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Love her or hate her, KonMari is indisputably the Queen of Tidying. Wait, how could anyone hate Marie Kondo, I hear you say? Whispers in the night KonMari is coming to take all your books away. Should I be worried?
No! Because from memory I recall that while in fact Marie Kondo did place books after clothes as the second category (think of the bulk and number) to tidy, and said that she herself had cut her books down to 30 (a painful and inconceivable number for many), she also reminded tidyers that if it sparks joy it stays, and if you need it for work, it stays.
Felicitously, I don't have to rely on memory, because as a long-time KonMari fan, I own both The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying and Spark Joy, so I can go direct to the source. On page 76 of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, Marie Kondo writes "start with clothes then move on to books". Then on page 100, once clothes are done, it's on to books, and putting all your books on the floor. Don't read, just touch! You know the drill, does it spark joy? If so, your books are safe. But I think a point well made is that you might be surrounded by books you will never have time to read.
"I now keep my collection to about 30 volumes at any one time, but in the past I found it very hard to discard books because I love them." A sentiment if not a library that I'm sure many of us share.
Spark Joy from page 125, Books: "Tidying up your books is the best way to increase your sensitivity to joy and your ability to take action." Or to put it another way, is having loads of books potentially a burden when already have reams of information to process from various sources? "As for books you've only read halfway, or ones you haven't yet read at all, get rid of the whole lot." Shock, horror. But do you really need something that, realistically, you're never going to use?
"In Japan, we say that 'words make our reality'".
tl;dr
Marie Kondo did indeed curate her personal library down to about 30 books, puts books second on her list of categories to tidy, and gives numerous reasons why they might be tidied, and suggestions as to how to proceed. However, the fact remains that if they spark joy, no one is forcing you to throw your books away, not even Marie Kondo.
If you react very passionately to the idea of losing some books, then perhaps they spark joy for you and you should definitely keep them!
COUNTERPOINT:
Build Back Books
Why might people fight tooth and claw to keep their books? While Marie Kondo points out that in Japan, the climate is damp, and books suffer accordingly, a British book should last for generations (if it's not one of those 70s paperbacks – the pre-70s paperbacks of the same manufacture having presumably already dissolved). Therefore one might feel a duty to preserve and pass down. And while all sorts of information is available online, or by buying new books if need be, who knows who might have censored and bowdlerised that information or those new books? Besides which, getting hold of some books or some information in any form can be a lot harder than you might think, especially since libraries can't be trusted not to dump books in the skip. If you don't keep, or snag when you see, a certain book, you may miss any reasonable chance of being able to refer to it. Besides, one might feel a certain pleasure in collecting or enjoy displaying books. I certainly take great pride in the special bookcase I had constructed for video calls, and I have even read some of the books.
© Bryn Roberts 2023
Published 26 Apr, 2023
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