Oh that wonderful feeling when you walk into a bookstore, dead tree or electronic, and find an embarrassment of riches. This book is great and that one is great, and you have to have this one, oh and that one must come home with you. You take your precious loot home and then you read about 30% of it. The rest are there, waiting, like magical doors to other dimensions, full of possibility and adventure.
Nobody understands. People call you ugly names like “book hoarder.” Family members ask ridiculous questions like, “Do you need that many books?” and “Where are you going to put those? Everything is full.” Sometimes they even dare to impose conditions on your love of books. “For every book that comes in, one must come out. No more shelves. No, you can’t have the third Kindle just for the bathroom.”
The next time your good name is besmirched, hold you head high, lift your stack of books in the air, and tell them that you are practicing the ancient art of tsundoku. Not only it enriches everyone’s lives but it also has health benefits.
Reading can reduce stress, satisfy social connection needs, bolster social skills and empathy, and boost certain cognitive skills.
The Value of Tsundoku, Big Think
And if they give you any more trouble, just point them to this article on Big Think.
Happy book hoarding life enrichment!
Wow.. You just described me… And my family’s nagging… Your house is too small!!! Whare are you going to fit alllll thooose boooooooks???
Hehehehe
This is exactly why I love my kindle so much. And why I cringe in horror when I unthinkingly told my husband that our joined Prime account lets him see the books as well.
Nobody has to know exactly how many books are on that thing.
Hurrah! The external validation I needed to prove to everyone I’m not a book addict!
Yes, I’m looking at my bookshelves that have books on fascinating historical periods that I really want to get to … Indo Europeans, the Federalist Papers, the Peloponisian Wars, I’m really enjoying Herodotus – he was such a tall tale teller but he certainly makes all those Greek myths/history feel very plausible from a human nature perspective. The Elizabethan pirates that made way for the empire, the Braudel book on the Mediterranean that he wrote while a WWII prisoner of War of the Nazis. Even they were impressed by him and let him get on with it. Lincoln and the Railroads. I definitely want to read that. Did you know he was actually a lawyer for the railroads from time to time? As a circuit lawyer he was sometime a prosecutor, sometime a defense lawyer and sometimes a judge. Oh the books I want to read – History is fascinating.
There’s an old mystery book: Bodies in the Bookshop, that starts with the line “It was not that I needed a new book…”and goes on to describe many of the places the protagonist has piles of them. Then he goes out, visits 7 book stores leaving piles of purchases to be picked up later, gets to the 8th and finds the body.
The first sentence sold me on the book.
Yes! When we first went house-hunting, we told people we wanted 4 bedrooms, one for us, one for the baby, one for guests and one for the four computers and 1000 books. We got strange looks. We are now closer to 5000 books. (I’m a retired librarian.)
I was called a bookaholic by an ex once. I deserved it. Still haven’t changed.
If anyone criticizes just do my usual comment: “thfffthth” and give them a napkin to wipe up the spit! Books are necessities of life!!
Books are riches. Those days when you wander into a bookstore and everything you pick up looks intriguing and awesome are some of life’s great pleasures. The more the merrier, I say (tempered only slightly by memories of wondering whether my shipment weight allowance for the last couple of military moves would cover the growing collection – yes! Happily).
I made myself a sign for my library: It’s not hoarding if it’s books.
Kindle just for the bathroom? I thought I was the only one who did that! ???? Any wonder why I love this group so much? Ya’ll are my PEOPLE!
+1
This! A 1000 times this. Yes.
I’ve lived in my new house for almost a year and my project for 2023 is a huge floor to ceiling bookshelf!????
????. I am validating this life choice. Often multiple times per day!
Discovering Kindle Unlimited was the best thing ever. Until you realize you only have access to 500,000 of the million+ books out there. >:(
For years, I lived in a studio apartment furnished with a bed, a desk, a rocking chair, and five bookcases. Now I have a house, so I’ve added a dining table, a chaise longue, and two more bookcases. ????
When asked why I need all those books, I airily reply that I work in publishing—though I’m a freelance editor, and half my clients have nothing to do with books. ????
I bought the old wood bookcases from a public library switching to metal shelves. Now I am insulating my home and heart with books! Seven-foot tall bookcases on every wall they will fit. We even call our open-space great room our library! When we moved I had 118 milkcrates of books, mostly nonfiction, classics, and scifi. I call them my savings for retirement, as in I am saving some to read in my rocking chair in my old age.
Yes, we had to buy a house with steel I-beam construction to support the weight. Priorities! I read about 300 books a year. Planning for retirement is important. Laughing!
I thought this was your take on some new sort of Sudoku. This just goes to show how many different interests I can develop when I should correct my stack of English Essays…
Sudoku and Tsundoku both seem captivating right now.
????????????????❤️
Yes! This is my tribe! I started really reading in the 3rd grade when I found a box of old books in the basement. Used to carry home 10 at a time on a Friday and have them all done by the end of the weekend when I was older. Nowadays, thank you Texas for the Central Texas Digital Consortium. Could not have made it through Covid without them. May we never have an end to paper books.
LOL this is literally my life. Buying too many books either at bookstores or browsing every little free library I come across. I keep meaning to stop bringing them home and reading the ones I already have but I keep finding ones that look so good! I’m irrationally afraid I will never find it somewhere else (especially if it’s not a new release). You all understand me at least.
Hello,
Wondering if there are plans for the 2nd Iron Covenant book this year?
There will be no announcement of projects until they are done and ready for preorder ???? – here for more details on the decision https://ilona-andrews.com/2022/on-being-difficult/
Ilona, you have spoken to all of our souls! lol
We’re all bibliophiles here, but can your house hold 500,000 books? There was an episode on the A&E show Hoarders (S5, E10) where this couple could not walk tgrough their home. There were stacks all the way up to the ceiling of books and books. A sad story as you could tell they truly loved books.
Thank goodness for e-readers. Now, to go fill my Kindle with more books…
So you understand the pain when the punishment for bad behavior as a child was being grounded and not allowed to go to the library. I could go anywhere else, just not there. Unrelated side note, will there ever be a short story relating to Orro’s sojourn with Marais?
Speaks to the book lover’s heart! Currently surrounded by boxes of books which is going thru a painful downsizing process, as space does not permit.
Had fun collecting more TBR in my local indie bookstore that and confirmed the Bad Romance bookclub that meets there selected Burn for Me for March! (they alternate newer with older 1st in a series) Excited to see one of my favorite Ilona Andrews’ books picked! (they’re all my favorites) Old Town Books in Alexandria VA for the win
Book Hoarding is an art. Especially when there are 3 people in the same household trying to see who can die with the biggest hoard. My husband came in 3rd. pretty sure The Spawn will beat us both.
There is no such thing as too many books.