Well, I wouldn't count the cost of tools as part of the cost of your one bookshelf. Odds are, you'll make more stuff, later, with them. And if you don't, at least you can sell them off later and recoup some. Personally, I have a many better tools than a circular saw to work with, but I figured that most people have one, or have someone they can borrow one from.
And to be clear, i wasn't trying to compare the DIY to a master craftsman, i was comparing it to ikea. 20$ for something that looks like crap, and will sag and collapse if you were to do something stupid with it like, say store books on it... I've had my experiences with flat pack stuff, and I've decided it's pretty much the worst thing ever.
I'm not saying EVERYONE can do it. I'm not telling anyone to even try it. I'm just saying that it's perfectly possible to build something better than a flat pack, without spending hundreds of dollars. Heck, dig through the scrap lumber and you might get lucky.

...because obviously, people accidentally bought Samsung tablets when they meant to buy an apple device. The designs are just that similar.

Feminism is no longer about equal rights. It hasn't been about that for ages.
Feminism is about female superiority, pure and simple. Feminist=Female Chauvinist.

Skills: Using a circular saw, rubbing with sandpaper, staining, measuring.
Materials: Wood, stain, wood glue, self tapping wood screws.
Time: A few hours if you're good. A day or two if you're learning.
Tools: Circular saw, tape measure, pencil, sandpaper, drill. Dremel/jigsaw/etc if needed for design.
1. Design bookcase(or steal a design. Whatever).
2. Measure and mark wood for correct sizes.
3. Using scrap wood as brace, cut wood leaving a small amount of extra at all cuts. Collect sawdust for later.
4. Make wood fit. Sand/recut as needed downwards(hence extra 1/4" or so).
5. Glue wood together into correct shape.
6. Screw wood together through glue. Make screws 'deeper' than wood around them.
7. Mix sawdust with glue, coat tops of screws.
8. Sand everything down, make smooth.
9. Stain.
It's not that hard. I have quite a bit of home made furniture. It's not as perfect as a master craftsman would make, but it's miles beyond any flat-pack crap. In the past, flat pack has been only for use because I NEED something NOW, and don't have time to make it myself... and even then, I'll replace it quickly since it'll probably just break soon. Oh, and the sum total 'training' I've had was a single 6 week middle school shop class, and just working stuff out on my own.

Troll detected. Play better games. Most of the really amazing non-fps/rpg/mmo games out there are indie, nowadays, so you've gotta take some time to look.
Or, ya know, just click 'indie' on steam.

Wait, WHAT?!!!
Puzzlers, rhythm games, strategy games, building games, racing games... Etc. There are so many different types of games out there for PCs. Just because you have no INTEREST in games that are not particularly violent does not mean they don't exist.
Growing up, one of my favorite games was SimCity, before it became terrible(basically, post-sc2k).

On another note, I LOVE my violent games. Don't get me wrong. But there's something immensely satisfying about solving puzzlers, or 'winning' a game that technically has no end(IE: sc2k, etc).

This is how to bring third world countries into the first world. Let their governments spy on their people! That's how we do it in the 'western' world, after all!

And once more: Fox News is 'entertainment news.' Of course it has higher ratings, because people don't want truth and they don't want to think for themselves and develop their own opinions. They want to be told what's exciting, and what they should think about it.
Most news channels are like this, actually, just Fox tends to revel in it rather than try to give the illusion of honesty or neutrality. ... Actually, that's kind of a type of honesty, in itself, I suppose.

buy a terrible LCD, that way the ghosting will be so bad you won't even see the subliminal messages.

Screw that. Just use the easiest to remember password in history. upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart

I appreciate this. Very nice.
Also, this.

tl;dr: Nobody needs an SUV.

I'll fully admit, there are many people who LIKE SUV's, and who will continue to like them. There are many people who feel the need an SUV. But nobody needs an SUV.
SUV's fill a niche that should not exist. With either a minivan or a station wagon, the family can handle anything. I grew up with a second gen toyota tercel wagon 4wd, which my family took from east cost to west, and back(WITH at least one stroller thankyouverrymuch, and never even used the roof rack). Family grew to 3 children, and purchased a minivan. Tercel died of a broken timing belt after almost 300k miles, and moved to a corolla wagon.
So, with a minivan, you have: 7-8 seats(usually) that can be converted to 5-6 seats with a large luggage area, or 2-3 seats with a HUGE luggage area for hauling. Plus a trailer.
With a station wagon you seat 5-7(depending on model), and can remove seats to have a huge luggage area depending on needs. Plus a trailer.
The SUV is nothing but a station wagon, stretched, and put on stilts. They're the most ridiculous vehicle on the road, and i can never help but laugh when i see them. Vision is worthless(huge blind spots) that nearly push people off the road(I've had many opportunities to kick a dent into one on my motorcycle when they start changing lanes into me), primarily driven by one of the following: Single women who have self esteem issues; Soccer moms with delusions of grandeur, who spend too much time on their cell phones in the car and doing their makeup to actually drive; Single men with problems in the crotch area, and think they can compensate(although these tend to drift more towards pickup trucks); or married men with children who are 'too manly' to drive a station wagon or a minivan.

Once the apocalypse happens, and everyone drives around with guns on their cars, of course this will be the case. But, until then...

Apple will soon file a patent for "the use of ones and zeros in a mobile device for the storage of data"
I swear. the USPO has outlived it's usefulness. Ever since Edison decided to rape patent law to monopolize the film industry for many years.

I swear, a couple years back, I read a story about someone who invented basically a high power microwave that melted away plastics, etc, and left the rest intact. The plastic sludge that was left was then fed into diesel generators to power the whole thing, and you ended up with whatever the plastic was on sitting out. I'd think that would be a pretty good start to an efficient recycling of e-waste. Imagine it: old cat5 cable fed in, fuel and copper out.