osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2015-12-16 07:53 am
osprey_archer) wrote2015-12-16 07:53 am
Wednesday Reading Meme
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
I haven’t finished anything this week. :(
What I’m Reading Now
L. M. Montgomery’s Pat of Silver Bush, which I’m enjoying a lot, although I do think the narrator could be a little bit less sledgehammer-y about Pat’s hatred of change. It’s so clearly shown in her behavior that there’s really no reason for the narrator to pop up and tell us how much Pat hates change every other chapter (I exaggerate slightly, and this does get less frequent as the book goes on).
Pat actually reminds me a lot of myself, especially the instinctive balking from new clothes, new furniture, new furniture arrangements, and change in general. I also hate throwing things out - although not, unlike Pat, because I think my old shirts have feelings that might be hurt; it’s just that I’d have to get new shirts. Or new shorts. Or new anything.
That makes this a somewhat ironic pairing with the other book I’ve been reading this week, Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (which has a misleading title, because it makes it sound like this is an Ancient Japanese Art when actually it’s Kondo’s own method). I was a bit skeptical - I remain a bit skeptical about some of her more sweeping claims - but on the other hand I used her method to go through my clothes and ended up with five grocery bags of stuff to lug over to Goodwill and a couple of plastic bags of trash too far gone for Goodwill, so as a method of getting rid of stuff, A++ would recommend.
Basically her method is to get out all your clothes - or, rather, all your clothes of a particular type; shirts, socks, whatever - and ask yourself, “Do I love this?” And if you don’t, chuck it. (Within reason, obviously. I feel no great affection for my work shirts, but I need them.) Presumably this would work with other classes of object, too: books or kitchenware or whatever it is that you have too much of.
I’m not sure why this works so well. A few theories:
- It’s easier to see everything once it’s all out
- Also, once you’ve gotten it out, it’s just as easy to chuck it as put it back. There’s a lot less inertia toward keeping it
- Throwing out a lot of stuff at once is easier than throwing out one thing at a time. You sort of get into a groove with it.
What I Plan to Read Next
Charles Finch’s Home by Nightfall is in at the library. YESSSSSS! Most comfortable man in London with his seriously comfortable friends, here I come!
I haven’t finished anything this week. :(
What I’m Reading Now
L. M. Montgomery’s Pat of Silver Bush, which I’m enjoying a lot, although I do think the narrator could be a little bit less sledgehammer-y about Pat’s hatred of change. It’s so clearly shown in her behavior that there’s really no reason for the narrator to pop up and tell us how much Pat hates change every other chapter (I exaggerate slightly, and this does get less frequent as the book goes on).
Pat actually reminds me a lot of myself, especially the instinctive balking from new clothes, new furniture, new furniture arrangements, and change in general. I also hate throwing things out - although not, unlike Pat, because I think my old shirts have feelings that might be hurt; it’s just that I’d have to get new shirts. Or new shorts. Or new anything.
That makes this a somewhat ironic pairing with the other book I’ve been reading this week, Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (which has a misleading title, because it makes it sound like this is an Ancient Japanese Art when actually it’s Kondo’s own method). I was a bit skeptical - I remain a bit skeptical about some of her more sweeping claims - but on the other hand I used her method to go through my clothes and ended up with five grocery bags of stuff to lug over to Goodwill and a couple of plastic bags of trash too far gone for Goodwill, so as a method of getting rid of stuff, A++ would recommend.
Basically her method is to get out all your clothes - or, rather, all your clothes of a particular type; shirts, socks, whatever - and ask yourself, “Do I love this?” And if you don’t, chuck it. (Within reason, obviously. I feel no great affection for my work shirts, but I need them.) Presumably this would work with other classes of object, too: books or kitchenware or whatever it is that you have too much of.
I’m not sure why this works so well. A few theories:
- It’s easier to see everything once it’s all out
- Also, once you’ve gotten it out, it’s just as easy to chuck it as put it back. There’s a lot less inertia toward keeping it
- Throwing out a lot of stuff at once is easier than throwing out one thing at a time. You sort of get into a groove with it.
What I Plan to Read Next
Charles Finch’s Home by Nightfall is in at the library. YESSSSSS! Most comfortable man in London with his seriously comfortable friends, here I come!