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Konmari Problems: Books

1 Comment / 2015, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Favorites, Konmari, Non-Fiction /

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you’ve no doubt seen me talking about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up aka the Konmari method.

Much of what I typed was just me being silly. It’s a little overwhelming but very interesting and much of it makes sense. My real problem though is her method of managing books. I don’t think she understands my relationship with books.

From the beginning of her section on books…

We have to take all of the books off of the shelf and put them on the floor. I understand her suggestion to do this, in general. It makes a lot of sense to see your collections of items as one big THING. It also makes sense to touch each item to determine which bring you joy.

Since I already know I have an ass ton of books, shouldn’t I be able to just pick up each book from the shelf, hold it and then either return it or discard it? Do I really have to move thousands of books into one room in order to determine joy? I think not.

Also, since TW and I co-own these books, how do we decide together which books bring joy. If one brings me joy, but doesn’t bring TW joy, does my joy outweigh hers?

She also talks a lot about imagining A bookshelf filled with books you love.

I, however, picture a good half dozen bookshelves filled with books I love.

Also, she does not understand that my books are arranged by color. Therefore dozens of bookshelves of books sorted by color DO make me happy. Those books DO have value just by being on the shelf. They are beautiful. They do serve a purpose by just being there. Books are not only valuable for the information they provide to you when you read them. Or even by the pleasure you get from reading them. They bring me pleasure simply by BEING there.

I suspect she doesn’t understand this. Or, I wonder if she’d tell me that my books are not in fact books, they are komono or sentimental items so they should be managed differently. Maybe?

One last problem is that I’m not sure I buy into the idea that “sometime means never” as in “I might read that sometime.” I do sometimes read the books from my stacks, though she is right — I rarely re-read books.

I also don’t think I buy into the idea that the perfect time to read a book is when it first comes to you and if you don’t read it at that moment, then you’ve missed your opportunity and you should simply let that book go. I’ve read books from my stacks years after I first acquired them and I’ve fully enjoyed reading them.

I’m not giving up, I’m definitely going to give this a try — even if I have to do some sort of modified version of Konmari. Totally fascinating.

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2 Non-Fictions

2015, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

TW has started making fun of me for checking out so many gardening books. lol. It is a little odd, but I LIKE THEM, darn it. I really liked Foodscaping though I sure would like to know how to keep wildlife from eating all of your foodscaped gardens. This book was a little short on advice for that. Plant sweet peas in multiple patches and hope the bunnies only notice one patch isn’t real solid advice, ya know? lol. Anyway, I’ve read 3 or 4 books about foodscaping and this was probably my favorite of the bunch. I think we’re going to have to plant kiwi…

Last week (or was it the week before?) when my back hurt like crazy and nothing on the bookshelves looked good to me, I picked Decorating for Real Life from the new arrivals shelf. I wasn’t expecting much but turns out I really liked it. I liked the different houses and rooms and it was exactly the right book to read when I was tired and tired of having a back ache.

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The Crossover

2015, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Poetry, Young Adult /

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about TheCrossover — we listened to it on audio and it’s about basketball. Not generally our sort of thing. Turns out… amazing book. Amazing. I loved everything about it. The poetry. The characters. The plot. *sniff* I’m not going to say best book ever but damn it was a good book.

Read it. Listen to it on audio. Give it to your kids.

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The Jupiter Pirates (2 Of Them)

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

One of the Jupiter Pirates books is on the Cybils shortlist and since there are only two published (so far) and they’re middle grade scifi, I figured I’d just reserve them both. I’m glad I did. They were both a lot of fun and super quick to read.

The captain of the ship is a woman (a mom) and her husband is the first mate. There are three kids competing against each other to be the captain when their mom retires but they also have to work together because they’re crew. The female child is the one who’s most into “firepower” — that’s a nice change from the girl being the smart, bossy one.

I can see the first book (or the second) being a great action movie for kids. Great characters, interesting plot, lots of special effects. Someone should option these now.

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Jam on the Vine

2015, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Queer, Women /

And to think, I almost didn’t read Jam on the Vine. Sheesh. One of the best books I’ve read this year and I almost missed it. Good thing TW pointed it out when she finished.

This is not the normal post-civil war era book. There are black Muslims in Texas. There are lesbians. It makes you think a bit of Ida B. Welles but not enough to actually make you feel like you’re reading Ida B Wells fan fiction or something like that.

Read it!

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Small-Space Vegetable Gardens

2015, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

Another impulse pick from the new non-fiction rack at the library. I want to grow all of the things and I have plenty of small space to do it but I’m unmotivated to do it, hahaha. Maybe we should re-think that whole 2 acres thing? lol.

Small-Space Vegetable Gardens is a nice book. Nice lists of vegetables to grow in various situations, what can be grown together and lots of info about SOIL. (For those who aren’t like me and just throw some dirt into a pot and call it good.)

I do think we need to run out and get a tomato plant. Maybe grow some cucumbers and pole beans. Maybe.

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Scratching the Woodchuck

2015, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

TW looked at Scratching the Woodchuck: Nature On An Amish Farm and asked why I had gotten it. Weird. I would have thought that would be obvious since I spend a considerable amount of my life daydreaming about a few acres in the country.

I wasn’t really sure I was going to read this. It’s been sitting on the library cart for weeks and has to go back on Monday. I even put it in the library bag to go back — and then retrieved it a couple of hours later and figured I’d just read a few pages and if I didn’t like it, I’d put it in the bag. I didn’t even add it to my Goodreads right away. I was that sure I wasn’t really going to read it.

But, it turns out, I enjoyed it. The stories are short. They’re easy to read. There’s just enough “God” to make the stories… nice… not so much that you feel like you’re in someone else’s church against your will. I kept stopping to look things up. Or to ask TW how she felt about this bird, or this animal. (How do YOU feel about moles?)

I really, really enjoyed it. I’m glad I didn’t take it back unread. And, I really really want a few acres of my own.

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6 Poetry Books from the Cybils Shortlist

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Poetry, Young Adult /

I really wish the Cybils didn’t put children’s poetry in with the middle grade/YA poetry. It seems… not right. Whatever. It is what it is and we’ll just go with it, I guess.

So I read six. Finally.

– Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems From the Water Hole was fine. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. It was fine.

– Firefly July was a cute seasonal poetry book. Nice mix of poetry from typical favorites and lesser known poets.

– Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons was fun. It was haiku but not the traditional haiku, which I appreciated. I was also amused by the hidden A, B, Cs — though that’s probably not super useful, I was just amused by it.

– Santa Clauses was better than I expected it to be. More haiku, which I wasn’t thrilled about but ended up liking quite a lot.

– Voices From the March on Washington was super interesting. (Again, why this and Brown Girl Dreaming are in the category with these younger children’s poetry… ugh.) I liked it very much. Kids who aren’t into poetry might like this. I highly recommend it.

– Water Rolls, Water Rises Water Rolls, Water Rises was excellent. I was surprised by how much I liked this one. I think it might have been my favorite of the bunch.

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