Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping
by Judith Levine
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
non-fiction readers
Early on, the author recognizes the need to seek out Freud: "[The fetish] becomes pathological when the longing for the fetish passes beyond the point of being merely a necessary condition attached to the sexual object and actually takes the place of the normal aim."
Judith Levine goes on to say, "I replace the word sexual with the word athletic (sports having supplanted sex in the American erotic imagination anyway),and yikes, I am looking at myself in the mirror. The SmartWo...more
Judith Levine goes on to say, "I replace the word sexual with the word athletic (sports having supplanted sex in the American erotic imagination anyway),and yikes, I am looking at myself in the mirror. The SmartWo...more
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Read in June, 2007
I requested this book through Inter Library Loan at my work and read it in a weekend. It is a month-by-month documentation of a self-employed New York author's project of abstaining from buying anything outside of the absolutely necessary for one year. It was a lot more human than I thought it was going to be. By that, I mean that there were no black and white judgments about being a consumer. For instance, her struggle with defining what is "necessary" involved a great examination of ...more
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I didn't buy this (I got it from the library). I was amazed, first of all, at how awkwardly-written it is considering the author is a professional editor. It's repetitive, and there is actually very little focused attention paid to any guidelines she has for what is "necessary". She has minimal insight and seems to have missed the point of her own book.
While the author does raise some good points, she doesn't do it all that effectively. This was one of the most incredibly s...more
While the author does raise some good points, she doesn't do it all that effectively. This was one of the most incredibly s...more
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Read in March, 2008
Overall I liked the basic premise of this book, but had a few problems with it. I really had to force myself to finish it. The problems with the book were that she got far too political and bashed Bush for whole chapters. Now, he's not my personal favorite, but I just didn't want to read that in this type of book. Also she spend chapters on the cell tower they were building in her quiet town of Vermont and the citizens reaction to it. I just don't care.
But here's what I liked about this...more
But here's what I liked about this...more
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Read in April, 2007
I expected this to be simply a personal account of spending a year "not buying it" -- meaning, buying only "essentials." I thought Levine would voice her frustrations and share humorous anecdotes, and would toss in some of the well-known statistics on American consumption (the credit card debt, the home foreclosures, the rapaciously with which we devour the world's resources, the sweat shops filling our stores with cheap crap and our landfills with castoffs, etc.). And she do...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
library
Not Buying It by Judith Levine was a book in my 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.
This book reads like a blog. It's simple and straight-forward. Not Buying It had me wondering if I could survive without shopping.
[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 despe...more
This book reads like a blog. It's simple and straight-forward. Not Buying It had me wondering if I could survive without shopping.
[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 despe...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Amanda by:
Liz Hosmer
My sister recommended this book to me because I had started to reevaluate my spending habits, and had decided to try and buck the consumerist mindset that caused me to start to slip into credit card debt.
The book is written by a woman who decided that for one year, she and her husband would buy NOTHING that was not absolutely necessary. No dinners out, no new clothes, no prepared foods, and so on.
The book started out as an interesting description of how hard it was to make the mental sw...more
The book is written by a woman who decided that for one year, she and her husband would buy NOTHING that was not absolutely necessary. No dinners out, no new clothes, no prepared foods, and so on.
The book started out as an interesting description of how hard it was to make the mental sw...more
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recommends it for:
smug liberal super hippies
I actually couldn't finish this book.
Sure she was funny and entertaining but it takes a certain kind of constitution to take in all the super liberal hippie bullshit she tries to "sneak" in under the radar. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I hate super liberal hippie's, I love them. But I'm not about to inundate myself with all their propaganda and that was exactly what I was inviting into bed with me every night before I went to bed and it suuuuucked.
Honestly, the point where...more
Sure she was funny and entertaining but it takes a certain kind of constitution to take in all the super liberal hippie bullshit she tries to "sneak" in under the radar. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I hate super liberal hippie's, I love them. But I'm not about to inundate myself with all their propaganda and that was exactly what I was inviting into bed with me every night before I went to bed and it suuuuucked.
Honestly, the point where...more
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Read in September, 2006
an intriguing title, but mostly it seems like another one of these books by rich people who are trying to “simplify” their lives by kicking the starbucks and prada habit. granted, this author did manage to cut her spending for an entire year, but much of the book was focused on her debates about whether something was an “essential” or not. (she was allowed to purchase essentials such as food and toilet paper–but nothing fancy–no processed food items and (presumably) no scented toilet...more
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I got this book for 75-cents at the Friends of the Seattle Public Library book sale. I wander through that sale and pick up books that I probably wouldn't BUY at full price but WOULD pick up at the library. But the book sale is better than the library 'cause I can keep it.
I enjoyed this book. I've read a ton of books on frugality, simple living, etc. (and realize that I probably haven't added them to my booklist -yet. I will do so soon.)
If someone picked up this book as a "how to NO...more
I enjoyed this book. I've read a ton of books on frugality, simple living, etc. (and realize that I probably haven't added them to my booklist -yet. I will do so soon.)
If someone picked up this book as a "how to NO...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in May, 2008
Levine writes about her yearlong endeavor to "Buy Nothing" in an easy-to-read journal style. She has an excellent mix of personal stories and hot-off-the-press facts. Levine takes time to vent and stand on her soap box, but these experiences make the reader realize that we are all human and have room for bettering ourselves.
Through her journey, Levine recognize the value of the public good, including resources such as libraries, museums and schools. Although she was writing duri...more
Through her journey, Levine recognize the value of the public good, including resources such as libraries, museums and schools. Although she was writing duri...more
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recommends it for:
People who are thrifty at heart, but not in practice
I am recommending this book for its humor and ability to motivate the financial savvy saver buried deep within us all. In my case, my saver self sunk so low it went down my shower drain.
Judith Levine recounts a year she and her husband spent buying only essential items. They saw no movies, bought no gifts, and kept their wallets shut during the holidays. Imagine no dinners out, skipping that little chocolate treat at the store, and being forbidden to buy the newest Glade plug-in scent! This m...more
Judith Levine recounts a year she and her husband spent buying only essential items. They saw no movies, bought no gifts, and kept their wallets shut during the holidays. Imagine no dinners out, skipping that little chocolate treat at the store, and being forbidden to buy the newest Glade plug-in scent! This m...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
NPRers
What was a promising premise, not buying non-essentials for a year and critiquing consumer society, sadly turned into a lot of unjust whining by the Author. Indeed, much of the book is a 'poor me' attitude about not being able to buy things that are already a luxury many of us can not afford. The most annoying part was when her and her boyfriend are trying to decide to sell one of their many cars and complaining about how hard it is! As someone who choose to have zero cars, I found it ridicul...more
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I know, this doesn't seem like something I'd choose, and of course I didn't--it's a book club book. When I first started it, I was enjoying it--I was caught up in the start of Levine's project and thinking about how I need to watch my own shopping habit more closely. But as the book went on, her memoir-cum-journalist-essay style grew wearing--I liked the memoir bits enough, but then she'd be like, "So then I consulted such and such expert at such and such academic center" and cite a bu...more
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Read in May, 2008
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This is one of my rare forays into non-fiction. The concept reminds me somewhat of Barbara Ehrenreich’s excellent Nickel and Dimed, in which the author spent a year working minimum-wage jobs. Levine and her partner spent a year not consuming all but the most basic necessities (food, mostly). In another author’s hands, this book might have been a smug, sanctimonious object lesson in the evils of overconsumption. But Levine is a terrific writer, and she engages the reader immediately with her ...more
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Read in March, 2007
I picked up this book after hearing the author on NPR, and I was interested because we were deep into working to get out of debt and I related to many things the author said about living frugally. While she admits she wasn't trying to save money with this project, in the end, she and her partner saved thousands of dollars in their year of not buying. I had trouble with the fact that the couple had no leeway in their budget, even to buy a $1 "green bun" from a street vendor. We allow ou...more
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recommends it for:
consumers and environmentalists
Levine's tale of a year without shopping for any non-necessary items was an interesting one. She certainly has a viewpoint to begin with, and for those of you who are incredulously reading this review, she does slip twice (clothes can seduce even the most resolved of savers!) Saving money isn't the root of the issue though, environmentalism is. If you've heard of the "environmental footprint" argument- that's where this book is going.
Since I'm sure you're wondering. Food is a neces...more
Since I'm sure you're wondering. Food is a neces...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
fake liberals
This book was awful. The experiment the author poses is a worthy one: go a year without shopping (necessities excluded.) Unfortunately, the author and her husband find a way to categorize nearly EVERYTHING as a "necessity," including (but not limited to): three cars (there are only two people in their family), an addition to their SUMMER home, the New York Times and Starbucks on Sundays, gourmet food for their cat and a $12 pair of socks. And that's all before page 40. Further compound...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
Alice Waters, insufferably smug liberal yuppies
This book had such potential. It actually started out interesting, with discussions between the author and her partner about ground rules, struggling to follow them, being acutely aware of how much they buy that they don't need. After the first half it devolved into political rantings that had little, if anything, to do with the topic at hand. While I could see a connection, however tenuous, between consumerism and the proposed cell phone tower in the tiny Vermont town where the author spends ha...more
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