A review by emilylandry
Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by Rob Walker

4.0

I decided to read this book after seeing it on a booklist on a craft blog. There is only a very small section - not even a full chapter - on marketing, consumerism, etc in the diy/craft world, but it was a great section. This book was great for thinking about how marketing pervades our lives, and how we participate in that. Walker is both suspicious of the marketing techniques of companies, and aware of the pleasure that we get from consuming and having marketed to us products that we use to help shape our identities. Some of the language he makes up to describe modern marketing techniques (murketing, the interpreter) is a little clunky, but the book is a quick, straightforward, and even fun read.