If I were to put all my books on the floor, as Marie Kondo advises, there wouldn’t be enough space for me to walk around. So that’s one category of hers that I will ignore. However, she gives me an escape. She keeps telling me to keep only those things which “spark joy”. Well, my books spark more joy than anything I own, No argument.
I use my books, and keep on using them. I re-read them, or parts of them; I use them for research; they are my large (very large) commonplace book(s). I festoon them with underlines, highlights, comments and post-it notes. I have an entire bookcase in my office that I call my Seedbed, and the books in it could spark a conflagration of glee, also ideas and, well—blogs. One—two—of my favourites are Notes from Hampstead, The Writer’s Notes: 1954-1971 (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, first American edition, 1998) and The Secret Heart of the Clock: Notes, Aphorisms, Fragments: 1973-1985 (Farrar Strauss Giroux, first American edition, 1989), both by Elias Canetti (1905-1994), Nobel Prize in Literature (1981). My copies are studded with post-it notes and underlines and comments. I discover more every time I pull them out—truly seed beds with ideas that germinate and grow into other forms. They make me think. They spark joy. I’ve written about them before; they keep on surprising me. You too, I hope.
So much for Kondo’s second category. She just doesn’t get books.