She took on the artisanal drinking culture with the wildly successful Cocktails for Drinkers, and now noted humorist Jennifer McCartney (the Atlantic, BBC Radio, Teen Vogue) turns her attention to the puritans running the anti-clutter movement. In The Joy of Leaving Your Sh*t All Over the Place (Norton/Countryman, May), McCartney takes on those true believers and their gospel of “life-changing tidiness,” debunking several well-publicized myths in the process. Though her book is intended as parody rather than self-help primer, much of it carries the weight of truth. For instance...

“A clean house will not help you lose weight,” writes the author.

Nor will it help with your emotional life, or any relationship or anger issues you may have. On the contrary, McCartney says, being laser-focused on cleaning up your stuff may result in other problems. She reminds us that Patrick Bateman—the serial murderer from Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho—was a tidy person. As was Ted Bundy. As was Mussolini, who loved nothing better than filing papers. This is not, McCartney notes, the kind of company you want to keep.

On the other side of the coin, she points to the example of Albert Einstein, who once said: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

On the subject of clutter, McCartney has words of wisdom that will resonate with all BEA attendees. “Books,” she declares, “are important, and it’s okay to own thousands of them and never get rid of them.”

She continues (booksellers take note!) in the same vein: “Acquiring more books is important, too. Any trip to a place that sells books of any kind requires you to purchase one. You could be eight months behind on your rent, and if you don’t buy a book at a used bookstore, you’re basically a bad person who doesn’t love to read.”

“Books are not clutter,” she insists, “no matter what some book about getting organized may tell you. Literally, no one has ever walked into a library and been, like, what a f**ing mess.”

While McCartney will not be at BEA, her publisher, in a show of solidarity, has agreed to create a big mess here on the convention floor with a major giveaway at its booth (1844), sloppily scattering advance copies of McCartney’s book everywhere.

This article appeared in the May 11, 2016 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.