Now that my college semester has ended, I was planning to clean out my bookshelf, and I noticed a pile of books that I bought but never ended up reading. 🫣

I have always had this annoying habit of purchasing books just for the sake of doing so, and I never understood it until I came across the Japanese term “Tsundoku”.

It refers to the act of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home instead of actually reading them. Now, as a literature student, I hate to admit this, but it’s pretty accurate.

This term might be similar to “Bibliomania” which is a passionate enthusiasm for collecting and possessing books.

However, there is a key difference: bibliomania is the act of acquiring books in order to create a collection, whereas tsundoku describes the act of buying books with the intention of reading them (but failing obviously), which leads to an accidental pile.

Personally, I have noticed this a lot when I am out at a bookstore or a library. Even during my school days, I used to issue a bunch of books but never got around to reading them. This continues to reflect in my buying habits even now… 🫥

(Fun fact: most of the books in this picture are part of my college curriculum. However, I think that this is only 1/10th of my collection, which is very embarrassing if you ask me, but anyway.)

Let me know if you have got this issue as well, and if so, how do you cope with it? XD