Well, I am three days late and a dollar short on this one (and Jessamyn West has already posted on this topic), but here goes: I would think that public libraries and Buy Nothing Day should go hand in hand.

The idea behind Buy Nothing Day is to opt out of the post-Thanksgiving capitalist orgy, and, instead of trampling your neighbors at the local Wal Mart on the day after Thanksgiving, spend your time doing anything except buying stuff.

And where better to not buy stuff than your local public library? Maybe libraries wouldn’t want to touch this for fear of ticking off local businesses, but I’d love to see a “Buy nothing @ your library” promotion.

For myself, I tend to observe BND as a “no shopping” day, since I always seem to end up buying food or some other borderline necessity. This year, I was doing great until the evening when I inexplicably had the urge to go to McDonalds (that Adbusters bête noir) for french fries.

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