Flowers in California

Flowers in California

Friday, April 2, 2010

An Ironic Tale about Books

The condensed version of this story would be that I bought a book that convinced me to get rid of many books. If the computer runs into problems yet again, maybe that will be all of the tale I tell. I think that things are fine with the computer now and although the Telus repairperson will be a little disappointed when he or she comes to fix it, I am pleased.

So, I was in a bookstore and I saw a book called "Clutter Busting." As often happens with me and books, I bought it. That's why I shouldn't go to book stores too often. (Maybe I just shouldn't shop now that Bath and Body Works is out of bounds too). Anyways, I brought the book home, read it, loved it and was very excited about getting rid of clutter. I don't know how much success I had right away but I must have cleared out some things. As you may know from earlier entries, this is a theme with me right now.

I decided to reread this book this week. As I got reading and thinking, I began to accept the idea that getting rid of self-help books may be good. Yesterday morning, I started gathering books. They weren't hard to find.

On the main level of my home yesterday, I found 31 self-help books. They vary in subject and some dip into spirituality but all are in some way purchased for the purpose of improving me and/or my life.

The thinking in the "Clutter Busting" book is that we are good enough without so much stuff and also without these books. The books show I have not felt that this was true. One is actually called, and this is sad, "Will I Ever Be Good Enough?" I know that even in my teenage years, I had a sign up in my room to "Ameliorez-vous" or improve yourself. Wow.

I think or hope that I'm starting to feel more positive about me. A very good friend of mine asked today, after learning of the 31 books, "what on earth would you want to change?" I'm not saying that there aren't things to change but there are a lot of things about myself worth holding onto as well.

Clearly I haven't been the only poor soul out there buying self-help books or there wouldn't be sections in bookstores devoted to them. As my husband wisely said today though, I've only made the authors happy by buying the books.

I have more book shelf space now and ideally more energy in my life to devote to new things. I really like the concepts in the Clutter Busting book.

The question now is "What should I do with THAT book?"

JAHD

2 comments:

  1. Wow, that's quite a "confession". I know how easy it is to get "sucked" into the feeling that you are never good enough, sometimes it's way to easy to support that feeling. I'm glad you're finding this de-cluttering so helpful. I guess you're ready for it to be time. Congratulations and I agree with your friend - what would you want to change! Enjoy your day...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for another nice comment, Andrea. It's too bad that we can feel inadequate. We're not!

    See you soon.

    Joanne

    ReplyDelete