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What we gain from keeping books – and why it doesn’t need to be ‘joy’
- briga 8y agoI like books too, but personal libraries have a way of getting too big. Should I really be keeping books on my shelf because maybe I'll read it some time in the next decade? Do you really need a extensive library of thousands of books? It sure makes moving more difficult. How many of those books will you be reading at any given time anyway? I've started giving my books away after I finish them, unless I really loved the book and absolutely know I'm going to reread it.
- evolve2k 8y agoHaving literally just kondo’d my bookshelf I think there is a nuisance here that is missing, the test “Brings me joy” is a shorthand for making a personal assessment; not based on the merit to the book in the world or for someone else but specifically for you, on your bookshelf going forward. That context helps you clear book clutter that is essentially waste taking up space in your house. I cleared around 25% of my book collection this time around including a range of much loved earlier but now out of date tech books and I won’t miss any of them. If you want to keep lots of your books, do it, and even still her process for reviewing your collection without getting bogged down and taking days by getting sidetracked browsing your books is extremely valuable.