one can not rise above their situation. His secondary goals are to have $2,500 dollars in cash, a fully furnished apartment and a car that is in good working condition after the period of one year.

Criticism and Defense

The major criticism against this book is that the author is a white, educated male and therefore any such “experiments” are immediately flawed.  I think that we can safely brush aside the notion that just because Adam has a college degree the experiment is flawed.  He did a wonderful job of completely immersing himself in the experiment and never once did he reveal his formal education or any related qualifications while interacting with those around him.  It’d be foolish of me to pretend that white privilege is not in existence and that he had nothing to gain from being white, but I’m of the opinion that if it made any such difference it was not much at all.

The fact is that he was dedicated to his goals and he worked hard every single day to accomplish them.  Things weren’t ever easy for him, but he always pushed ahead knowing that he could make something out of himself no matter what life threw his way.

Wrapping it Up

What I enjoyed most about Scratch Beginnings was how real it seemed.  Of course being an Autobiography that’s how it’s supposed to be, but usually Autobiographies seem stuffy and often unrealistic.  Not Scratch Beginnings though.  Everything about this book screams reality, from the difficulties on the streets to the abrasive language often spoken by characters that you meet.  It likely won’t ever be listed on the NY Times Best Sellers list (due to its limited mass-market appeal), but you can be sure that it will be respected by all who read it for the sheer level of honesty and commitment that the author portrays.

Tags: Book Review, Friday Book Club, Homelessness, Poverty, Scratch Beginnings

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

August 20, 2008 | Filed in: Miscellaneous | No comment

For those of you who don’t already know Blog Action Day 2008 is focused on the topic of Poverty.  Blog Action Day is a day when bloggers come together to blog about a single topic with the intent of bringing these issues to the forefront of everyone’s mind and making a difference.  Blog Action Day 2008 is on October 15th.  We’ll be doing something special this day, but I couldn’t wait to let you all know what’s going on at this point.

Some of you may remember last year when my wife and I donated some money to Operation Smile.  We made another donation quite recently to a different charity called Feed the Children.  We did this right before I ran across the Blog Action Day for 2008 and noticed that it was focused on Poverty.  Thinking this was quite a coincidence I thought I’d start out the focus on Poverty this year a little bit early.  I know I’ve asked the question before, but I want to ask again, but this time with a different focus.

What charities have you donated to - or do you plan to donate to sometime this year - that are focused on helping with Poverty?

Tags: Blog Action Day, Feed the Children, Operation Smile, Poverty