This June, we’re encouraging our annual summer goal of enjoying the perks of leisurely working your way through a reading list by actually providing you with some of our favorite books to add to your own reading list. We’ve taken the effort to break it down for you into three lists so that you can hopefully find exactly what you’re looking for – a list of environmental books, a list of favorite recent leisure reading and our current list, the consumerism list. This collection includes both books on consumer society as well as media and even a marketing book thrown in. Yes, it’s likely the least “fun” list of the three, but it may be the most valuable for helping you to break the cycle of addictive consumerism and find the satisfaction of enough. What books do we recommend that you add to your nightstand pile? Here’s our list!
We do want to say that, while this is a list of our favorites, there are actually so many great books out there on this topic that we can’t possibly cover them all. We do appreciate the collection on goodreads though. If you want to read even more books on consumerism than we’re recommending, be sure to scroll through their list!
The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health – and a Vision for Change, Annie Leonard
We’d be remiss if we didn’t start out our list with the matching book (and movie) about the impact of consumerism and the gigantic amounts of “stuff” it creates on every facet of our lives. Annie Leonard tracks the journey of “stuff” from factories and manufacturing all the way to the landfill. What are we ruining with how we create stuff, what are we ruining even more by how we dispose of stuff and what’s the personal and physical damage that happens in between? If you’re going to start somewhere to get a big picture idea, this book is the place!
Affluenza, Third Edition: How Overconsumption Is Killing Us and How to Fight Back, John De Graaf, David Wann, Thomas H. Naylor
Affluenza has reached a bit of a buzzword status these days, but that doesn’t mean that it’s still not a concept that’s mission critical to understanding (and accepting the existence of) the devastating nature of addictive consumerism. This Third Edition includes an introduction to Postconsumers and features our Get Satisfied cartoons throughout. The book itself is based on two PBS documentaries and manages to use enough cleverness to keep you compelled to know the troubling facts about the endless quest for material gain and what it’s creating in our world. If you’re not entirely bought into addictive consumerism as a problem, this is a great starting point for you (or others).
Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, Judith Levine
To be clear, we don’t think that you, or anybody else, needs to stop shopping. We just want you to shop with a conscience, especially about how much is enough for today, and make thoughtful decisions about why you’re shopping. With that said, we think that the realizations that Judith Levine and her partner Paul come to when they do a year buying only absolutely necessary purchases can be a guidepost and inspiration for anybody who wants to explore how to reduce your interaction with the consumer machine. No, we generally don’t think that the most extreme example is always the best example. But we do think that there are always lessons and tools that come from studying the extremes.
Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, Ellen Ruppel Shell
From its impact on American jobs to its impact on the planet! Ellen Ruppel Shell is a correspondent for The Atlantic who transferred her research from her journalistic efforts to a book. While changing hearts and minds about the constant quest for the lowest price will take more than a book, this one is an excellent jumping off point for understanding the evolution of big box stores, dollar stores and how consumerism both feeds and is fed by this downward spiral.
How on Earth: Flourishing in a Not-for-Profit World by 2050, Jennifer Hinton, Donnie Maclurcan
This groundbreaking book is scheduled for release at the end of July 2016 by the Post Growth Institute, which coordinates the great Post Growth Alliance that Postconsumers participates in (international network of about 50 organizations building a megaphone for the movement). The publication is nothing less than a brilliant blueprint for a sustainable and successful economic system that is already flowering to replace the grease of addictive consumerism.
No Logo, Naomi Klein
If you want to delve deep into the black waters of consumer and corporate marketing and how it encourages (or manipulates, your choice of words) you on an almost hourly basis to stay wrapped in the warm blanket of addictive consumerism, then this is the book for you. But what is more important about this book is that it gives equal page space to explaining the forces that are fighting against corporate sponsorship of your life. You’ll be both horrified and inspired by the end. At least we were.
