book buying as hunting & gathering

rules for navigating consumerism in a social media world

Photo by Norbert Tóth on Unsplash

This is not my excuse for my overconsumption, but it’s also an excuse for consumption.

I love to buy books. I make lists and hunt for specific covers. I feverishly track new releases. I photograph, curate, and research until I become shrimp-like¹. I spend more time, money, and emotional energy than seems rational. I collect more than I can fit in my home. I own multiple editions of the same novels. Bargain shopping dopamine hits have replaced drunk nights out. Artsy book photos have replaced images of me doing anything else. These are my things, and they are my security.

What else can I hoard into submission? What parts of my brain are soothed by the masses around me? Is this benign tsundoku or have I completely lost the plot?

I am just a cog in the capitalist machine, disconnected from the primordial ooze and struggling to survive in a biologically radical landscape from whence I was created. I hold space for my brain² , which receives constant, unending stimuli, 50% of which is directly aimed at getting me to buy something.

Someone said³ that our shopping-related impulses are leftovers from our hunter/gatherer days, and this makes sense to me. I buy and collect things to satisfy the part of my brain that hunts and gathers for the safety and security of myself and my family. We must find the best plants, the safe berries, the best ways to stay alive during droughts and desperation. My biological needs are (mostly) met. What else is there for my brain to do?

It’s not that I don’t love the library, I do. But the trophies hit different. I want proof of my kill hanging on my wall⁴. I want to post it on SOciAL mEDia. I want love and admiration for my ability to find just the right angle on that stack of Oxford classics that says - I read but I’m also hot.

I recognize the obsession can reach dangerous levels. Hence, after a weekend of indulgence, I have crafted some guidelines to live my life by. I will report back on how things go.

From "Claire's Knee" ("Le genou de Claire"), Eric Rohmer, 1970

Natalie’s rules for book buying

Buy used whenever and wherever possible to lessen the environmental and fiscal impact. Also, the hunt is fun.

Create lists but don’t buy. Once something goes on the list, stop obsessing. It’s there, you won’t forget about it.

Set a budget. Once that budget runs dry, you cannot find a new lake; they are all frozen over.

Use the library for new books and authors you aren’t sure of. If you really love it, you can buy a copy later.

Find clever ways to create with what you have. A new book collection will not suddenly make you popular⁵. Or a better artist/writer/reader. Or solve any of your “problems”.

Make hunting a group effort, but do not feel the pressure to buy. You can commemorate the event in other ways (a nice matcha, perhaps).

Try an unfriendly bookstore. It will surely be too difficult to get the books you want, and you can bring home a great story instead.

The Feminist Bookstore, Portlandia, courtesy of IFC Productions

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Do you have any book-buying rules? Do you think I can stick to these? Let me know in the comments - cheers👻

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have yourself a Hitchcock summer

22 books to read before you die?

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See you around the bookshelf!

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3. my deepest apologies to whoever made this comment somewhere here on Substack, both search engines - brain & tech - cannot seem to find it

4. I really hate this analogy

5. I’m not gonna do it re: footnote #2.