Tales of shopping...free at the library

I saw a skirt I really liked in Glamour this month. I have a pair of shoes that would look just awesome with it. So, I went online to see where I could get one. I wasn’t prepared for the $740 price tag. By the time I saved enough to buy it, it wouldn’t be the right season and would probably be completely out of style. However, what if I was a shopping addict? I’d probably be writing this looking very fashionable in my new skirt. Two non-fiction books come to mind on this topic…


Spent: Memoirs of a shopping addict, released in May by author Avis Cardella, took a look at this increasing prominent disorder which has driven compulsive shoppers even beyond bankruptcy. The NYT book review this past Sunday didn’t really have a positive or negative spin on Spent. I believe compulsive shopping is a form of addiction. I think everyone feels like buying something new every now and again. The ones who purchase the designer goods for hundreds or thousands of dollars are the ones labeled shopping addicts; the rest of us are just poor budgeters. Cardella explains the root of her addiction is that she believed people would judge her by her clothing and not for her personality. It sounds like a self-confidence and peer pressure issue to me. Even though I haven’t bought (and will not be buying) the $740 skirt and won’t have a huge credit card bill I can’t pay, it is sad that some adults still have a problem with peer pressure. You would have thought we would have outgrown it by now.

A more frightening book on overspending is Save Karyn: one shopaholic's journey to debt and back. This one is a bit older (2003) and I came across it while dusting and straightening in the stacks. Relaying her own experience, the author, Karyn Bosnak, relates how every moment of her day was consumed by the need to purchase things and services, and the struggle to pay for them and keep up appearances. This book was more frightening because Bosnak made a good salary and simply continually overspent. Her situation gets so dire that she moves, sells items she has acquired, and actually begs the general public (in a unique way) to help her out of her self-created mess. I preferred this book (over Spent) for its attention to details – this woman can tell a shopping story so descriptively you can feel the lush fabrics and smell leather, and the meticulous tally of funds she kept both in her head and on paper just trying to keep her bank balances positive is astounding. Bosnak’s issue seems more like an addiction, although I (with no $740 skirt) can’t drum up very much sympathy for either of their situations.

Reader comments are welcome.