Based around a premise that would have made a passable 1200-word editorial, Stuffocation instead stretches to hundreds of pages weighed down by wandering anecdotes and baffling facts that seem to offer little practical advice on how to de-clutter our lives. (In 1927, only 20% of US shoe factories were operating year round - of course.)

While Wallman has a definitive style that some will enjoy, for many it will prove tedious. Stuffocation comes across more like abstract dictation on the future of society than an understanding about how anyone apart from the well-heeled middle classes struggle with materialism.

A total waste of time and paper! Starting out as a bearable observation of consumerist culture, it becomes absolutely painful to read! Avoid!

Interesting subject, did seem to drag on with the fact finding. The book got really boring about half way through.

Seems to have one or two points it drives home relentlessly just using different words each time. Not a horrible book, it has some interesting points but could have been 100 pages shorter.

I nearly gave up on this book in the first 80 pages or so, but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did.

The first third of the book wound me up, by setting out arguments against the accumulation of stuff which ranged from the obvious to the ridiculous. The part that made me almost put the book down and never come back was the segment which explains that accumulating too much stuff may lead to hoarding, which is a fire hazard, I mean come on...

Anyway, I stuck with it and the last two thirds of the book were much better. I agree with the points made by the author that people would be happier if they spent their money and time on experiential things rather than material things, and I think the evidence base posited in this book backs that up.

I did suffer slightly from the feeling that the author was trivialising the realities of life somewhat. All the heroes of the book are those that have walked away from their city lives and started again by living the simple life. While these stories are uplifting, they also oversimplify what it's like for majority of people (particularly young people in cities) living from paycheck to paycheck.

However, I think everyone can take something from this book. For most people it will be the small things; the simple message of decluttering to make you less stressed, or that a fancy watch won't make you happy. For me, that was a far more useful message than the overzealous fad of minimalism.

Some food for thought. Not that different to the way I live as it is

Nit my usual type of book. Happened upon this in a charity shop & I'd been feeling stressed by clutter for a while. I found the latter part of the book identified with me.

Repetitive in places and perhaps now out dated but still relevant enough. Would be interesting to see a simular take post covid

Good to see the pros and cons of all trends regarding materialism. Some of it was nothing new but equally there were some parts that were worth a read.

I was torn in my thoughts about Stuffocation. To a large extent, it felt like a knockoff of a Malcolm Gladwell style of writing, and to that extent suffered from the same flaws, but to a much greater degree. I enjoyed the first third of the book, which had an interesting view of the history of marketing, and some information about minimalist living. As I get older, I am becoming more and more interested in reducing my "footprint" and living a more simple life, at least in some selected ways, which is why I thought the book sounded interesting. But after that first third of the book, it gradually started to become less about minimalist living, and more about expressing the author's liberal views, even if the connection with the theme of the book was a stretch. That part was hard to swallow, even though I agreed with some of what he was saying. I did not expect him to use the book as a platform for expressing his philosophical and political views...what I wanted was a good introduction to minimalist living, and I didn't get it. It just didn't have the practical application that I was hoping for.