The Virago Book of The Joy of Shopping
Jan 8, 2008 at 8:24 PM 
Hey Brits... buy this book!
The Virago Book of The Joy of Shopping by Jill Foulston.
I have to say, I LOVE the company I keep in the first paragraph of the description...
Jane Austen found her sister Cassandra a locket. Joan Didion bought nail enamel and a toaster on impulse. Karyn Bosnak charged $20,000 on credit cards, and Elizabeth Wurtzel got caught shoplifting. George Eliot, for some reason, hated shopping.
As people began to shop more, novelists imagined them doing it. Jane Eyre cringes at Mr Rochester's pre-wedding excess, while Undine Spragg's spending drives her husband to despair. The Girl with a Pearl Earring turns up her nose at some stale meat, Tom Ripley lusts after Venetian leather, and Mrs Dalloway chooses flowers on Bond Street.
The darker side of shopping is here in the letters, diaries and memoirs of those who remember blackmarkets and rations. There are even records from the Old Bailey of audacious and desperate five-finger discounts, and a recent account of brawling at IKEA.
The Virago Book of Shopping revels in the lists, the etiquette and the thrills of finding just the right thing.
This is it. Buy it.
The Virago Book of Shopping is now available in the UK. It will be released in the US in April 2008.
PS - I found out that I was in this book by Googling myself. You'd think the author or publicist would've emailed to let me know so I could write about it on my blog and give them a little publicity, but they didn't.
Reader Comments (6)
Aren't writers supposed to ask for permission to write about you in their publications? Like, clearly you love it, but what if you didn't WANT to be referenced in the book? Or is that just a book writer myth that I believe as a non book writer?
No, they don't have to ask permission, but I do find it odd that they didn't even send me an email to verify anything.
But I haven't read the book yet, so maybe I'm barely in it. (But I am in the description, so they would be weird.)
I'm a believer that any publicity is good publicity, though, so I don't mind at all!
And this is how you know you made it!!
xo Sully
I am a shopaholic over shoes.... but only Chuck Taylors.
But maybe cars too.. I'm a sucker for a cheap Mercedes.. maybe that's why I own two.
This book sounds interesting.. I'm off to find a copy.... maybe Ebay will be the answer.
woohoo, you got namedropped! I'm gonna have to check this book out, it sounds cool.
Hi there,
I've read this book and enjoyed it, but they've definitely quoted
at least a paragraph from, I assume, your book.
Otherwise, how on earth would I know that you spent over $770 dollars on lingerie to impress a certain "Brad"?
In fact, it's only because of this book that I even know about you!
If I may recommend a budget site, The Dollar Stretcher is great! (www.stretcher.com)
Cheerio!