Maybe you have someone in your spirit who has a predominate TBR ( that ’s " to - be - read " ) pile , and you are starting to have concerns . possibly it ’s adozen bookson their nightstand . mayhap it ’s a ledge ( or two … or three … or an intact shelving unit of measurement ) of books that have yet to have their back cracked undetermined . Maybe this person in your life is you . Maybe it ’s me . It ’s me . It ’s decidedly me .
Is this collection of unread books something to be concern about ? Will reality television legion descend on my home to clear out the books I have yet to read ? Is this some undiagnosed malady ? No ! It ’s actually a lovely lifestyle conception that has a serene - sound name : tsundoku ( pronounced tsoon - DOH - koo ) . I feel well just saying the word .
TheCambridge Dictionaryhas this definition for tsundoku :
It ’s a practice , not a sickness . You have it away what else is a practice?Meditation . And that is great for the great unwashed . So tsundoku is credibly groovy for people , too . How could it possibly not be ?
It comes from the root words " tsumu , " which means " to jam up , " and " doku , " which imply " read . " It wasused in mark in 1879 , in the phrase " tsundoku sensei , " which sound like a pretty important and admirable person , if you ask me . However , this custom was " potential to be satirical , " note the BBC . Harrumph .
Bibliomania , however , is big tidings . It was the claim of a 19th - century novel by Thomas Frognall Dibdin , who sounds like he might also be a character in " The Lord of the Rings . " This term did take a stigma for a while , as if a person who ’s obsess with books could be cark . Now bibliomania is used to refer someone who channels their passion for record book into a deliberately curated collection .
Tsundoku practitioner , on the other hand , accumulate book on whims , well-nigh at random . The collection is driven by curiosity and interests that may be constantly and may be momentaneous , but these interests always result in a twosome of book being purchased . The problem — if you must call it that — is that it claim a moment to purchase a book at a shop or on-line and at least a few sidereal day to read a account book . Usually you ’re reading a Word that you bought long before this fresh book arrive in your home . So the account book pile up more rapidly than you’re able to read them . No ignominy in that , friends .
We know that reading fiction can increase a person’sempathy , which we could all use more of these days . Having a passel of unread books also can instil a sense of humility in the face of all we do n’t know . And it might pop the question a counter to theDunning - Kruger event , where we think we jazz more about a subject area than we do .
Nassim Nicolas Taleb writes in his Quran " Black Swan : The Impact of the extremely Improbable : "
Challenge accepted .
