Bookish Quotes - Kondoing books.. and other things.

I am currently reading The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke and I am really enjoying it.  I really like the tone even though there is some subdued subject matter in one thread of the story.  And I love the idea of a lost song that has the power to draw people together.

For a bookish quote this week I thought I would share a few little sections where one of the main characters is taking stock of her possessions after returning from a long time overseas. The reason for the little sections is that this section goes for several pages, and I more wanted to give the idea of the passage rather than the whole passage. I am sharing it because....well....it sparked joy for me.

"Do you spark joy?" she silently asked the Husqvarna.
"I do," the trusty old sewing machine confirmed, reminding Evie of dresses past. It would be nice to make herself some new clothes, whenever, wherever she settled. Evie moved the heavy case to the side of the room she intended for the keep pile.
Next, she identified which of the cardboard cartons contained the china dinner service that had been handed down to her mother, from her own mother. When Evie's mother had died, Jacinta - the eldest of Evie's half-sisters - hadn't wanted the china, and neither had Stella. Evie had been only eight years old at the time, and Stella had decided to pack the boxes away in case Evie grew into the kind of young woman who would on day want a Royal Worcester dinner service.

A couple of paragraphs and then...

"Do you spark joy?" she asked the boxes full of china.
"Actually, no," was the answer from the dinner plates and the side plates, the soup plates and the bowls, the teacups and the saucers and the matching salt-and-pepper shakers. " We give you guilt and a storage problem."

And then a bit later

She sighed, summoned another modicum of strength, and approached a series of cardboard cartons clearly marked BOOKS. Inside, she knew  there would be novels and poetry, plays and non-fiction, old books, new books, books, books, books....
"Do you - "
"Don't you dare even ask," the cartons replied, and Evie moved them all to the "to keep" pile.

Evie then finds a box filled with old diaries

By the time Evie came to the last page of the last diary - I am casting off into the world, I wonder what I will find there - the light coming in through the shutters had the golden tone of late evening. She felt drained. Diaries, after all, had a habit of sifting out the average parts of life and leaving only the extremes, but sixteen years' worth of highs and lows was a lot to absorb in a single sitting. She loaded the diaries back into the archive box and replaced the lid.
"Do you spark joy?" she asked the box.
"What a dumb question," the box replied. "I hold the archive of your heart, Evie Greenlees - its joys and its sorrows."

And finally

Since arriving in Tavistock Row, she'd been contemplating the prospect of the banana lounges in the brick-paved courtyard in the front garden, and now seemed like the time to try them. On her way out the door, she picked up her guitar case.
"Do you spark joy?" she asked it.
"Cheeky cow," the guitar said. "You know I do."
"Just checking."