Scholarch's Blog

83 books

Earlier this week, I set out to declutter my personal library through the Konmari method. I've done it! I started with 190 volumes, and am now content with 83. I feel lighter, partly because moving forward I'll rely on a gifted Kindle e-reader to read books (thus reducing physical clutter), and mostly because I've released ideas I had about myself (represented by the books I held onto for too long). That my shelves hold what sparks joy in me is an added bonus.

What made the cut?

Academic references (13)

These are related to my scholarship. I won't name them specifically, as they could be material for identifying me at some point.

D&D sourcebooks (12)

I have the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual for both 5e and 5.5e. The remaining six: Xanathar's Guide to Everything; Tasha's Cauldron of Everything; Candlekeep Mysteries; Fizban's Treasury of Dragons; Journeys through the Radiant Citadel; and Phandelver and Below. Between these resources and online wikis, I'm satisfied with this segment of my library and won't be adding more.

Writing (15)

I have five books on English usage/style (e.g., The Elements of Style by Strunk & White and Zinsser's On Writing Well); five on the craft of writing (e.g., Bird by Bird by Lamott and The Art of Dramatic Writing by Egri); and five volumes on literature (e.g., Rushdie's Languages of Truth and Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman). One of my vices was collecting tomes in these sub-genres, but I realized during this decluttering process that I need to practice writing, not read about it. As it stands, I've found my guides, and I won't seek to find better ones: let me learn from the masters I've already identified.

Fiction (11)

This is the part that I think most would be interested in. I have:

  1. the Penguin volume of Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges (all his short stories in one tome!)
  2. the Penguin volume of Selected Non-Fictions by Borges
  3. the Everyman's Library collection of Albert Camus' work (The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and selected essays)

In terms of novels:

  1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  2. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
  3. The Once and Future King by T. H. White (a volume that collects the five in the series)
  4. Stoner by John Williams
  5. Augustus by John Williams

In terms of short story collections:

  1. Labyrinths by Borges (which is redundant next to Collected Fictions, but this copy is important to me for personal reasons)
  2. Bestiary by Julio Cortázar
  3. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace

Everything else (32)

  1. Saga of the Volsungs (translated by J. L. Byock)
  2. Prose Edda (translated by J. L. Byock)
  3. The Mabinogion (translated by G. Jones & T. Jones)
  4. Arthurian Romances (translated by W. W. Kibler and C. W. Carroll)
  5. Plutarch's Lives (Dryden translation, volume 1)
  6. Plutarch's Lives (Dryden translation, volume 2)
  7. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  8. Enchiridion by Epictetus
  9. Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
  10. On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
  11. The Aeneid (translated by Robert Fitzgerald)
  12. Starting from Scratch: The Life-Changing Lessons of Aeneas by Andrea Marcolongo
  13. National Geographic issue, Atlas of the Roman World
  14. My System by Aron Nimzovich
  15. Gladiators, Pirates and Games of Trust by Haim Shapira
  16. Strategy and Conscience by Anatol Rapoport
  17. Weaponized Lies by Daniel J. Levitin
  18. Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
  19. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
  20. Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
  21. Both Flesh and Not by David Foster Wallace
  22. Pathways to Bliss by Joseph Campbell
  23. The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
  24. Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
  25. Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá
  26. The Art of the Mass Effect Universe
  27. The Geometry of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces by Stephen Coles
  28. Thinking with Type (2nd ed.) by Ellen Lupton
  29. Just My Type by Simon Garfield
  30. The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
  31. The Iliad translated by Richmond Lattimore
  32. The Odyssey translated by Richmond Lattimore

Books 1–4 reflect my apparent interest in northern Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries; 5–13 relate to my interest in Greek and Roman culture; 14–18 are about how to be a better thinker; 19–21 are the collected essays of DFW, one of my favourite writers; the two books by Campbell reflect my interest in mythology and what it can do for personal meaning-making; books 24–26 contain artwork that I enjoy; and books 27–30 are about typography, one of my nerdy interests. Books 31 and 32 were initially set for donation, but I wanted the contrast with the Aeneid.

Some of the volumes may be removed after I read them, but many are set to remain for the long term. Now I have both clothing and books decluttered! That means the next category is papers. I think I'm ready for it; despite writing and saving many notes over the years, I think my experience with decluttering books has helped me to realize: attachment to objects stems from having an idea of a Self to manifest. It's going to be an emotional journey to revisit the words I wrote throughout my life, and I wonder what it'll look like to digitize journal entries. For papers such as old receipts and bank statements? I'm so excited to shred them.

Roughly one month into the new year, and I'm feeling much lighter! I won't start decluttering papers right away—I'll take a bit of a break and perhaps read some books before I tackle the next category.