Give It Up!: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less
by Mary Carlomagno
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Read in March, 2008
I'd heard of this book from comments on a blog where the blogger had decided to not purchase anything unnecessary during this year.
Carlomagno, the author, chose to give up 12 of her comforts (one per month) during a year. Sort of like Lent. And it really did help her to change her life. After each month, she was able to again have what she had sacrificed -- but she did learn a lot about herself each month. And, after each month, she is able to find that she can live without as much of what s...more
Carlomagno, the author, chose to give up 12 of her comforts (one per month) during a year. Sort of like Lent. And it really did help her to change her life. After each month, she was able to again have what she had sacrificed -- but she did learn a lot about herself each month. And, after each month, she is able to find that she can live without as much of what s...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
no one.
Ugh.. why did I buy this book? It seemed like such an interesting concept. The author wrote about her experiences with giving up one thing a month (such as alcohol, chocolate, etc) and supposedly how it changed her life. Unfortunately, this was one of the worst books I've ever read. The author came across as shallow and uninteresting. Her sacrifices weren't all that detrimental, but she certainly acted as though they were. And then, at the end, there was no lasting change whatsoever - all ...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
no one!
I agree with some of the (negative) reviewers' comments on this book. The idea is good, but I was expecting some kind of transformation. It seems like the author learned something each month, but it certainly wasn't something that would change her life much. I imagine after this year, the author's lifestyle changed a little: she probably took the stairs more, took fewer taxis, maybe shopped a little more responsibly, but overall I was just expecting something more. It was almost like the aut...more
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Read in January, 2008
Okay, so this book had a very interesting premise. I like the idea of trying to live without something for a while. I honestly cannot imagine my life without tv, chocolate, or diet coke (diet dr. pepper as of late). However because there's 150 or so pages and 12 sections (one for each month) there's just not enough depth into anything. And some of the sections seemed pointless--like when she gave up chocolate...she regretted doing it and swore she wouldn't do it again. Well, that makes me r...more
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Read in January, 2008
I really enjoyed reading this book. From the title you can probably figure out that this book is about the author, Mary, giving up something in her life in order to relieve a busy life. She tells funny tales of giving up things like shopping and her cell phone for a month and interesting things like newspapers and taxis. A motivating and fun read that left me with some things to think about.
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Read in April, 2008
What a crappy book. A brilliant idea taken and ruined by a shallow author who learned next to nothing from her experiment. How hard is it to really give up buying shoes for a month? Seriously. LAME.
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Read in February, 2006
The author gave up what I'd consider luxuries--like weekly cocktail binges and taxi rides, so it was more an exercise in discipline than any sort of life changing experience. I'd like to read something about people giving up spending all together.
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Read in October, 2007
This was a very interesting book. Author picked a particular thing to give up each month, i.e. alcohol, eating out. Her observations were very interesting. I'm not sure I could give up some of the things she did for a month...chocolate.
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Read in January, 2008
I first saw this book on the barnes and noble website while searching for books. The concept intrigued me, and I have to say, I was not disappointed.
Entertaining read that helps keep things in perspective.
Entertaining read that helps keep things in perspective.
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Read in November, 2006
Interesting book written by a woman sharing her desire to give up 1 passion a month. I tried it myself and it is hard to find things that would be tough enough to give up to make the effort worth while.
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Read in July, 2008
The book itself was nice fluff-writing, but I do love the concept and it has actually inspired me to do my own form of "giving it up". This month is alcohol... so be kind to me. ;)
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2008
This book could have been 5 stars but it lost steam towards the end. And she didn't really wrap up her year with what she learned. So the end just dropped off for me in a bad way.
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Read in April, 2007
Well, really she didn't learn much of anything. As soon as each month was over, she just went back to living exactly the way she did before.
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Read in March, 2007
Great to read during Lent - a lesson in self denial and true abundance.
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Read in July, 2007
This book attacks our consumer-driven lifestyle in a fun, quirky way.
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