Recently I had a sweet reader offer to send me one of her books. While the offer warmed the cockles of my heart (side note: what the heck are cockles?), I had to give her a disclaimer that I likely wouldn't get to her book until I plowed through the pile currently on my night stand. Okay, who am I fooling? My TBR pile is a freaking leaning tower of Pisa, not a cute little pile.

Anyway, the exchange got me to thinking, hoping actually, that maybe I'm not the only one in the world who buys way more books than a person can read, perhaps in a lifetime. Anyone? Anyone?

Turns out that I'm not. In fact, there is a word specifically for people who buy books knowing there's a slim chance they'll ever have time to read them . . .


I know, looks like Japanese, right? And yes, you are right. Which is really interesting because these people are the ones who kicked off the trend of decluttering your home (see The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing).

The direct translation of Tsundoku is reading pile. The last part of it -- oku -- means to do something and leave it for awhile. Tsunde means to stack things. So basically you stack up your books and leave them for awhile.

So take heart, my friend. You are not alone if you have a pile o' novels you'd like to get to but just haven't managed to yet.

I just hope one of mine isn't in your stack.