David Steinberg

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Carroll Gardens author Judith Levine asks provocative questions in her new book,"Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping" (Free Press, $25): "What do we do when we’ve got enough, or more than enough? How do we know? Who decides?"

Levine (pictured) told GO Brooklyn that the idea for her experiment was sparked on Christmas 2003.

"I’d spent $1,001 on gifts, food, clothing, wrapping paper, etc. -and I’m Jewish!" she recalled. "Plus, I was looking around at all the electronic gizmos and plastic toys that were certainly going to end up in a landfill soon. I wanted to figure out the connection between my own personal buying and the big global problem of over-consumption."

While Levine was able to resist the temptation to buy CDs, clothes, books, gifts, restaurant meals, movie and theatre tickets, magazines, leisure travel and electronics for one year, she did say that living in close proximity to Brooklyn’s new boutiques did make this lifestyle change more challenging.

She observed, "[It’s] much harder [here] than in Hardwick, Vt., where there’s nothing to buy but organic tomatoes and snowmobiles."

Judith Levine will read from her memoir, "Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping," in the second floor meeting room of the Central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in Grand Army Plaza on Oct. 8 at 4 pm. For more information, visit the Web site www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org or call (718) 230-2100. This event is free and open to the public.

©2006 Community Newspaper Group