Rent Save Karen: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back

I love this book! It made me laugh out loud numerous times. At first, Karyn is excited to be living in New York city and working as a producer for a new court tv show. But, she ends up splurging on too many items and goes into debt. She plans to pay it off, but loses her job. I couldn't relate to the splurging part, because I mostly went into debt putting myself through college, just buying books at first and eventually charging rent. But, I could totally relate as Karyn's decision-making got worse and worse and money kind of lost its value. If she could charge it, she would. I remember making all kinds of excuses for just putting this one little or big charge on my card. Anyway, she starts applying everywhere for jobs and there is a hilarious section where she addresses some of the rejection letters AND POSTCARDS that she gets. Finally, she hits rockbottom, which involves getting roughed up by a gang of 14-year-olds with a plastic bottle. This is the second section that really made me laugh in spite of myself, because I could identify with how, once you're in debt, it seems like everything else in your life has to go wrong too. Finally, she decides to post a Web site and ask people to just send her whatever amount they feel like to help pay her debt off and it works! She takes a lot of abuse from weirdos on the Internet, who harass her, but she also gets a lot of positive responses. And money from various kindhearted people! Along the way, it's possible to get a sense of her growing up as she experiences all the hardships of building a life on her own in an era when debt is commonplace for almost everyone. And she never loses her sense of humor. In fact, she gets funnier. I love Karyn Bosnak's positive spirit. I loved this book. And I hope she writes many, many, many more books in the future. By the way, I didn't go quite the same route, but my debt is gone too. Well, not gone, but significantly lower.