Mari Kondo has been causing quite a stir among the book community. As I mentioned in my recent Instagram post this isn't because she explicitly said anything bad, but because the internet loves demonising, drama, and self-righteousness. If you've missed this, essentially the KonMari philosophy is all about really thinking about what you want and need in your life, and making a conscious decision to only buy and keep objects that are explicitly necessary, or spark a certain joyful feeling in you.
Mari Kondo said that the number of books she tends to hold onto at any one time is around thirty, and because a few people misunderstood that be a 'rule' rather than her own person preference, certain parts of the bookish community started ripping into her and defending their extensive book collections. Obviously this was stupid. Mari never said that everyone should have thirty books, and the idea that a small book collection, or being willing to let go of your books, means you're somehow an inferior book-lover or reader is wrong on so many levels.
I get that people love having huge collections of books I really do, and I used to be that way too. My endless shelves were a point of pride and I felt like I needed to keep every book to prove that I had read them. But then I left home and spent years moving between rooms and studio flats and just couldn't justify keeping every book. I got used to picking out books that I just knew I didn't truly love enough to keep, and would never read again and they went to charity shops so someone else could enjoy them. So when I hear people equate being a book-lover with a strange hoarder-like clinging to every book you've ever owned, it irks me.
I still have over 200 books, so I'm hardly a minimalist. But that's because I'm able to store them at my parents house when I'm moving around, and because I'm privileged enough to be able to buy books rather than borrow them. I have no time for the attitude that came crashing down all over bookish twitter at that point, and actually I found it smacked of defensiveness. We know we have a consumerism problem in the book community, and we're often reluctant to admit that maybe we get hyped into buying books we won't ever read, or chasing after new releases before we've read the books we've only just bought.
I'm not giving up my book collection any time soon, but I'm also not so precious that I couldn't part with a large chunk of it. So I decided to see what my collection would look like if I emulated Mari Kondo's personal philosophy to the letter and could keep only thirty books. It wasn't easy! In fact, I only ended up with twenty-eight because I couldn't choose between the last handful, and decided to be harsh and omit them all. I've split them into rough categories, so they're easier to list.
Behold - my KonMari'd capsule bookshelf.
C L A S S I C S
01. Jane Austen - Persuasion - probably Austen's only truly romantic novel, includes the first sext...
02. Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey - hilarious and silly and probably my favourite of her novels.03. Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility - Austen's most socially aware novel in my opinion.
04. Elizabeth Inchbald - A Simple Story - a little known novel with the most feminist 18th Century heroine ever!
05. Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South - Gaskell writes better class commentary than Dickens. There, I said it.
06. Frances Burney - Evelina - a story about an adorable country bumpkin shaking up high society.
07. E.M Forster - Maurice - Forster writes about being gay and coming to terms with yourself long before it was acceptable.
F A N T A S Y / S C I - F I
08. Charlie Jane Anders - All the Birds in the Sky - a witch and a tech genius team up to save the world.
09. Robin Hobb - Ship of Magic - a phenomenal fantasy novel, I need to read the sequel.10. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - Good Omens - hilarious and clever, by two of my favourite male authors.
11. Lilli Thal (trans. from German by John Brownjohn) - Mimus - a formative novel of my childhood.
12. Katherine Arden - The Bear and the Nightingale - beautiful and enchanting.
13. Becky Chambers - The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - the space opera equivalent of a group hug.
14. Becky Chambers - A Closed and Common Orbit - Just as great as the first, and better written.
M O D E R N C L A S S I C S
15. Angela Carter - The Magic Toyshop - an enchanting bildungsroman with a beautiful cover.
16. Toni Morrison - The Bluest Eye - a breathtaking, heartbreaking look at how racism destroys people.
17. Toni Morrison - Beloved - I started it, cried, and put it down. I will brave it again someday.
18. Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman - Atwood's debut, in which you see her biting wit and social commentary flowering.19. Margaret Atwood - The Handmaids Tale - I own a pretty hardback, but this tatty copy has all my uni notes.
20. Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex - a summer read that swallowed me whole for a week.
E V E R Y T H I N G E L S E
21. Tiffany McDaniel - The Summer that Melted Everything - a blistering debut about race and family and simmering prejudice.
22. Sarah Moss - The Tidal Zone - I loved this so much I've given copies as presents twice! (Review)23. Naomi Alderman - The Power - an allegorical book that is so uncomfortable and so important.
24. Dorothy Parker - Collected Works - the original answer to 'women aren't funny'. I cackle whenever I open this book.
25. Kate Tempest - Hold Your Own - the collection that made me go "holy shit I do love poetry!"26. Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay - a wonderful distillation of intersectional feminism from a truly bold and insightful woman.
27. Grady Hendrix - My Best Friend's Exorcism - if mean girls was an eighties horror movie but was also just about female friendship. Creepy and wonderful.
28. Emma Cline - The Girls - a crystalline portrayal of what it is to be a teenage girl. So truthful it was almost unbearable.
Of course the truth is that I love all my books in one way or another, and my collection as a whole is absolutely something that brings me huge amounts of joy and warmth. I love collecting books, I love owning them and I feel like a good bookshelf shows off your personality and identity the same way as an outfit would. But also I recognise that books are just objects, and that owning a book doesn't mean I appreciated it any more or less that someone who borrowed it or donated it.
Books aren't always meant to gather dust on a shelf. Sometimes they're meant to be passed around and swapped, dropped in the bath or left at a train station. Owning doesn't necessarily mean appreciating, and the point of books isn't just to accumulate them.
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Hi! Just discovered your blog! Have you seen Marie Kondo’s Netflix series? She’s not as brutal or rigid by her book standards with the people she helps. I was surprised and felt I could implement those standards/tips easier. Anyway, good writing and I’ll check out more; I’m always looking for book blogs. 😊
ReplyDeleteI have watched a few episodes and you're totally right. She's so sweet and lets people guide themselves and do what they feel is right which I love!
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