Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I truly hate everything about this silly book, and yet I gave the author the courtesy of actually reading the whole thing, well beyond the point where she finally totally lost me. She lost me at books, and the idea that books are merely paper and printed words. NO! Books reflect an owner's lifetime of aspiration and curiosity and study and knowledge. They reflect how we see ourselves. The ones read before are cherished as part of one's history, the date(s) when read perhaps noted on the front page. They hold vivid memories of who we were when we first read or acquired them. The last ones I'd ever discard are the ones I've already read, unless of course I found them as inane as Ms. Kondo's book. I get the idea of "sparking joy," and I understand that there are people so overwhelmed by junk that they can't figure out where to begin, but for others of us, happiness and memories are embedded in our possessions, and would be lost in the absence of them. Some of us are collectors. Some have saved for a lifetime as the historians of our lives. The goal of such lives is to surround ourselves with cherished possessions and enjoy them, not to sip herbal tea of an afternoon with nothing to look at but a bouquet of flowers -- the ideal state of being Ms. Kondo holds out. Ms. Kondo says she wants to enable readers to decide what to keep, but in fact her method of piling every book or stitch of clothing in one place is designed to shame people into discarding, and she really doesn't care where it goes. Mountains of waste for landfills are just fine as long as they leave the house. At least to this reader, advocating turning possessions into waste withing making a serious effort to sell or donate the best of them is irresponsible. We all should be free from guilt packing things away so that they may "spark joy" another day, or simply find new utility when our lifestyles change again. I refuse to engage in a war on possessions as though happiness can come only in the absence of them. I can't wait for this fad to pass.