In an effort to say, pare down the number of books that clutter my house, I am compelled to by an e-reader. In this slim piece of plastic I can house a library of over 30,000 books — thereby eliminating the stacks of books on my floor and shoved into my bookcases.

But here’s the irony: in order to minimize one area of my life, I have to sacrifice minimalism and frugality in another. I have to buy yet another piece of technology: which wastes fossil fuels, puts a hole in my wallet, and eats up my time as I browse the internet for Kindle books and e-books to fill up my (30,000 book!) digital bookshelf.

I experience the full force of this irony as I read the blogs of many minimalists who are Apple-fetishists (and I use this term with the utmost affection, as I am one myself). Amidst their dedication to a minimalist lifestyle, they display photos of their minimalist desk, tastefully displaying all of their shiny Apple gadgets (iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and Apple Cinema display). While I understand how the minimalist aesthetic jives with Apple design, sinking your money into the latest and greatest shiny gadgets seems to fly in the face of the spirit of simplicity (which, among other things, tries to get along with less).

I bring this up not to berate my fellow minimalists and Apple-lovers, but only because I feel in the grip of the same kind of hypocrisy. While I strive to get along with less, I look around my cluttered home and think “Gee, I could really get along with less if I could just digitize all my stuff. What better way to digitize all my stuff than to invest in x gadget!”

Sigh. Does anyone else struggle with this dilemma?