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

4.0

The focus here is on the specific brands we choose when we buy things, rather than on just how much stuff we're buying in general. Although there is some of the latter too, especially in the context of creating new markets. Some nicely-balanced examples of how our choices are more complex and less shallow than popularly assumed and how brand communities are real communities. The line between using stuff to reflect your self vs using it to build a self. His arguments for the virtues and artistic value of the indie producers, however, were less convincing. And a compare/contrast of the t-shirt boys vs the crafty girls (or at least his portrayals of them) could be an interesting article.

I'm reading a lot more about consumerism than I'd realized -- I'd already read many of the books/articles cited in here.