Probably overcomplicated, but I wanted to try my hand at creating a procedural script.

node-manager.sh

# !/bin/bash
# A Bash script to download and install Nodejs updates

init() {
    echo "Welcome to my simple script to install (from stable source) and update Node.js on Ubuntu distros."
    echo "'Cause that's a pain in the ass."
    echo "Yeah, yeah. Chris Lea's PPA would be even easier."
    echo "This just makes it easy to have a custom install. No muss. No fuss. Let's begin."
    helper_separator
    setup
    echo "Had to get you back home first: "$HOME""
    helper_separator
    fetch_files
    helper_separator
    echo "Node install has been fetched and extracted. Next, move into install directory."
    cd ~/node-install
    compile
    clean
}

setup() {
    cd ~
}

query_source() {
    read -p "What version of Node do you want to fetch? (Ex: 'v0.10.23') | " NODE_VERSION
    echo
    echo "Brilliant. Just a sec."
    helper_separator
}

fetch_files() {
    query_source
    wget http://nodejs.org/dist/$NODE_VERSION/node-$NODE_VERSION.tar.gz
    tar -xzf node-$NODE_VERSION.tar.gz
    mv ~/node-$NODE_VERSION ~/node-install
}

query_custom_dir() {
    read -p "Did you want to install Node in a particular directory? (Y/N) | " RESPONSE
    case $RESPONSE in
        [Yy]* ) 
            echo
            read -p "Go ahead and enter a directory then. (Ex. 'usr/local/bin') | " CUSTOM_DIR
            echo
            ./configure --prefix=$CUSTOM_DIR
            break ;;
        [Nn]* ) 
            echo
            echo "In that case, Make will be configured with the default path."
            echo
            ./configure
            break ;; 
    esac
    echo "Alright, boss. Make has been configured."
    helper_separator
}

compile() {
    query_custom_dir
    echo "Let's unpack Node and install npm, too."
    make
    make install
    curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sudo sh
    helper_separator
    echo "Source unpacked and installed. Just doing some housecleaning."
    helper_separator

}

clean() {
    setup
    rm -rf node-$NODE_VERSION.tar.gz node-install
    helper_separator
    echo "Should be all set. Make sure you run 'which node' and 'which npm' to check."
    helper_separator
}

helper_separator() {
    echo
    echo "============================================="
    echo
}

init