Blergh! Feeling quite wretched today. I seem to have picked up some sort of tummy bug & feel rather fragile.
So I’m curled up in bed reading stuffocation, which I spontaneously bought (thanks kindle!) because I saw it in the most excellent ganching’s currently reading sidebar and I am nothing if not a joiner.
I know I am a dreadful bore about this subject, but the kindle has really made such a positive difference to my reading. I can see a book and be reading it minutes later! Glorious! But yes, of course I am quite conflicted about loving it so because Amazon can skate very close to the evil.
Back to the book, I am not really connecting terribly well with the writing style, but it is choc-full of interesting interestingness. For example, I had no idea that planned obsolescence started in the US in the 1920s, I’d have assumed post WW2.
The thesis seems to be (though I’m not very far in) that there is a general trend away from being acquisitive and more toward experiences. And that there is a general shift away from admiring/envying people for the stuff they have to admiring/envying for they stuff they have done.
I definitely feel this way, I’m much more interested in people’s lives than in the things they have. I feel like I should make some wisecrack here along the lines of “except for people who have x … ” but I’m way too queasy to come up with something suitable.
Hopefully reading and sleep will cure what ails me.
I think you have summarised the book really well. The central tenet I think is sound but I kept thinking I would really dislike the author if I met him in real life. I was hoping it was going to be a critique of capitalism but it wasn’t. Having said that it did inspire me to really think about “stuff” and the necessity for it to stop coming into my home. Hope you feel better. I also have the lurgy again having just recovered from the cold.
I’m now 60% in according to the kindle (but that 60% includes the apparently extensive end notes**)
Style still grating. He could REALLY have done with a better editor. It’s almost as though it was self-published.
Still feeling rotten, came home around 2pm yesterday and slept, went to bed early & slept for almost 12 hours. Dr on Monday if no improvement. Pretty unpleasant.
I hope you recover soon! It’s horrible to be unwell – especially when it happens back to back.
**downside to ebooks is the lack of being able to see where you are and how much filler there is at the back of a book. Like those books that have first chapters of other books at the end – annoying!