Stories by Anneli Rufus
Anneli Rufus is the author of several books, most recently The Scavenger's Manifesto (Tarcher Press, 2009). Read more of Anneli's writings on scavenging at scavenging.wordpress.com.
While consumer culture drowns us in debt, you can count every cent you save while liberating would-be trash.
Posted on Mar 21, 2009
This is the season for how-did-we-go broke books, stories of shopping hangovers and life ripped down to the basics.
Posted on Jan 1, 2009
Eliezer Sobel bowed, chanted, nude wrestled, meditated, and overdosed on 'shrooms in a 40-year search to find God. But he still feels empty inside.
Posted on Dec 6, 2008
To casual observers it may look like adults making toys and keeping them, but embroidery hoops and homemade clothes are officially cool.
Posted on Jul 28, 2008
With 150 dead zones in our oceans, some the size of Ireland, author Taras Grescoe argues that there's been a massive die out of sea life.
Posted on May 30, 2008
Author Doug Fine traded his metropolitan lifestyle for an eco-lifestyle on a New Mexico farm. If only the rest of us could afford to do the same.
Posted on Apr 5, 2008
We are, of course, but a new book on animal cruelty will make your jaw drop about how vicious humans can be to other animals.
Posted on Feb 23, 2008
Author Thomas Hine argues we're still suffering from that "slum of a decade" that brought us gas lines, pantsuits and shag rugs.
Posted on Dec 30, 2007
Author A.J. Jacobs spent a year trying to follow the 600+ laws he found proscribed in the Bible, and concluded he's doomed to live in sin.
Posted on Nov 17, 2007
Wendy Shalit's new book suggests there's anti-slut rebellion in the making.
Posted on Sep 22, 2007
Writers looking for adventure these days are having a hard time exploring new ground -- should we be excited by a book on life as a dishwasher in all 50 states?
Posted on Aug 3, 2007
A lifetime of love versus a quick roll with a stranger. It's funny how we can have two seemingly opposite urges at the same time.
Posted on Jul 25, 2007
Christopher Hitchens debated Chris Hedges in a battle of wits and faith over the meaning of religion in our lives and politics today.
Posted on May 29, 2007
Like the children's classic "A Fish Out of Water," Al Gore has outgrown his fishbowl. He has developed a following of millions simply by reminding people that they can use knowledge as a source of influence.
Posted on May 26, 2007
Terrorism is now the stuff of fiction, as a glance at the best-seller lists will attest. But while Islamic plotters make the headlines, the terrorists we find on the bookshelves live in our own backyard.
Posted on Jan 27, 2007
A host of new books by authors who entered the sex trade and wrote about it make you not want to have intercourse again, ever, with anyone.
Posted on Dec 16, 2006
From Gore Vidal to former Black Panther Flores Forbes, we rely on our golden-age dissidents to write the most stinging critiques of American society.
Posted on Nov 11, 2006
In such troubled times, shouldn't those of us who can choose our work choose a job that, at worst, doesn't harm anyone and, at best, makes the world a better place?
Posted on Oct 13, 2006
The battle over school textbooks spills out of Kansas and into California. At stake are whether gays are part of state history and how Islamic history should be taught.
Posted on Sep 28, 2006
The appetite for blood porn, zombie flicks and sicko sideshows in America is endless. Is capitalism to blame, or is it a natural extension of a free society?
Posted on Sep 15, 2006
Cody's, Berkeley's flagship bookstore, was beloved in the community -- but not beloved enough to save it from closing.
Posted on Aug 19, 2006
Tourism in the post-9/11, post-colonial era remains a minefield of moral issues -- and living as a sin-free travel writer is damn near impossible.
Posted on Aug 14, 2006
Despite the Civil War, slavery hasn't gone away. Three writers consider what life is like for the more than 27 million people on Earth who don't even own themselves.
Posted on Jul 11, 2006
Is there anything wrong with digging through people's trash or dining on pigeons? Two authors explore the filth and treasure of the scavenger's life.
Posted on Jun 20, 2006
