#Tsundoku

[ijustkindalikebooks]

Tom Gauld for The Guardian's Autumn Reading Special.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

積ん読

Tsundoku is the Japanese word to describe buying books and letting them pile up unread on shelves, floors, and nightstands.

[lost-carcosa]

[holespoles]

What is Tsundoku?

Just buying books and piling them up can be effective! (1) Buy books (2) Stack books (3) Brain cells are activated by receiving radio waves from piled books that cannot be explained by modern science!

Tsundoku" or "piled reading " is a term used to describe the state in which books you have acquired are left piled up at home without being read. There are similar words such asbibliophilia andbibliomania, but there is no word other than Japanese for the same concept or habit, and it became popular in the UK and other countries in the 2010s as "tsundoku. In "Words of the World That Cannot Be Translated" by Ella Frances Sanders, "tsundoku" is introduced as a word that does not express nuance well in many languages, along with " kurisarehiki " and " wabisabi".

[weepingfoxfury]

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday ...

Weatherwise: nondescript, but at least it's not raining ... hooman: channeling Victor Meldrew ... drink: tastes like chamois leather (currently off coffee) ... music: a guy that says he's small singing with some simians.

Sometimes it's just nice to lie in bed and pretend your room is floating out in space ... a bit like Zathura: A Space Adventure, but without the monsters. I'm just staring at my little pile of books ... it's one of many and I'll never read them all. I like to imagine the secondary characters switching between the books ... eventually making their way out into the world.

Sincerely hoping it's the butler and not zombie number 12 that makes it out first, and that he'll feel like bringing me breakfast ;-)

[tigermousse]

me, buying more books, while I haven't read all I have at home

[owenbroadcast]

[aurelyah]

Tsundoku is the Japanese word to describe buying books and letting them pile up unread on shelves, floors, and nightstands.

[kimseokjin27412]

Most people have emotional support pets or blankets, I have emotional support books...just carrying them around makes me feel better.

[blinddogfanfic]

[mckitterick]

tsundoku

a visual definition

[persa-tra-i-miei-pensieri]

Tsundoku è una parola d’uso colloquiale che si può tradurre come «l’atto di comprare un libro e poi non leggerlo, di solito mettendolo in una pila di altri libri non letti».

[...]

Al parigino Charles Asselineau, autore nel 1860 di un divertimento intitolato L’Inferno del bibliofilo, apparve sotto forma di un demone elegante – redingote con il bavero verde grigiastro, cappello dalla lunga falda inclinato sul naso – per trascinare il suo eroe negli inferi del Lungosenna, tra il girone delle bancarelle e quello delle aste di libri.

[...]

«Compra e non pensarci», gli sussurra affabilmente il demone ogni volta che lo vede tentennare; e cosí, un acquisto dissennato dopo l’altro, il bibliofilo si ritrova carico come una bestia da soma di libri che non ha nessuna intenzione di leggere, e indebitato per piú di trentamila franchi.

Cit. "Il lettore sul lettino. Tic, manie e stravaganze di chi ama i libri"

[lost-carcosa]

[ellefantine]

hey... I'm not the only one with this problem 🤷🏼‍♀️

[weepingfoxfury]

The Sense of an Ending ...

Not because it's Monday ... not because the rain is pouring down ... it's just the title of the book I'm currently reading.

The only time I read now is late at night, just before bed. A few pages at a time. Gone are the days of devouring literature ... 10/12 hour stints of simply being lost in other worlds. Those days have been replaced by seemingly too many distractions ... too much of this, that and the other to do ... an inability to concentrate.

My shelves are full of books. Tsundoku. All the books are ones my eyes have alighted upon in charity shops ... my one and only marble captivated and insistent upon their coming home with me ... and the inevitable finding a position on the shelf for this latest 'must have' so that it will become as dust covered as all the others. Miss Havisham might approve?

Perhaps I will actually read The Sense of an Ending all the way through this time. I've started where I left off last time, whenever that was. The bookmark was there, so I continue from that point.

Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique (March to the Scaffold) plays out on the radio and I'm smiling ...

[shironezuninja]

Well, at least I don’t have to fret about not reading piles of bought manga/comic books/light novels in the house anymore. Turns out there’s a Japanese term for this sort of bad habit out there. And I’m grateful for it.