Random ramblings, book reviews, personal photos and observations on life from a small town girl with a big heart. Welcome.
3.28.2006
Review: Not Buying It
Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine
This book has been creeping into review publications and book catalogs for its interesting premise...Levine is fed up with all the money she spends at Christmas, on useless items, and the stranglehold shopping has on our culture. Instead, she and her partner Paul vow to spend a year not buying anything that isn't "essential".
This book is a combination of things - part diary of their arguments about buying things (are Q-tips essential?), part discussion about sustainable living and society's fascination with shopping, and part political commentary (this was written during Kerry and Bush's election). Each chapter is a month, with new challenges and perspectives on the experiment. In all, Levine saved over $8000, and gained a new respect for what she buys, and why.
Though I got a bit bogged down in the extraneous conversations (politics, economy, etc) because it interrupted the flow of the "story", I enjoyed this nonfiction read.
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2 comments:
One has to wonder about someone who does a year without shopping and bemoans the fact she had to give up books, magazines and DVD's. In People Magazine no less. This was her most difficult
"sacrifice".
What moron doesn't have a free public libary card?
Stephen
She mentioned the NYC libraries a few times, but only in passing. She bemoaned the fact that one branch had lost a particular title she needed, but no other mention was made of the libraries. I wondered the same thing myself - why isn't her library card on fire from use?
She also commented repeatedly on wanting DSL at home to download unruly .pdfs...my first thought? Why doesn't she hit the library's T1 lines? :-)
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