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Not Buying It By Judith Levine Summary

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Judith Levine wrote the book “Not Buying It’’.It is a nonfiction book about Judith Levine,along with her friend Paul,to go 12 months(1 year)without shopping . Levine researched consumerism and anti-consumerist movements.Judith Levine was led to write “Not Buying It’; because she thought it was “the confession of a woman any reader can identify with.Someone who can’t live without French roast coffee or SmartWool socks,but someone who has reached their limit with our consumption,and its effects on the earth and everyone who dwells here”. Judith Levine also thought back to September 11,2001,when” the president and the mayor were telling us we could defeat the terrorists by going out and buying more stuff”.Levine wanted to investigate feelings…show more content…
The main points of the book are divided up,and go month by month.Each month is a new topic.Judith is challenged against her own word of not buying anything for a new year.The book witnesses Levine’s journey from enthusiastic experiment in January to a still game but weary participant by the fall.As favorite luxuries run out and clothes become shabbier,many of her points are intentionally provacative.For instance,not buying makes her feel vulnerable and having to ask for help.”I know I’m not alone in my ambivalence about consuming”After a few months Levine does not have to ask for help anymore.She is used to not buying anything,but it is still hard.At the beginning of her year without shopping,she is in a panic.This is not necessarily a personal panic.”Still I am moved by a sense of personal responsibility,not to say personal panic ,about this big,bad problem and the rapidity with which its is getting worse”’At the end of the book ,her mood changed from “panic”’to prosperity.Panic,Surplus,Consumer Psychology,New and Improved,In/Voulnatary Simplicity,Scarity,Redistribution of Wealth,Structual Adjustments,Memories of Underdevelpment,Security Fraud,Brand America,The Ownership Society and Prosperity.are the fifteen chapters in “Not Buying It”.Within each chapter, we discover,the different difficult trade-offs and tensions in not consuming.By focusing primarily on the personal choices and consequences of not shopping,Levine may be telling us more about the mind-set of American…show more content…
I usually read fiction books or autobiographies.With this book,I was challenged to read it.Before reading this book,I didn’t think I would learn anything.But now that I am almost at the end of the book,I have learned that everything is not worth buying.Only the necessary things,like food and clothes is necessary.It is not easy to just to shopping for an whole year.Time and comittment has to be put in effect and used fot this to be possible.I hoped to learn why us Americans wrap our heads around buying stuff we don’t even need.Before I started reading this book,the one question I had was”Could I go a year without buying anything”?.Even before starting my way on the first page I asked myself this.I had the thought “Would this book change my spending”?Now that I am at the end of the book,the questions I had have been answered.Yes,I could go a year without shopping.Yes,the book did change my overview of spending.Similar to Judith,I would struggle along the way to up hold my decision to not buy anything for a whole year.It’s important to realize the things that are necessary to buy and to draw the line between we we need and what we
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