Labels Can Be Important
How excited was I when I found out there was a name for me! A label! I “suffer” from tsundoku, a Japanese term for the phenomenon of acquiring reading material but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them.
That’s me! I have large to-read piles, and multiples of them, too. I love going to bookstores and stocking up, but always it’s accompanied with guilt. When will I ever get to these gems? How will I ever get to them all? And here comes a term that basically lets me off the hook. I don’t have to! I can collect! I can enjoy the look and feel, the atmosphere and mood that my piles of unread books give me. The pleasure and anticipation of potential. The plethora of choice when I do have a chance to pick one up.
My daughter collects replica swords. She has a beautiful array of weaponry on her wall. Yet she isn’t using them (thank god!) My books are the same. I’ll read what I can when I can, but if not, that’s okay. They still bring me joy.
Tsundoku. That’s me.