Tsundoku
I came across a Japanese word recently (having stumbled upon this video) that I am pretty sure was invented specifically to describe me: tsundoku. It refers to the practice of acquiring books and letting them pile up, unread. The word is a blend of tsunde (to stack things) and oku (to leave for a while), with a nod to dokusho, meaning reading. So: books acquired, stacked, and left to wait. Guilty as charged.
As soon as I had disposable income, I started buying more books than I can reasonably read. My shelves are a mix of the finished, the half-finished, and the optimistically purchased. Some books have been waiting patiently for years. I’ve made peace with this. More than peace, actually — I’ve come to think there’s something genuinely pleasurable about it.
Indeed, in recent years I’ve noticed that I get real joy just from browsing my books. Pulling something off the shelf, flipping through the first few pages, putting it back. There’s something nice about knowing a good book is sitting there waiting for you. It feels like having a really good meal to look forward to, or a good show on the horizon. The reading is coming; just not today. Tsundoku, it turns out, doesn’t carry a negative connotation in Japanese. It’s more of an affectionate acknowledgment of a very human habit. I appreciate that. The west tends to pathologize accumulation (though admittedly, the general behavior can get out of control). The Japanese apparently just gave it a name and moved on.
Consider me a proud practitioner.
