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Available
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Publication
Pocket Books (2007), Paperback, 272 pages
Description
An award-winning journalist traces a year during which she and her partner struggled with a pledge to avoid consumer spending practices in spite of their American conditioning, an effort that had a profound impact on their careers, family relationships, and personal identities.
Media reviews
Savings was not the goal of the project, but, admittedly, I was disappointed by the bottom line.
Levine offers banal solutions in search of a problem, while leaving the real problems for others to investigate.
But otherwise, this honest and humorous tale of a nonspending year is well worth putting aside a few hours to read.
Best of all, while she makes you want to repent for your greed more than a few times, she also points out the absurdities of ''voluntary simplicity'' and recognizes the soul-stirring happiness implicit in finding a perfect new pair of heels, making Not Buying It well worth its price.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jkcohen
Judith Levine's "Not Buying It: A Year Without Shopping" tells the story of how she and her husband attempt to "not buy anything" over the course of a year. Of course, conceived in such absolute terms, the project could never have gotten off the ground. They permit the purchase of "necessities," a
The book is highly digressive, containing excursuses on consumerism, the follies and excesses of the Bush years, movements to simplify people's lives and reduce their dependence on buying things, and people who have gone "off the grid." As much as the digressions are intriguing and provide much of the book's color, much of what we learn about making do with less is that it is a drag, to be resented and borne with as little grace as possible. Levine and her husband, despite being freelancers, are well-to-do -- they own two residences, an apartment in Brooklyn and a summer house in Vermont -- and compared to the space spent on not having the right ski equipment, little attention is paid to people who have to cut back out of necessity, not as a game which can be dropped at the end of a year.
My final difficulty with the book is that it doesn't give many signs of how the author's interior life changes. Levine's subjective experience of not buying things can be analogized to how many more secular Jews think of Yom Kippur -- as a day of being unconscionably deprived of food, to be gotten through as quickly as possible, and possibly by cheating with a run out to the car for a Snickers bar during the afternoon service. They ignore the spiritual aspects of the day -- the possibilities for introspection and personal change. Just so, there is no spiritual aspect to Levine's experiment; rather, it is a narrative of annoying "deprivations." The year is ended with relief and the happy prospect of a return to shopping.
Levine does come upon someone who finds a spiritual aspect in a life consuming less: a man named Richard, who, by ingenuity and living off the land, makes do on $7,000 a year. His modesty, his lack of a sense of entitlement, and his generosity are a far cry from Levine's grudging attempts at austerity, and open up the possibility that a life without many possessions can be a more peaceful and fulfilling one. Then again, Richard may just be an extraordinary person; if I had to carry out the year-long experiment, I'd be like Levine or worse.
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category which enlarges itself as the year goes by, and they make a series of permissive exceptions.The book is highly digressive, containing excursuses on consumerism, the follies and excesses of the Bush years, movements to simplify people's lives and reduce their dependence on buying things, and people who have gone "off the grid." As much as the digressions are intriguing and provide much of the book's color, much of what we learn about making do with less is that it is a drag, to be resented and borne with as little grace as possible. Levine and her husband, despite being freelancers, are well-to-do -- they own two residences, an apartment in Brooklyn and a summer house in Vermont -- and compared to the space spent on not having the right ski equipment, little attention is paid to people who have to cut back out of necessity, not as a game which can be dropped at the end of a year.
My final difficulty with the book is that it doesn't give many signs of how the author's interior life changes. Levine's subjective experience of not buying things can be analogized to how many more secular Jews think of Yom Kippur -- as a day of being unconscionably deprived of food, to be gotten through as quickly as possible, and possibly by cheating with a run out to the car for a Snickers bar during the afternoon service. They ignore the spiritual aspects of the day -- the possibilities for introspection and personal change. Just so, there is no spiritual aspect to Levine's experiment; rather, it is a narrative of annoying "deprivations." The year is ended with relief and the happy prospect of a return to shopping.
Levine does come upon someone who finds a spiritual aspect in a life consuming less: a man named Richard, who, by ingenuity and living off the land, makes do on $7,000 a year. His modesty, his lack of a sense of entitlement, and his generosity are a far cry from Levine's grudging attempts at austerity, and open up the possibility that a life without many possessions can be a more peaceful and fulfilling one. Then again, Richard may just be an extraordinary person; if I had to carry out the year-long experiment, I'd be like Levine or worse.
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LibraryThing member kaelirenee
Rather than spending her money on frivolities like eating out and cable, and rather than falling into the traps of the free market, the author name drops, goes off on strange tangents, makes ridiculous assumptions, and spends her money on frivolities like organic foods (which seem to be her fetish
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item). The only reason I'm marking this book so high is that I couldn't put it down for the first 7 months of her experiment. Then it got tedious. It got arrogant. It got smug. The book makes some great points about commercialism’s effect on our finances, psyche, and environment, but these messages are far too often buried behind stories of cell phone towers and how she's going to freeload off her friends. And don't get me started on the ideas she has about the differences between her two ideal lives-the bucolic, unmarred small town and the wonderfully cosmopolitan NYC. Her snobbishness shines supreme whenever she considers life elsewhere. Obviously, no one in the suburbs could do this... Show Less
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
An interesting account of one woman's year without buying unnecessary items. She slips up a few times and spends a fair amount of guilt on her reasonings behind all this but overall an interesting look at the reasons people buy so much stuff. It made me think about my unthinking habits of shopping.
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As it's written as a diary sometimes it comes across as a little un-linear but overall I found it an interesting read. I would agree with some commentators on it that she started from a very strong point and stocked up on some stuff but she whined a bit much about her clothes occasionally. Show Less
LibraryThing member cemming
An interesting concept. Easy to read and I appreciated Levin's wit and conversational tone. But considering the author even had two homes before embarking on this de-cluttering year, I felt it was probably just a brief departure from her usual life. As a contrived situation serving as fodder for
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her writing, in the end I didn't like it. Show Less
LibraryThing member lalawe
I found this a rather boring read. The author veers from skiing to economics to whether wine is a necessity to insanely boring vitriol against George W Bush. Look, I didn't care for many of his policies either, but there's a large section at the end of the book about campaigning for Kerry that was
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just too much politics for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member stephmo
This is the memoir of Judith Levine and Paul Cillo's year of non-consumerism. Well, a year of only buying the necessities and a few pre-planned purchases designated for a refurbishing project and a graduation trip. This is not a year of "let's not buy Starbucks!" This is actually a year of really
Better yet, this is neither a hidden balance sheet how-to nor an anti-consumerist manifesto. It's simply the impact that a year of living without the distraction and entertainment of consumerism has on the lives of two individuals who choose to disconnect for a year. The year presents moments of weakness and triumph, but the better portions of the book involve a renewed sense of citizenry. In the opening chapters, one might wonder how they're supposed to feel sympathy for feeling bored in a life that involves both an apartment in Brooklyn and a home with ski access in Vermont. But as this year of Not Buying It progresses, this honesty in boredom makes for more insightful and honest discussions about the nature and role of shopping.
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questioning whether or not every purchase is, in fact, a necessity. Out go all pay forms of entertainment, dinners out, street foods, processed foods that could be made from scratch, overpriced organic coffee beans, new shoes, new purses (not that they won't be obsessed over) and even wine.Better yet, this is neither a hidden balance sheet how-to nor an anti-consumerist manifesto. It's simply the impact that a year of living without the distraction and entertainment of consumerism has on the lives of two individuals who choose to disconnect for a year. The year presents moments of weakness and triumph, but the better portions of the book involve a renewed sense of citizenry. In the opening chapters, one might wonder how they're supposed to feel sympathy for feeling bored in a life that involves both an apartment in Brooklyn and a home with ski access in Vermont. But as this year of Not Buying It progresses, this honesty in boredom makes for more insightful and honest discussions about the nature and role of shopping.
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LibraryThing member annarama
I like the "Not Buying It" challenge: go a year without buying frivolous stuff and see what happens.
I think that most people can agree that we all need less stuff, yet we continue to supplement our households with it. For some people it is comforting to shop. Others hate shopping. Why do we buy so
In some ways I do not think the author went far enough with her research. She does buy some things which she considers necessities. But do you consider a haircut a necessity? I have never paid to have my hair cut my entire life because I do it myself (when I was younger, a friend or my mom would do it). And, what about books? Yes, she is a writer and books are her thing, but I don't think she needed to buy all the books she did. I think she could have accessed all of those books for free if she had done a little more research, googling, networking and library-hopping (and maybe even in-store book reading). She justifies these book purchases as business expenses and uses them on her tax return. So, that's great that she is using the system to get what she wants, but I still think it would have strengthened her book and argument more if she had done more research and tried really hard to stick to not buying anything and really trying hard to find alternative solutions rather than forking over cash and justifying it as a necessary purchase.
So the question becomes "what is a necessary purchase?" It is different for everyone and dependent on how much work the person is willing to do.
In the end, shopping itself is not bad. Overspending is bad; acquiring loads of junk is bad; supporting industries that exploit children, pollute the environment and excessively waste is bad. We have to make judgements about where the money is going as well as if we really need the thing we are going to buy. Could we acquire the thing without spending for it (i.e. by checking it out at the library, borrowing from a friend or a friend of a friend, ask the company that makes it for a free sample/trial)? Do we already posess something that can do what the thing we want to buy can do? Does the company of the thing we want to buy encourage development (making a better product) rather than growth (making lots and lots of something, resulting in overall waste)? and lastly, are we just shopping for the pure social interaction? Is there a way to get that social interaction without spending or wasting time in stores and malls? There is, and it requires creativity and critical thinking.
I think that most people can agree that we all need less stuff, yet we continue to supplement our households with it. For some people it is comforting to shop. Others hate shopping. Why do we buy so
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much stuff? Do we really need it or want it? What are the social implications of buying? What would happen if we didn't buy stuff? This book addresses those questions.In some ways I do not think the author went far enough with her research. She does buy some things which she considers necessities. But do you consider a haircut a necessity? I have never paid to have my hair cut my entire life because I do it myself (when I was younger, a friend or my mom would do it). And, what about books? Yes, she is a writer and books are her thing, but I don't think she needed to buy all the books she did. I think she could have accessed all of those books for free if she had done a little more research, googling, networking and library-hopping (and maybe even in-store book reading). She justifies these book purchases as business expenses and uses them on her tax return. So, that's great that she is using the system to get what she wants, but I still think it would have strengthened her book and argument more if she had done more research and tried really hard to stick to not buying anything and really trying hard to find alternative solutions rather than forking over cash and justifying it as a necessary purchase.
So the question becomes "what is a necessary purchase?" It is different for everyone and dependent on how much work the person is willing to do.
In the end, shopping itself is not bad. Overspending is bad; acquiring loads of junk is bad; supporting industries that exploit children, pollute the environment and excessively waste is bad. We have to make judgements about where the money is going as well as if we really need the thing we are going to buy. Could we acquire the thing without spending for it (i.e. by checking it out at the library, borrowing from a friend or a friend of a friend, ask the company that makes it for a free sample/trial)? Do we already posess something that can do what the thing we want to buy can do? Does the company of the thing we want to buy encourage development (making a better product) rather than growth (making lots and lots of something, resulting in overall waste)? and lastly, are we just shopping for the pure social interaction? Is there a way to get that social interaction without spending or wasting time in stores and malls? There is, and it requires creativity and critical thinking.
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LibraryThing member jules72653
I was expecting a light-hearted view of abstinence from costly creature comforts. My eyes glazed over on several occasions when the text turned almost preachy. I would have preferred more fluff and less fact.
LibraryThing member msmalnick
I found this book extremely inspirational. Do I really need all the junk & clutter I've got going on? Am very glad I picked this one up on impulse (somewhat contradictory there, I suppose).
LibraryThing member penguinasana
Levine performs an intriguing experiment of going without shopping for a year other than "necessities." I found Levine's definition of necessities to be pretty slippery. There's parts of the book that sound more like diatribe against capitalism and the Bush administration and these tangents take
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away from the real strength of the book, which is Levine's personal experience of the difficult challenges of this experiment in a consumer society and her explorations of how and why we tend to turn to buying for reasons other than real need. Show Less
LibraryThing member kikianika
I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it was something else. Don't get me wrong, I love the book, but it's slightly disorienting if you get something other than you thought you'd get. This is one of those 'reassess your life' books. I found it very intriguing.
Tags: readings
Tags: readings
LibraryThing member jennpb
At least the author recognizes that her white privilege even allows her to spend a year attending free, elite cultural events where wine & cheese are served. As much as I wanted to support the project, the author's smugness had me hoping for her failure.
LibraryThing member justine
I heard this on on NPR and read it as soon as it was available in the library, since it would be overly ironic to purchase the book. It was worth it for sure.
LibraryThing member txjuju
Eh.
The premise was interesting, even noble, but the writer wasn't able to shake the attitude of entitlement that we Americans are infused with. She wasn't really roughing it either, since she and her partner have two homes, three vehicles, and continued with their renovation project at one home in
Not particularly compelling and the author seemed to take great pains to (not always successfully) conceal her elitist attitude.
Won't be recommending it to others
The premise was interesting, even noble, but the writer wasn't able to shake the attitude of entitlement that we Americans are infused with. She wasn't really roughing it either, since she and her partner have two homes, three vehicles, and continued with their renovation project at one home in
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spite of this resolve to quit consuming. Not particularly compelling and the author seemed to take great pains to (not always successfully) conceal her elitist attitude.
Won't be recommending it to others
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LibraryThing member jacketscoversread
Not Buying It was in my local public library’s Look! Read! section. I wound up picking it up after I had checked out a different book because the cover caught my eye.
Not Buying It reads like a blog. It’s simple and straight-forward. The memoir had me wondering if I could survive without
“The idea occurs to me, as so many desperate resolutions do, during the holiday season. I have maxed out the Visa, moved on to the Citibank debit card, and am tapping the ATM like an Iraqi guerrilla pulling crude from the pipeline. Convinced I am picking up no more than the occasional trinket-a tree ornament for Howard and Nanette, a bar of French soap form Norma-in just two weeks this atheist Grinch has managed to scatter $1,001 across New York City and the World Wide Web. I am not in the spirit, but somehow I have gotten with the program.” {pg. 1}
“We should take the advanced placement exam and test of the course altogether!” {pg. 72}
“It occurs to me that I have better choices in paint than I do in presidents.” {pg. 193}
“I find it hard to know whose interests are being served when a husband gives his wife a boob job for Christmas.” {pg. 244}
“Teach a man to fish and he will buy a pair of $400 Simms waders. then, he’ll have to go back to work and stay overtime to pay the bill, and he won’t have time to wear them.” {pg. 258}
I think the best part of the memoir was that Levine lapped twice. She’s flawed and not here to tell us that the rest of us are horrible, over consuming Americans who are as righteous as us.
It’s an interesting memoir that had me wondering if I could do it and what really is the point of shopping?
Not Buying It reads like a blog. It’s simple and straight-forward. The memoir had me wondering if I could survive without
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shopping, though the gas would be the problem. I tagged over 25 passages I liked or could relate to, that’s how much this book spoke to me.“The idea occurs to me, as so many desperate resolutions do, during the holiday season. I have maxed out the Visa, moved on to the Citibank debit card, and am tapping the ATM like an Iraqi guerrilla pulling crude from the pipeline. Convinced I am picking up no more than the occasional trinket-a tree ornament for Howard and Nanette, a bar of French soap form Norma-in just two weeks this atheist Grinch has managed to scatter $1,001 across New York City and the World Wide Web. I am not in the spirit, but somehow I have gotten with the program.” {pg. 1}
“We should take the advanced placement exam and test of the course altogether!” {pg. 72}
“It occurs to me that I have better choices in paint than I do in presidents.” {pg. 193}
“I find it hard to know whose interests are being served when a husband gives his wife a boob job for Christmas.” {pg. 244}
“Teach a man to fish and he will buy a pair of $400 Simms waders. then, he’ll have to go back to work and stay overtime to pay the bill, and he won’t have time to wear them.” {pg. 258}
I think the best part of the memoir was that Levine lapped twice. She’s flawed and not here to tell us that the rest of us are horrible, over consuming Americans who are as righteous as us.
It’s an interesting memoir that had me wondering if I could do it and what really is the point of shopping?
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LibraryThing member debnance
Levine and her partner decided to buy only essential items for a year. Fun to read about. Could I do it? Mmmm.
LibraryThing member kikilon
I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it was something else. Don't get me wrong, I love the book, but it's slightly disorienting if you get something other than you thought you'd get. This is one of those 'reassess your life' books. I found it very intriguing.
Tags: readings
Tags: readings
LibraryThing member ndbecks
This book was a little too "preachy" for my taste.
LibraryThing member elliepotten
An ingenious concept, born well before the current wave of books cashing in on the recession. Levine and her partner make the decision to purchase nothing but necessities for one year in order to reach consumer enlightenment. That means no frivolous spending or feel-good trips to the shoe shop.
Some of the book does indeed offer inspiration, but it has to be said that this predominantly comes from Levine's encounters with other eco-friendly non-consumers and discussion of current affairs, rather than from her own actions. She has a much-too-luxurious sense of what constitutes a 'necessity', and talks far too much about skiing! She would have been better off writing this as an investigative piece rather than bringing her shallowness to light in a book designed to do the opposite...
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Hmmmm.Some of the book does indeed offer inspiration, but it has to be said that this predominantly comes from Levine's encounters with other eco-friendly non-consumers and discussion of current affairs, rather than from her own actions. She has a much-too-luxurious sense of what constitutes a 'necessity', and talks far too much about skiing! She would have been better off writing this as an investigative piece rather than bringing her shallowness to light in a book designed to do the opposite...
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LibraryThing member kristenn
The book is basically a diary. The couple makes a resolution at the end of December - inspired by holiday shopping, of course - to try to go a full calendar year without buying anything nonessential. They're both professional writers, so keeping a record is a no-brainer. They're in their late 40s
They spend winters in Vermont and summers in New York City, so the first few months are relatively easy. It gets harder in the city. Movies (cinema or rental) are out. Coffee shops are out. Socializing gets complicated. They argue over whether wine is essential. Gift-giving occasions get awkward.
It was much more real-life than you'd think. And by that I mean she did have trouble with this. Recycling is easy but giving up cute shoes is hard. Especially when they're on sale. And then feeling guilty about not wanting to give up cute shoes. And they never considered continuing to live like that forever. Although she did interview people who are much more radical.
Random factoids that I found particularly interesting:
- In 2003, they came out with a pill for compulsive shopping: Celexa.
- The French word for window-shopping is la leche-vitrine. It translates literally into 'licking shop windows.'
- "I've come to the journalism department of New York University, to talk with my friend, editor, and comrade in arms, the cultural critic Ellen Willis. Ellen is one of the country's smartest cartographers of the terrain where the personal meets the political, and for decades she has been writing about the parallels between religious-right and political-left conservatism. Both of these condemn what they see as the excesses of the Sixties and Seventies sexual liberation and cultural freedom movements; each blames these movements for what ails America. Neither has any use for "hedonism" and both preach sacrifice and moderation -- chastity on the right, anticonsumerism on the left."
- "Socialists and labor unions address this maldistribution by demanding higher wages and lower taxes for lower-income workers. Juliet Schor agrees that the underpaid need and deserve to be paid and to keep more. But, she has recently argued, simply increasing wages won't reduce the happiness deficit in the U.S. As long as the wealth gap endures, the relentless need to keep up with the Gateses will mean that wages never meet perceived need. Given all our needs/desires, more leisure is unlikely to turn the happiness tide either. As I noticed on the mountain trail in Bozeman, leisure is a form of work, requiring tools. Teach a man to fish and he will buy a pair of $400 Simms waders. Then, he'll have to go back to work and stay overtime to pay the bill, and he won't have time to wear them."
The actual year in which the book takes place is 2004, so the October and November chapters go completely off-topic. Like I said, moveon.org.
There are some really interesting relevant tangents on the world economy, free trade, etc. You get a very global picture. Which is nice. I'm getting tired of rants about evil "American" habits that are actually practiced across the world. That doesn't make them acceptable, but it's really just as nationalistic and narrow to say we're the only ones doing crappy things as it is to say we're the only ones doing good things. And there wasn't a single, ultimate villain, despite her despair at the election results. Most policies are made at a very local level. Where it's also much easier to have an influence, which takes work, so that's one reason people prefer to blame Washington. Absolution.
Anyway, I'm glad I read it. I'm not going to attempt my own experiment, but there was some really useful food for thought and I hope it can lead to me at least buying less. The message wasn't "don't accumulate stuff." It was "stop and think periodically about why exactly you want stuff." She got really bored when she wasn't spending money. Which then made her feel really boring. Those are good things to notice and think through. (And the money saved went to pay off pre-existing credit card debt. These are normal people.)
Final interesting observation near the end:
"During our year without shopping, Paul and I had extra time, energy, and money to act as citizens. We also felt more personally the need to do so. Self-exiled from the shops and eateries, we had no place to hang out but the old publick square. There we found much that was rich and surprising, but we also discovered that what our nation owns in common is in critically bad shape. Libraries, schools, and bridges are falling down...
With the public sector in the shop for repairs, anyone seeking pleasure, sustenance, community, and meaning (not to mention health care or education) has nowhere to turn but to private consumption."
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and childless and already very progressive, artsy, NPR, moveon.org, etc., so it's not a particularly radical idea. They spend winters in Vermont and summers in New York City, so the first few months are relatively easy. It gets harder in the city. Movies (cinema or rental) are out. Coffee shops are out. Socializing gets complicated. They argue over whether wine is essential. Gift-giving occasions get awkward.
It was much more real-life than you'd think. And by that I mean she did have trouble with this. Recycling is easy but giving up cute shoes is hard. Especially when they're on sale. And then feeling guilty about not wanting to give up cute shoes. And they never considered continuing to live like that forever. Although she did interview people who are much more radical.
Random factoids that I found particularly interesting:
- In 2003, they came out with a pill for compulsive shopping: Celexa.
- The French word for window-shopping is la leche-vitrine. It translates literally into 'licking shop windows.'
- "I've come to the journalism department of New York University, to talk with my friend, editor, and comrade in arms, the cultural critic Ellen Willis. Ellen is one of the country's smartest cartographers of the terrain where the personal meets the political, and for decades she has been writing about the parallels between religious-right and political-left conservatism. Both of these condemn what they see as the excesses of the Sixties and Seventies sexual liberation and cultural freedom movements; each blames these movements for what ails America. Neither has any use for "hedonism" and both preach sacrifice and moderation -- chastity on the right, anticonsumerism on the left."
- "Socialists and labor unions address this maldistribution by demanding higher wages and lower taxes for lower-income workers. Juliet Schor agrees that the underpaid need and deserve to be paid and to keep more. But, she has recently argued, simply increasing wages won't reduce the happiness deficit in the U.S. As long as the wealth gap endures, the relentless need to keep up with the Gateses will mean that wages never meet perceived need. Given all our needs/desires, more leisure is unlikely to turn the happiness tide either. As I noticed on the mountain trail in Bozeman, leisure is a form of work, requiring tools. Teach a man to fish and he will buy a pair of $400 Simms waders. Then, he'll have to go back to work and stay overtime to pay the bill, and he won't have time to wear them."
The actual year in which the book takes place is 2004, so the October and November chapters go completely off-topic. Like I said, moveon.org.
There are some really interesting relevant tangents on the world economy, free trade, etc. You get a very global picture. Which is nice. I'm getting tired of rants about evil "American" habits that are actually practiced across the world. That doesn't make them acceptable, but it's really just as nationalistic and narrow to say we're the only ones doing crappy things as it is to say we're the only ones doing good things. And there wasn't a single, ultimate villain, despite her despair at the election results. Most policies are made at a very local level. Where it's also much easier to have an influence, which takes work, so that's one reason people prefer to blame Washington. Absolution.
Anyway, I'm glad I read it. I'm not going to attempt my own experiment, but there was some really useful food for thought and I hope it can lead to me at least buying less. The message wasn't "don't accumulate stuff." It was "stop and think periodically about why exactly you want stuff." She got really bored when she wasn't spending money. Which then made her feel really boring. Those are good things to notice and think through. (And the money saved went to pay off pre-existing credit card debt. These are normal people.)
Final interesting observation near the end:
"During our year without shopping, Paul and I had extra time, energy, and money to act as citizens. We also felt more personally the need to do so. Self-exiled from the shops and eateries, we had no place to hang out but the old publick square. There we found much that was rich and surprising, but we also discovered that what our nation owns in common is in critically bad shape. Libraries, schools, and bridges are falling down...
With the public sector in the shop for repairs, anyone seeking pleasure, sustenance, community, and meaning (not to mention health care or education) has nowhere to turn but to private consumption."
Show Less
LibraryThing member justicefortibet
The subject is intriguing but the book gets repetitive and more than a little whiny. If she truly wanted to commit to not buying why spend so much time and effort trying to get around self imposed restrictions? Looking for loopholes seems to be a bit disingenuous.
LibraryThing member sturlington
I thought this account of an experiment in which the author buys nothing that is not a “necessity” — a rather loosely defined term, in this context — promised an insightful look at the rampant consumerism that marks our times. Instead, we get to ponder the absurdity of not buying anything
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while living in New York City, endure the author’s agonies over purchasing a $3 used shirt in a thrift store where the profits help homeless women (how less consumerist can you get?), and wonder why organic coffee is a necessity but dining out with friends is not. This book did make me think about commerce in general, about how using your dollars to support the things you value — such as local businesses, good books and independent music — is wiser than not buying anything at all, because that way, we all get to make a living. Besides, it was pretty obvious that Levine only wrote this book so she could have her entry in the nonfiction “here’s the crazy thing I tried for a while and what I learned from it” genre that was started by that woman who worked for minimum wage, and I have to kick myself for being such a sucker as to have actually bought this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member flourgirl49
The author of this book and her partner decide to cut out all unnecessary spending for a year, which started out as an interesting concept but veered off into too much emphasis on political points. Several times the author refers to their home in Vermont as being in the "Northeast Kingdom" which I
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had never heard of and had to look up - turns out the Northeast Kingdom consists of just 3 counties in the northeastern corner of Vermont - seemed kind of snobby. I found the book disappointing. Show Less
LibraryThing member Salsabrarian
By the time I got around to reading this, I couldn't help remembering someone's crack about the simple-living movement not being new; it's called being poor. Of course, simple living is a deliberate lifestyle whereas being poor isn't anything people really strive for. Still, I just couldn't really
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buy this story about a childless, educated, intellectual couple making a decent living and owning a New York apartment and Vermont cabin, attempting to live simply. The author does a lot of intellectualizing and quoting philosophers, and by the September chapter I just lost patience. I rode it out through the December chapter and the one thing I could appreciate about their year-long experiment is that it got them more civically engaged. If it were written from a different approach, I might have enjoyed it more. Show Less
LibraryThing member Meggo
This book follows a year-long project in anti-consumerism in which the author and her partner sought to buy only necessities. No movies. No purchased books. No dining out. Through it all they discovered things they really valued and which could not be bought. The book includes not just the
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narrative of the experience, but also thoughtful commentary on consumerism, its sources and results. It made me want to simplify my own life, right after buying the book...oops. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2006
Physical description
286 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
1416526838 / 9781416526834