Just for a moment try to put every shopping trip you've ever made out of your head. Imagine a different world. Imagine that all the goods for sale are locked away in cabinets and to handle them, or even to examine them closely, you need to ask a shop assistant to open it up for you. Imagine that within seconds of entering a store a floorwalker approaches you and asks if you're planning to buy something - then, when you say "I'm just looking," rudely tells you to leave. Imagine any attempt to return faulty or unsuitable goods being met with ridicule, obstruction or a flat refusal to help...

Pompeii was one of most advanced cities of its time; it had a complex water system, gymnasium, and an amphitheater. Despite it's advancements, there was one thing it wasn't ready for: Mount Vesuvius--the volcano that led to its ultimate doom.

The 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius was one of the worst disasters in all of European history. In a near instant, over 15,000 people were dead and a city was completely destroyed.

This book looks at the rise, fall, and rediscovery of the great city of Pompeii.

In 1823, Hugh Glass did the unthinkable: he wrestled a grizzly bear...and won. But that is only the beginning of the remarkable tale--Glass, badly mauled with a broken leg, was 200 miles from help. Determined, he set his own leg and made the long journey first by crawling, then by floating down a river.

Following the freak encounter with the bear, Glass became a legend. He's considered one of the greatest American hunters, and knew the frontier like few people before or after him. This book tells the incredible stories that made up his life.

In 1950 a saleswoman living in Florida decided to find a fun new way to market an unexciting product - reusable food containers. She already had plenty of experience selling household goods but now she wanted to try something different, and she was after a quirky, lively way to sell things.

The solution she chose was being used to sell brushes in the USA by the late 1930s, but now it's spread throughout the entire world and been adapted to a wide range of different products. Mostly that's because it was made famous by Brownie Wise and Tupperware. Yes, Tupperware isn't very...

In 1835, at the age of 13, a young boy walked nearly 300 miles to Paris; he worked odd jobs and did whatever it took to survive. He eventually learned a craft: box making. Before long, the young boy had earned enough to open his own box-making store.

The tale may seem a bit unremarkable until you consider the boy's name: Louis Vuitton.

You know the brand, but not the man; take a look at the genius that created one of the most recognizable brands in the world with this biography.

Dido Elizabeth Belle was born in 1761. It would be nearly 100 years before slavery was abolished. The date would be of little importance if not for one important factor: Belle's father was white, but her mother was African. It was an unthinkable act for the time, and Belle's life was destined for only bad things. But remarkably bad things did not happen.

Belle was sent to live with her uncle, the Earl of Mansfield; here she was raised as a free woman and given the same privileged upbringing as her cousins. This book tells the inspiring true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, and...

You may not know the name Joy Mangano, but you probably know her mop--the Miracle Mop to be more exact. This book is the story of how Mangano built a QVC empire.

The book explores her early days as an inventor through her later success on HSN; along the way it touches on the business strategies and models that made her a multi-millionaire.

This book is not endorsed by Joy Mangano and should be considered unofficial.