TITLE: Save Kary
AUTHOR: Karyn Bosnak
GENRE: Memoir/self help
RATING: 5 Stars
I love, love this book.
To be honest, I had read it when it first came out. This was at the beginning of the Internet craze and at the time, this was a radical thing to do - ask strangers for $. Now, we have all types of site that do just that, but it is interesting to read, in Karyn's own words, her experiences. I feel she is a bit of a pioneer in the "asking for money" arena and I thought it was a brilliant idea.
The first part of the book details her spending. It is done with humor and is an honest look at a single woman living and working in NYC. Karyn's writing style is nice, she is down to earth and the pacing of the book is perfectly done.
You end up cringing at some of the purchases, but also at some of her reasoning, because you have no doubt been there at some point. Its amazing how our brains can rationalize stuff and you can see it, in full force, in this story.
Its interesting to see the progression of her shopping and the inflation of her debt. At the end of each chapter, she includes a copy of her credit card statements., Wouldn't it be great if we could all remove ourselves from our own lives and see it written down. How would act if we saw on paper our purchases and the associated debt.
To be honest, I had read it when it first came out. This was at the beginning of the Internet craze and at the time, this was a radical thing to do - ask strangers for $. Now, we have all types of site that do just that, but it is interesting to read, in Karyn's own words, her experiences. I feel she is a bit of a pioneer in the "asking for money" arena and I thought it was a brilliant idea.
The first part of the book details her spending. It is done with humor and is an honest look at a single woman living and working in NYC. Karyn's writing style is nice, she is down to earth and the pacing of the book is perfectly done.
You end up cringing at some of the purchases, but also at some of her reasoning, because you have no doubt been there at some point. Its amazing how our brains can rationalize stuff and you can see it, in full force, in this story.
Its interesting to see the progression of her shopping and the inflation of her debt. At the end of each chapter, she includes a copy of her credit card statements., Wouldn't it be great if we could all remove ourselves from our own lives and see it written down. How would act if we saw on paper our purchases and the associated debt.
I have always felt that debt kind of creeps up on you. You know its there, but you keep telling yourself its not that bad - when it actually is.
Karen's debt load was killing her and I don't know how she managed the stress. No job and $20K in debt. I would have freaked out AND living in NYC where no apartment is cheap!
The second part of the book details how she gets out of debt. Between selling her designer stuff on Ebay and creating her website to ask $ for strangers, it is fun to read all of her entries. Now she is putting every penny towards her debt, which leaves her drinking really bad instant coffee because she has no money to buy the better stuff.
What is lacking in this book is more details about her state of mind during the second part of her book. We get a lot of i am hungry, but not a lot of anything else. I wanted to know how she could just turn that switch on and off - one minute you buy designer and the next you sell it off, eat ramen noodles without much effort. Did she ever want to just splurge? these are the types of questions I have.
Overall, this book is fantastic and kind of inspirational and a cautionary tale for sure.
I would love a follow up memoir to let us know what happened AFTER the first book.
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