Tsundoku Explained
is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.[1] [2] [3] [4] The term is also used to refer to books ready for reading later when they are on a bookshelf.
The term originated in the Meiji era (1868–1912) as Japanese slang.[4] It combines elements of the terms, and . There are suggestions to use the word in the English language and include it in dictionaries like the Collins Dictionary.[4] The American author and bibliophile A. Edward Newton commented on a similar state in 1921.[5]
In his 2007 book The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb coined the term "antilibrary", which has been compared with .[6]
See also
Notes and References
- News: Brooks. Katherine. There's A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read. 16 October 2017. The Huffington Post. 19 March 2017.
- News: Tobar. Hector. Are you a book hoarder? There's a word for that.. 16 October 2017. Los Angeles Times. 24 July 2014.
- News: Gerken. Tom. Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them . BBC News . 29 July 2018 . 30 July 2018.
- News: Crow. Jonathan. 'Tsundoku', the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language. Open Culture . 28 March 2021. 24 July 2014.
- Web site: Dodson . Steve . February 7, 2008 . A Quote on Bibliomania . Language Hat . July 24, 2016.
- Web site: Popova. Maria. 2015-03-24. Umberto Eco's Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones. 2022-01-26. The Marginalian. en-US.
