Mrs. Peasant's Bookshelf: Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett

The New Novel, Winslow Homer. 1877

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high.

Take a look, it's in a book, a Reading Rainbow!

I can go anywhere.

Friends to know,

and ways to grow.

A Reading Rainbow!

I can be anything.

Take a look,

it's in a book.

A Reading Rainbow.

-READING RAINBOW THEME

Today, I'm going to share why I have a book collection and why I think it's important. I also want to introduce you to the book I am reading and LOVING, Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett. There is one area in our home that I can't seem to declutter. This area is our book collection. I find the books to be both beautiful and useful. It is the one area besides the garden that I feel the joy of the abundance. Just like a garden, I am constantly devouring my books. My bookshelf is a stocked pantry for my mind. 

When I was a little girl, my father would drive us kids to the downtown library and let each of us pick out 5 books. I felt like I was in heaven. I spent hours on the carpeted floor flipping through beautiful picture books of Hummingbirds of North America and books on caring for rabbits and paper crafts. The library had a feeling of wonder and abundance. The shelves were organized and I would quietly escape reading a book in a corner of the library where you wouldn't see another soul for hours. But I digress. . . My favorite books were the non-fiction and reference books. Some of the reference books were so treasured, you couldn't even check them out! 

Shelves of Central Library, IITD, 2024

My parents, my brother, and my husband were all English majors. My father was an encyclopedia salesman. I come from book people. It is in my blood. I even love the smell of old books. Over the years, I have created my own library on topics that relate to my weird interests. These topics include 80's Christmas Books, health/food as medicine books, gardening, frugality, spiritual Catholic reads, fairy tales, Peanuts paperbacks, and home repair. I have found most of these books used for under a dollar. My reference library is my analog Internet. I can't tell you how many times I've solved a problem or found the answer by pulling a book from my bookshelf. It's a great feeling to not be tied to the online world. 

When I read my books, I don't usually read them all the way through. It is rather boring to read a cookbook or a gardening encyclopedia from cover to cover. I skip all around when I read my books. Sometimes, I'll just look at the pictures. Other times, I will read a chapter that interests me like tomatoes, soil making, or ground covers. Sometimes, I just like to take bites and eat them slowly. For example, I like to read the intros to my Southern Living Christmas Books from the 1980s just to smile. I nibble through my books like a book mouse. Or, I search for an answer like a detective mouse. Eventually, I read through my books over and over again. My books are like old friends that I visit with over tea many times a year.

I am currently reading Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett from 1984. The book is 275 pages of every type of clutter and bad thinking that keeps us stuck. It is the most comprehensive clutter book I've read. And trust me, I've read lots of them. One of my favorite things about the book are the awesome 1980's illustrations. I love the expressions and the silliness of the illustrations that leave the reader never missing photographs. It is filled with tough honesty and humor which I love. It really dives into the psychology of clutter. I am enjoying it! It has wording which is gloriously dated but so true like this passage:

"Junkees are afflicted with the endless urge to have more. Enough is never enough. The have-notters want some, the have-enoughers want more, even the have-too-muchers want more. Ever wonder why most frauds, schemes, cons, embezzlements, etc., aren't committed by the have-nothing desperate but by the nice well-to-do citizen? People with plenty, position, and more things than they can already use are often the people who defraud to get more. Jails are filled with people who never could get enough."

I hope you never feel guilty over your active personal library. I also encourage everyone to enjoy their books more. When we enjoy and read our books, they become a treasure instead of a dusty hoard. Make the time and read your books. Thank you for reading and God bless you! 

"Dig". Poster by Sadie Wendell Mitchell. Part of the artist's
 "Girls Will Be Girls" poster series. New York, 1909.