Jari W. (Jari) -
Helpful Score: 2
When I was at the library this past weekend, I was looking for a friendly book about organizing the home. I saw "Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping" by Judith Levine. I thought it might be fun, an entertaining tale of not buying, struggling to do without or making your own, and so on.
Boy was I wrong!
Judith and her partner Paul decided one Christmas season to spend a year without buying anything, except for necessities. During this year, they continued adding on to one of their homes, one of three, including two in Vermont & one in New York City. They discussed selling one of three cars and decided they needed all three of them. They stocked up on several things to last them as long as possible before embarking on the first day of January with no buying. OK I can handle this. They made decisions I disagree with, but it's their life.
And then comes January 1st. No buying of new clothes, even though the t-shirt looks out of place in the ski lodge. No buying wax for the skis. Instead ask to borrow some. And the economy! It's all the fault of the Republicans and the religious! They are all dumb people. The whole book goes on like this: philosophical ruminations, and derogatory comments towards those of other persuasions. It is not a light-hearted book at all or one of really getting along without. No talk of big gardens to replace buying: no, food is a necessity and must be bought. Although the flowers in the flower boxes are replaced with tomatoes, not so much to help with eating but because buying flower bulbs is out of the question. Yet hair cuts at $55 a pop are also a necessity.
Don't worry - the book isn' all bad. There was one good thing about it: I didn't buy it but checked it out from the library and am going to return it asap!
Boy was I wrong!
Judith and her partner Paul decided one Christmas season to spend a year without buying anything, except for necessities. During this year, they continued adding on to one of their homes, one of three, including two in Vermont & one in New York City. They discussed selling one of three cars and decided they needed all three of them. They stocked up on several things to last them as long as possible before embarking on the first day of January with no buying. OK I can handle this. They made decisions I disagree with, but it's their life.
And then comes January 1st. No buying of new clothes, even though the t-shirt looks out of place in the ski lodge. No buying wax for the skis. Instead ask to borrow some. And the economy! It's all the fault of the Republicans and the religious! They are all dumb people. The whole book goes on like this: philosophical ruminations, and derogatory comments towards those of other persuasions. It is not a light-hearted book at all or one of really getting along without. No talk of big gardens to replace buying: no, food is a necessity and must be bought. Although the flowers in the flower boxes are replaced with tomatoes, not so much to help with eating but because buying flower bulbs is out of the question. Yet hair cuts at $55 a pop are also a necessity.
Don't worry - the book isn' all bad. There was one good thing about it: I didn't buy it but checked it out from the library and am going to return it asap!
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