Non-Fiction

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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Stuffocation

2015, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I have a love/hate thing going on with Stuffocation. I like the concept, it makes a lot of sense. I’ve also seen (and pointed out) trends in experientialism in recent years.

There were pieces of the book that I loved but there some points when I found myself rolling my eyes at the author. I’m glad I read it but I’m not going to become an experientialist — just typing that made me roll my eyes again. lol.

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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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Two Non-Fiction Books

2015, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

A couple of months ago, I was thinking a lot about millennials and then I stopped thinking about millennials but I had all of these library books on the shelf that I’d reserved when I was thinking about millennials. So I figured what the heck, I’ll read a couple. They’re short. They’ll be quick. It couldn’t hurt.

First, The Rise of the Millennial Parents ticked me off so much that I couldn’t finish it. There were so many typos. A typo in the introduction (I hope it was a typo) set me off and I never recovered. Also, does any educator really need that many ways to categorize parents? Excuse me while I roll my eyes again.

The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation was interesting. I ended up enjoying it more than I’d expected. It’s written by the Lifeway guy (and his son) so I expected a whole lot more evangelizing than there was. Good for them for avoiding that. I’m actually glad I read this one.

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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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Lillian Gilbreth: Redefining Domesticity

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

OK so I’m biased, I’ll just say that right up front. I’m a big fan of the Des Jardins family and this book was written by Julie Des Jardins. Also, I love Lillian Gilbreth. Not the Cheaper By the Dozen version — the real one. Yep, I’m biased. Whatever.

I loved Lillian Gilbreth: Redefining Domesticity and am just annoyed that it took me so long to read it.

The darn thing has been sitting on my desk for years!

She was a pretty amazing woman and her husband was pretty OK, himself. For a dude. 😉 Also, reading it made me spend a little time reminiscing about the Charleston News & Courier… I’d really forgotten that Frank Jr was the guy who wrote the “Doing the Charleston” column for all of my childhood.

And, I spent a good amount of time watching motion study videos and cursing the flow chart (which actually made sense at some point in life, just not now, lol.)

I can’t imagine what “work” would look like today if we hadn’t had the Gilbreth’s — Lillian in particular.

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2 Non-fiction

2015, Books in Bed, Dewey's Readathon, Non-Fiction /

Thank goodness for easy to read non-fiction, these two saved my #readathon numbers. Hah.

I reserved Paint Mojo after Juliet Crane’s Lifebook lesson because I really like Juliet Crane. The book was fine. Not great but fine. I still really like Juliet Crane. I should take her Happy Painting class.

We would like some fruit trees when we move next year so when I saw Grow a Little Fruit Tree at the library, I figured I’d check it out. I know nothing about fruit trees. I certainly didn’t know anything about growing LITTLE fruit trees (not dwarf fruit trees, LITTLE fruit trees.) I really enjoyed the book. I still don’t know much about fruit trees but I definitely know more now and I like the idea of little fruit trees a lot.

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