Anneli Rufus

OK, I must admit that it took me a while to get into this book. I thought of returning it many times to the library but just never did mainly because I just didn't have any errands to do near the library.

As the title suggests, it's a book about being stuck. The authors pulls stories from all over the place and I think it became mostly a personal narrative. I would read one story and think this book was trivial. Inane. Silly. However, the next story would make me pause and make me excited (or sickened) to be a human.

It's a soft kind of book. It doesn't really have a main purpose or big climax. It meanders this way and that. It started as a lump of clay ready to be molded into something wonderful and beautiful. In the end, it's still a lump of clay. Wonderful and beautiful.

This book isn't for everyone. If you're looking for a roller coaster, look elsewhere. This is more just like a pleasant walk on the same road that you walk every day with a good friend - and subtly seeing everything just a little different.… (meer)

Rufus, who has clawed her own way out of low self-esteem, reaches a hand back to her fellow sufferers. While she acknowledges that self-hatred can come from many sources, we do hear an uncomfortable amount about her difficult relationship with her mother. Inspired, perhaps, by Buddhist philosophy, Rufus encourages her readers to aim for a middle path between self-hatred and narcissism.

I found a few useful ideas and strategies in this book. My best takeaway relates to negative self-talk. The author recommends acknowledging that the negative voice is trying to protect you, and then gently redirecting. I’m going to try to do this in future. However, I listened to the audiobook, and did not think that the narrator was a good fit, vocally. Her phrasing was awkward in spots. She also mispronounced a few words and names, which a good producer should have caught and corrected. I feel badly for criticizing the narrator of a work about self-esteem, but there you have it. Read the print version if you think this book might be useful to you.… (meer)

“We, the authors of this book, redefine scavenging as any way of legally acquiring stuff that does not involve paying full price.” [pg viii]

It's definitely a manifesto, written in staccato, almost poetic sentences that read like a rallying speech. It makes you feel good to be a scavenger – proud and empowered about your unusual state. It makes you want to fly your freak flag. Early on, they liken standard consumers to screaming, pouting soiled brats [pg 9] and non-consumer scavengers to “capitalism's naughty children, little rebels . . .” [pg 8] and tries to open your eyes to the fact that:

“Marketers have so mesmerized consumers that consumers see brand logos as their own logos, their new flags. Today the brand is the new nation, the new army, the new clan, the new religion, the new tribe. Consumers by the billions line up behind logo, vanish into logos, pour their income into brands.” [pg 12]

As the book moves along it addresses the misconceptions standard consumers have about scavengers (that they're poor or desperate or penny pinching and that used merchandise is second-rate, dirty, or suspect) and the reasons scavengers scavenge (to save money or the environment, to survive, for the mystery and the thrill of the hunt, because we prefer an item with a past). It covers the history and economics of scavenging (Pointing out a little-known fact that reinforces why reusing is preferable to recycling: “If recycling is done inefficiently, then it can be a net loss in regard to energy consumption, compared to modern mining costs.” [pg 94]), while stressing that scavenging will always be a fringe, subculture activity because it feeds off of mainstream society's cast-offs. If we were all scavengers the economy would break down.

As the authors move on from their history of the very old prejudices against scavenging and their glacially slow melt into something that could almost be called acceptance, they profile the many kinds of modern scavengers who fall into four main categories: Retail Scavengers, Urban scavengers, Social Scavengers, and Specialty Scavengers. They also discuss the spirituality of scavenging – it's a little Taoist, involves a certain amount of faith, and devoting oneself to scavenging can be like taking a vow. They end the book with a nice, common-sense scavenger code of ethics.… (meer)