WEEK 12. SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME

Thanksgiving covers from last week's blog
about magazines.

At one time I collected vintage Christmas books, such as The Twelve Days of Christmas by Miles & John Hadfield, published in 1961with beautiful illustrations. I bought it in Mona Mia's Antiques at 1200 Decatur Street in New Orleans in 1990 for five dollars. I know because I use the receipt as a bookmark. I stopped collecting Christmas books when I realized I had too many to display properly during the festive season. But how can I discard these books that still give me pleasure?

I also have more than 125 cookbooks. This does not count books about food, like the memoir, French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris by Harriet Welty Rochefort. Just holding any of these books not only makes me happy, but makes me want to open it up and start reading. Not the best thing to do while trying to simplify your life.

In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the author recognizes that books are one of three hardest things to let go. She describes asking a client to “Please start by removing every book from your shelves and putting them all on the floor.” The client argues that it'd be easier if they were kept on the shelf so the titles could be read. But Marie insists each book must be held so the owner can decide if there is a spark of joy.

She devotes ten pages to books, explaining why they are difficult to discard but why they can be discarded. In my case, I hope I can discard some but I know it will be hard. Yvonne, a good friend, once gave me a beautiful, purple tote bag featuring a quotation from Thomas Jefferson that she said described me, “I cannot live without books.” Using e-readers, I-pads, computers, and phones to read books is very efficient and easy. And as I stated on Day 1, I first read Marie Kondo's book on my phone, but eventually had to buy a paper copy. I think most bookaphiles (bibliophiles) love to hold a real book in their hands. You can smell the paper and ink on them. You can flip back if you forgot someone's name, or need to know what town are they in now. You also can turn to the back cover to answer the question, who on earth wrote this? All much easier with paper than electronically. But real books do take up room.

A friend who retired to a much smaller apartment in a retirement community, showed off her only bookcase. I felt like crying for her, although she seemed pleased with the fact that she would have room for less than thirty books. For me, that's one shelf.

I do have paperback mysteries and other fiction that I should be able to discard easily. But I'm not always sure I've already read the book and I'd hate to discard something I haven't read yet. Because my memory (for minor details!) is not too great, I've started to write in each book where and when I bought it and how much I paid for it or who gave it to me. Then when I read it, I also add the date I finish reading it. If you need help, I recommend it. It refreshes your memory. I do it in pencil so if I do give the book away, I can erase this information.

For this project I can't possibly detail all that I'll have to go through.  I'll just focus on my collection of mysteries and start by piling them all together as the author suggests.

Well, I tried.  I am a failure. Each time I pick up a book, if I don't feel a spark of joy, I feel a very strong desire to sit down and start reading it as the only way to determine if I can discard it.  I can't work on this project right now.

If you are reading this, I'm sorry if I let you down as to this section of the project. Books are going to have to wait until I have gone through every other category. The next one, after papers and books, is komono which in Japanese refers to miscellaneous items. Marie Kondo points out too many people live surrounded by things they don't need, 'just because.' She lists the groups under this heading on page 106. Kitchen goods/food supplies is down at number nine on her list of ten. But since Thanksgiving is next week and I only have time to do one item, I will work on that one to get ready for the biggest food holiday of the year. Since I do enjoy cooking, it will be interesting to see what I discard. I have opened up some cupboards by discarding many magazines last week. The picture that accompanies this post are of food magazine covers that featured Thanksgiving turkeys. I kept all of them.  

Day 1. I Discover the "Method"

I'm a messy person. I start the day looking for my glasses, my phone, my keys. In addition to the inconvenience of always losing items, I shudder when I think of how much time I've lost looking for things when I could be doing something more productive, or even fun. And I know, I know, if I returned objects to their 'special places' I wouldn't lose them. But I did not, maybe could not, follow that simple solution. However, browsing the internet one day I thought maybe I'd found an answer to why I didn't clean up my life. My key tapping fingers discovered the highly praised and best selling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,” by Marie Kondo.

As a researcher type person, I was skeptical of all the hype and looked at as many excerpts and reviews on line that I could find. They convinced me I should at least read the book and soon. But I was a thousand miles and a few weeks from home so I did something I'd never done before. I was so eager to change my life or at least declutter it, I didn't want to wait until I got back to get a hard copy of it. Curiosity won over my preference for holding an actual book in my hands as I read. I downloaded the Kindle app to my cell phone and bought the e-book version. Wow, I thought, I've already started changing my life.

It was so engaging, I was hooked. I whipped out my phone and read a few pages whenever I had the time. Of course, I'm a self improvement junkie. I already had several book shelves filled with books on the subject, from the grandfather of them all, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, to the more recent At Home with Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott, Shelter for the Spirit by Victoria Moran, and Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen. As you can see, I'm an equal opportunity reader. If it promises a better life, I read it. A few of these books are pictured here with pride of place the Kondo book.

Marie Kondo not only sounds like a great tidier, she also sounds like a very good psychologist. And she promises her method of tidying-up which had changed her clients' lives, would do the same for anyone who followed it. Boy, I couldn't wait to finish reading it, get home and start working on this new project. I have a good life, but I'm American and I always want more and better, right? And really, I'd just like to always know the location of my glasses, phone, and keys.

I could understand why those who read it were enthused. Of course, every self help book comes with an enthusiastic audience. The few negative reviews were from readers who didn't like the idea of thanking your possessions and the place where you lived. Being concrete realists they knew these objects had no feelings and could not respond to anything their owner said. However, even if you don't believe that, think of the effect on yourself when you give thanks. In fact, that is the premise of Simple Abundance by Gretchen Rubin. Being grateful changes you and your feelings about what is in your life. I decided Marie Kondo was a special person, and I should listen to her.

Her examples and her philosophy seemed reasonable to me, and certainly worth trying out. I thought of some beautiful serving bowls and platters that I never used because they were too hard to get out. Maybe because my kitchen cupboards were cluttered with thrift store, ugly thick bowls. I felt they were good enough for every day, while my 'good' stuff was stored away. I had as a goal, not to change my life, although that might be nice, but to just be able to find and use my 'joyful' objects.

I could hardly wait to get home and to start on my clothes—the category she stresses should be first. However, I already had caveats for her method. I didn't see myself throwing all my clothes (from three closets—regular clothes, dressy clothes, and outer wear—and dresser drawers) in a pile on the floor and going through them one at a time. I thought I would have to fudge on that one. And books. I have books throughout my house, in every room. Was I really going to have to pile them up before I could go through them?

I decided the best way to determine if her method worked for me was to record what I did, and to describe if I deviated from her method, and what happened next. Would my use of her method really be life changing?

Driving home cross country, I pictured silently greeting my home when I walked into it and telling it how grateful I am for its service to me and how joyful I am to live in it. Let's see how that works out.

Next Tuesday I'll report on my attack plan for dealing with the Kondo Method.