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  • Published: 3 April 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241257357
  • Imprint: Penguin Life
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $28.00

Stuffocation

Living More with Less




'Like The Tipping Point meets Freakonomics - but with a huge idea at its heart' Sunday Times

We're all stuffocated. We have more stuff than we could ever need - but it's bad for the planet and it's making us stressed. It might even be killing us.

In this groundbreaking book, trend forecaster James Wallman finds that a rising number of people are turning away from all-you-can-get consumption, from the exec who's sold almost everything he owns, to the well-off family who moved to a remote mountain cabin.

In Stuffocation, Wallman's solution is to focus less on possessions and more on experiences. It is a manifesto for a vital change in how you live - and it's the one book you won't be able to live without.

  • Published: 3 April 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241257357
  • Imprint: Penguin Life
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $28.00

About the author

James Wallman

James Wallman is a cultural commentator and trend forecaster, the Sector Specialist on the Experience Economy for the UK government, one of the worldwide top 101 influencers in Employee Engagement, and the international bestselling author of Stuffocation. He has written for GQ, the New York Times and the FT, and appeared on the BBC, the ABC and MSNBC. He runs a boutique trend forecasting firm whose clients range from KFC to KPMG, Yell and Eventbrite. He has studied at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He has spoken at Google HQ in California, the Collision Conference in Las Vegas, the London School of Economics, the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of the Arts, and 10 Downing Street. He has hosted Guardian Masterclasses, and run courses at the School of Life in London and Antwerp. He is an ambassador for the charity Global Action Plan. He has lived in France, Greece and California, and he currently lives in London with his wife and two children.

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Praise for Stuffocation

Amazing, brilliant, incredible ... It's going to change my life. Buy this book and give 10 others away

Chris Evans, BBC Radio 2 The Chris Evans Breakfast Show

It will definitely change your life and could change the world

Chris Evans

Fascinating, inspiring, and great fun to read

Sunday Times

Persuasive... clever

Financial Times

With a sociologist's eye and a storyteller's ear, James Wallman takes us on a tour... he identifies the rise of a new value system among those who are consciously replacing materialism with what he rightly calls experientialism. Spot on

B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, authors, The Experience Economy

James Wallman has engagingly woven a mix of true-life stories to demonstrate why our materialistic society no longer makes us happy and what we can do about it. This is written with warmth and wit. The surprise is that Wallman's glimpses of the future also illuminate, with rare insight, the difficult process of culture change

Caroline van den Brul MBE, author, Crackle and Fizz

Mixes personal and social commentary with a sympathetic understanding of where excessive consumerism comes from, and also has really good recommendations on what to do about it. An original, provocative mixture

Peter N Stearns, provost, George Mason University

An exhilarating ghost train ride through the madness of over-consumption, during which we are taunted by our own greed. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel - and James Wallman takes us there

Mark Tungate, author, Adland: A Global History of Advertising

Stuffocation will take you on the journey of your life. As Wallman builds his case, the true value of experience emerges and resonates .... I'll venture that no one goes unchanged by this book

Jeanne E Arnold, professor, department of anthropology, UCLA

What Malcom Gladwell did for psychology in Blink, James Wallman does for the fascinating world of trend forecasting in Stuffocation. Backed with quirky stories and compelling examples that are a joy to read, Wallman lifts the veil on why we live the way we do today... and why our obsession with 'stuff' may be about to change. You'll never look at a visit to the shops in the same way again. A gem

Marianne Cantwell, author, Be a Free-Range Human

Particularly timely ... [Wallman] is spot on

Daily Mail

Experientialism, as Wallman calls it, will define our future just as materialism has shaped our present

Observer

Wallman perceives a new flowering of resistance to the siren lure of physical commodoties

Guardian

Sounds tempting, doesn't it? Achieving happiness through consciously chucking out or flogging off what we no longer need ... If I can purge my wardrobe of half its contents, then I will be happier, just as Mr Wallman predicts

Janet Street-Porter, Daily Mail

Clearly argued and contains plenty of interesting case studies

Independent on Sunday

Compelling

Daily Telegraph

Incisive, passionate, persuasive ... Wallman writes in an engaging, fluid style

The Sunday Business Post

a blueprint for future living

Daily Telegraph