Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping

Many of us have tried to call a halt to our spending at one time or another. But what if we decided not to buy anything for a whole year? Obviously, we would need necessities like food and soap, but how would be manage without new clothes, treats, entertainment? Funny, smart and self-deprecating, Not Buying It is a close look at our society's obsession with shopping and the cold turkey confession of a woman we can all identify with - someone who can't live without French roast coffee and expensive wool socks, but who has had enough of spending money for the sake of it. Without consumer goods and experiences, Levine and her partner Paul pursue their careers, nurture family relationships and try to keep their sanity and humour intact. Tracking their progress and lapses, she contemplates the meanings of need and desire, scarcity and security, consumerism and citizenship. She asks the big questions - can the economy survive without shopping? Are Q-tips a necessity? A thought-provoking account of the pleasures and perils of the purchase-driven life, Not Buying It will get readers talking about their reliance on the act of buying and the possibility of getting off the merry-go-round.

About the Author :
Judith Levine's work explores the ways history, culture, and politics express themselves in intimate life. She is the writer of scores of articles for national magazines and four books, including Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Levine lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Hardwick, Vermont, where she writes the column "Poli Psy," on the public uses of emotion, for the weekly Seven Days.

Review :
"I love this book."-- Barbara Ehrenreich "One of the five best books on consumer culture."-- Paco Underhill, "The Wall Street Journal" "Sharp and witty.... honest and humorous.... By thinking harder about how it would feel to consume less, we might just make ourselves -- and out planet -- a lot better."-- "The Christian Science Monitor" "Well worth its price!"-- Editor's Choice, "Entertainment Weekly" "An Important Book."-- Bill McKibben "I love this book."-- Barbara Ehrenreich "With great wit and spirit, Judith Levine tackles a profound question: Why do we buy and what do we get out of it? Clue: the answer is not just things. Outside the marketplace, the author travels from Simplicity self-help meetings to the terrorism marketplace, from confrontations with private longing to celebrations of the public good -- and from consumer to citizen. If you have to do without, or just want to do with less, Levine is the person to do it with." -- Barbara Ehrenreich, author of "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" and "Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream"