I had a bedroom converted into a library when I bought my house. It's about half filled with books now. I've read about 95% of the fiction and about 15% of the non-fiction.<p>I get a lot out of the library. It's a <i>great</i> place to work or study. It's both devoid of and filled with distraction. (I also had a bedroom converted to an office... which, except for the girlfriend's sewing table, is almost exclusively used for PC gaming...) Having all those unread books around means I'm never bored, and I'm always subtly being pushed to learn the things I want to learn.
I don't really think this word is actually a thing that Japanese people really say.<p>The Japanese wikipedia version of this article is also a stub, and there's only 550K results in Japanese google, which is pretty much identical to the amount if you search "Tsundoku" in English. If you search for the phrase in hiragana only, the results become even less at 75K.
Guilty as charged. My stack is mostly out-of-date programming tomes that were worth reading when I bought them. I also have a collection of Audible audiobooks that I bought to spend my built up credits before cancelling.
Me and my wife does it because we value and want to reflect to our kids and others ...there's no English word descriptive enough here... but in Greek it's called paideia, German: bildung. Danish/Norwegian: dannelse. Closest word is probably education.. but it's too narrow.
Owning more books than you'll read is good for you: <a href="https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/do-i-own-too-many-books" rel="nofollow">https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/do-i-own-too-many-books</a><p>You never know where reading will take you next.
I usually buy books all excited about a topic I love (history or behavioral economics etc.) but they just pile up. Work pressure and exhaustion during the week and family stuff on the weekend is overwhelming any reading time :(
Somewhat related; when a friend bought his first home, he filled bookshelves in the living room with books that were popular in his circles as part of decorating and a means of social manipulation.<p>He never had and likely never will read any of them, it was primarily an attempt to buy social favor with guests. He'd just say he had a poor memory for books he read long ago whenever someone tried discussing them at a house party.<p>It was unnerving how effective this was.
Hobbyists use GAS for a similar practice. It stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome where you buy much more hobby-related gear that you can use. Photography, electronics and electronic music are some hobbies particularly known for this.
I always have a pile of fiction near at hand, but I'm relatively good with getting through those. My non-fiction pile is the one that gathers the most dust...