The substance of style Book

I agree with some of the other reviews of this book: Postrel's premise seems to lose steam midway through the book. Yes, style and substance matter. But the author seems to lack a definitive viewpoint. Sometimes it matters to people who live in upscale communities, but it doesn't matter to others who choose to move out because they become annoyed with overly restrictive home owner associations. So, style and substance matter sometimes...and may matter more in the future. I would have preferred a more decisive stance.

Also, the anecdotes are certainly interesting and varied, but they don't seem to advance a central premise. Unless I read the book wrong, they just serve to illustrate that we are seeing more interest in style over the past 20 years as technological advances have made so many things ubiquitous and cheaper. Great, but what should we do with this information? I would like to have seen that question answered. I don't mean checklists (which I despise), but how will this help the average reader? If this were a sociology book, then I probably wouldn't have bought it. Instead, the book doesn't really seem to answer the question inferred by its subtitle "How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness." I figured that it was a business book and it really isn't, in my humble view.

This isn't a bad book and Postrel is a gifted writer. I just had some different expectations when buying the book.