Did you know…
…that there’s a Japanese word for people with more books than they can read?
tsundoku
(n.) the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piling it up together with other such unread books.
If you combine that idea with a study from the UK discovered that on average, more than half of the books in a household have not been read, and you end up with a lot of people involved in tsundoku.
Apparently the average household has 138 books and 80 of them are unread. Honestly, I don’t consider 138 books to be very many. But technically, that drops things into the tsundoku range for those people, since they have more books than they can read.
I also know people who own a thousand books and read them. So tsundoku seemes to be less about the number of book owned, and more about whether you’re going to read them all.
We used to qualify as a tsundoku family. Between a church library that was closing and offering shelves of books for free, to a love of book shopping, we used to have a lot of bookshelves filled with books we’d never read. Several moves into smaller houses trimmed up that collection, though. So out of necessity, I’d say we don’t currently suffer from tsundoku.
However, this summer we’re moving, and the house does have more room…I can not rule out the possibility of tsundoku rearing it’s book-loving head again.
Actually, what we really need is a word for people with more ebooks on their Kindle than they will ever read. Because that I have.
How about you? Do you have more books than you can actually read? And for you, how many books is that?
I definitely have more books on my kindle than I can read and I read a lot! I am taking the Goodreads challenge and my number to reach or beat is 200. I am at 100 now. I think I am going to have to up my number before the end of the year.
I am a tsundoku I have to many to read and don’t get threw many of them. My cellphone loaded and book folder in email. Not count all paperbacks I have. I try to read them all but still have huge collection. My Kindle library full but don’t have anything to download them.
I never tsundoku. I always finish a book even through gritted teeth! although that is very rare. The author has taken their time.angst and heart into writing a book and deserves the respect of the reader to finish it. I do have an over burdened book case, i am on the second shelf so doing ok and trying very hard not to buy any more just yet! I think i have a book fetish as books call to me and i have to buy, borrow or reserve at my library. I am a prolific reader and average 3/4 books a week, no set genre, anything that raises my heartbeat whish is preety much everything! I am currently reading The String Diaries Stephen Lloyd Jones and so far brilliant.
Sorry guess I misunderstood word. I always finished a book. Read many genre and always open for more.
I can’t leave a potential good book behind. I pick them up with all good intentions to read them. I just don’t have enough time. I can’t get rid of them because they might be a treasure. I am definitely a tsundoku.
Like you l have way more books than I’ll ever read. I have over 5000 ebooks downloaded. Great books just keep getting written
I definitely fit – I’m running about 6000 books but I am determined to try every one – I read about 3/day and more that that if an individual book turns out to be not what I can read after at least 1/3 of the book. Always looking for the next gem.
About a thousand ago it was 20588. I have read 2398 in the last eleven years. Ah well, retirement has its benefits.
Guess I have some catching up to do. Working nights 5 days per week and analyzing my husband every morning doesn’t loVe much time for me. I usually sacrifice sleep to catch up on e-mails and reading. I really miss reading for hours each day.
I am a tsundoko.But I am a book addict….I can never leave a potentially good read behind.I have close to 2000 books on my Kindle.I plan on eventually reading them all but I keep adding more books.
tsundoku: I don’t dare count the books on my Kindle. (Actually, most of them are in the Cloud.) I’d guess somewhere close to a thousand. I also have somewhat lesser numbers on Nook, Kobo, FBReader, AIReader, and a couple others. I’m stocking up for my old age. (I’m only 69.)
Actually, I once had over a thousand books, most paperback, some hardcover, but they, like most things, went their way years ago. At least I had read all of them, some several times. (And I wish I could find some of them again. Unfortunately, in addition to not being able to find copies, I often don’t remember the title and/or author.)
Definitely a tsundoko:) I have over 4,000 paperbacks at home (most of them read:)) and over 2,000 on my Kindle (most of those NOT read:)) And yes, I’m always buying more, and then there are libraries, and friends with books… It’s really hard to skip on a book that has an interesting sounding blurb:)
Way more books than i can possibly read
Laughed when I read this because I definitely do this, mostly with discounted or free books. And I have every intention of reading them but they get buried on my Kindle or on my physical shelves. Although, it is kind of like a treat when I rediscover them.
Funny, I always thought the word for a person with too many books was my name. Very interesting on the statistics though.
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