It has a hobby name, but it is more of a disorder (benign, of course) than anything else. It is called “tsundoku”, and it is an ailment that many people suffer from and that after Christmas it will worsen for more than one person.
“Tsundoku” is a Japanese term that refers to the habit of buying books and accumulating them without actually reading them. That is, buying books for the pleasure of having them for when, in the future, there is a good time to enjoy them.
In other words, it is the opposite of those who think that having books collecting dust on the shelves does not make sense and that every volume purchased has the sole purpose of reading it as soon as possible. If not, there is no point in purchasing it because the ultimate purpose of a book, at the end of the day, is none other than to be read.
But those who have a large bookcase at home know that books have meaning not only at the moment they are read, but also before (when they are nothing more than an expectation) and afterwards, when they have been “consumed.”
Enjoy the anticipation of reading the book
Some famous writers have defended this habit of accumulating books, even if they are not read at the moment. Perhaps the most famous of all was Umberto Eco, author among others of The Name of the Rose, who made a statement about the pleasure of having many books from the privileged vantage point of having a private library of 30,000 titles.
The important thing, the Italian writer and philosopher maintained, was not so much to read the book, but to enjoy the expectation of being able to read it in the future.
Anne Fadiman, writer and essayist, also wrote about the pleasure of having unread books. In her essay “Ex Libris: Confessions of a Bibliophile,” she explored the intimate relationship that book lovers have with their personal libraries and how the accumulation of books can be a pleasure in itself.
2024-01-03 02:33:43
#suffer #tsundoku #syndrome #books #infected
