I Love Shopping

by Lauren Cook

Lauren Cook’s I Love Shopping—beloved on the Internet and IRL—is back in print. 

Chickens have a collective soul. Heaven is full of the skateboarders you kissed in middle school. If the algorithm is its own hell, Lauren Cook, author of the critically (and uncritically) acclaimed Sex Goblin, stands in front of it fully armored. I Love Shopping invites its readers to inhabit a world just like ours, reflected through a big, benevolent funhouse mirror.


First published in a limited edition, this will be the first trade edition of the cult classic.

81 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 14, 2025

About the author

Happiness is an essential part of my life and it’s my goal to add more of it to your life as well. We all say we want to be happy—after all, who wakes up and says they don’t want to be happy? But I know it can be easier said than done. My goal is to help you find joy even on your most challenging days so that happiness isn’t just for Friday nights, the first day of summer, or the holiday season. You can have happiness throughout the year if you’re willing to make happiness a habit and not just as something to hope for next week, next month, or next year. It’s time to stop postponing your joy and I’m here to help you get started!

A lot of people ask me how my journey to happiness began. It all started when I read Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project—her book inspired me, motivated me—invigorated me. I wrote to Gretchen and asked if she wanted to write a teen edition of The Happiness Project with me. It wasn’t long before I heard from Gretchen and she politely declined my offer. So I thought, “That’s okay. I’ll write my own book.” Just because she told me “no” didn’t mean that I had to tell myself that. And so began my journey interviewing hundreds of middle school, high school, and college students asking them, “What is it that actually makes you happy?” This question was so crucial for me because I felt like no one was asking it.

What I found was enlightening. The Millennial Generation is more optimistic, philanthropically minded, and internationally focused than any other generation. But we’re also guilty of wishing our lives away. We often say, “I’ll be happy when I can finally graduate,” or “I just want to finish this semester.” But these are incredible years! Why hope for them to pass by quickly? Happiness is something for the here and now and it’s my mission to bring positivity into the present.

If you think you’ll be happy when your life is finally perfect—when you get into your dream school, you’re making a six figure salary and you have the golden retriever to match, you’ll likely go a whole lifetime looking for something that doesn’t exist. Happiness is about loving an imperfect life for all of its little splendors and failures. My goal is to help you get there—so that you can find gratitude in the good and bad days and find the blessings in between.

Reviews

[Kaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book you vibe with. If you’ve ever felt like the internet raised you, or that shopping could be both holy and absurd, you’ll find something here.

Tumblr in print; funny, fragmented, confessional, and unexpectedly profound. It reads like a blog you can’t stop scrolling, full of lol moments that suddenly turn into moments of clarity. Poems? Thoughts? Fragments? All of the above. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I know I loved being inside it.

Warning: the hot pink font is both part of the experience and an assault on the eyes

[Charlie Doyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very creative in form and content. Its a blend of different type of entries that feel like poetry, mostly, but also not being limited to it.
I tried to read as slow as possible because I didn’t want to finish it. Loved the sensibility about it. Will definitely read again!

[Sofia Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly funny and thoughtful - laugh and cry
Pink writing
Short thoughts, long thoughts, stories, information, POETRY
Essence of internet-blog-thought turned profound (it’s always profound in the first place, it’s just now in a little book that fits in ur back pocket. Wait… is this book a phone!? Jk, but makes u think)

[stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

if there was an orchid emoji, i would place it here as part of my review:

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

this came from my brain

[carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

shoutout to the lady slipper orchids, i guess

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a small dog with a robust body

[Nova]

I did laugh at the last conversation with God, very witty and dry re the line ‘this all started very much as a experiment’. Also laughed at the ‘I am not in denial’ poem. The pink new times Roman font was also a highlight. Very camp.

I like how ironic this book is, although unsure about some parts that feel a bit far fetched for me personally- like the text message photographs and airssexual/ cumming to air/ the short one liners that feel like my sleep deprived, slightly manic 3 am iPhone notes. But again is that meant to be part of the genius satire? Like the egoistical I love shopping/ I’m the nicest/ making a mythology about myself at the age of 10 type beat?

I cannot tell. I’m so confused but also intrigued. I realise I sound like a boomer but maybe Im just bad at understanding contemporary poetry. I can’t in good faith give it a rating because I genuinely can’t decide. But it did make me scratch my head so +10 points for that. Definitely will revisit the book again.

[Jordan Steyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

pissed me off

[George Landau-Pincus · Rating 4 out of 5]

very fun and quick read. sex goblin was better but that’s growth!

[Sierra Goldstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

lauren cook thank you

[Natalie Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting read!

[Anna]

This is how my friend Sara talks

[gahee · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved orchid feature and trans masc names

[Issy · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the funniest books ive read in a minute like bye

[Domi Salazar · Rating 4 out of 5]

10, 39, 65

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but delightful. Some of it really resonated with me.

[Ava Hausner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Lauren Cook

[Annie-Claude Boulianne]

“Being alive runs parallel to suffering with no alley in between”

[clairemous · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like finding little truths in every page in the best font and design - I luv new books

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When I do anything, I am writing because I believe that even just having thoughts that are sentences is writing.”

[Bea RH · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely and great to read outloud.

[DIktgymnasiet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love all the protagonists, like a new one every page or what?

[Pia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a random Tuesday in my favourite bookshop, and intrigued by the hot pink text and hyper feminine contents. I remember flipping through to the Miu Miu slippers poem and being like “I have to read this”.

I pulled it out at a bar last night with my friend and fellow poetry collector Jonno, they were so excited that I got my hands on this book. We finished it in the back area of vic on the park.