"“Books are the reflection of your thoughts and
values,” Kondo says, and she’s right, but then she’s so wrong when she
goes on to tell her television audience: “By tidying books, it will show
you what kind of information is important to you at this moment.”
That’s
the problem with Kondo’s method. It presumes a kind of
self-consciousness that no real lover of literature actually feels. We
don’t keep books because we know “what kind of information is important
to us at this moment.” We keep them because we don’t know.
So
take your tidy, magic hands off my piles, if you please. That great
jumble of fond memories, intellectual challenges and future delights
doesn’t just spark, it warms the whole house."
