TSUNDOKU: THE COMPULSIVE ACT OF COLLECTING BOOKS WITH NO TIME TO READ THEM

Note that Mein Kampf is stuck
at the bottom, destined to remain unread.

I think I have been afflicted with an illness, possibly a mental illness. It's called Tsundoku, the Japanese term for collecting and hoarding books, and piling them up despite not having the time to read them. It comes from the successive dopamine hits of entering a bookstore, just looking at book titles, leafing through the pages, paying for the privilege of owning them, wrapping them with plastic, fashioning bookmarks for them, and then finally getting the chance to read them. Another term for this is bibliomania, which is even more extreme than bibliophilia.

Reading and savouring every page provides yet more dopamine hits, especially when accompanied by the music of J.S.Bach playing in the background on a CD which I had bought ages ago, and hearing them for the first time. 

The main problem is not the money spent, the storage space taken but the time needed to enjoy books to the full. A day has only 24 hours, of which a third is spent working to earn the money to buy books, CDs etc..., another third spent commuting, meals, sundry duties and feeding the cats, surfing the internet, watching YouTube videos..., a quarter napping and sleeping, which leaves precious little to actually read. And yet the books pile up...

The Asia collection

No to mention, the CDs also pile up... Is there a cure for this disease other than bankruptcy, total blindness or progressive dementia?

Gary Graffman gets pride of place

Even Janet has caught the disease,
albeit in a more organised manner.

This post is dedicated to my fellow bibliophiles Phan Ming Yen and Kevin YL Tan, who get far more reading done than I can ever hope for.... to be continued in Part 2 (if ever).