Do You Suffer From Tsundoku?

by Susan Roberts

My problem is that I  want to read every book that sounds interesting to me.  I am in a dozen Facebook groups that talk about books and read many blogs a day about books.  So here I am sitting in front of my computer:


Me -- "Wow that new book sounds fantastic - I think I would love it."

My eyes shift to the right of my desk to 2 full bookcases - about half books that I intend to read and the other books that I loved and just can't part with.

My eyes shift to the left to 2 more full bookcases with about the same percentage of unread books.

My eyes look at the floor to 2 piles of books that won't fit anywhere.

My eyes look at a cabinet to my left that has 3 piles of books that I have committed to read for various authors, book blogs, publishers, book tours.

My sane voice says -- "Don't order another book. You can live to be 100 and never run out of books to read."

This sane voice continues as my finger hovers over the BUY button on Amazon until I finally shut that voice down by hitting the BUY button!

Question is -- why do I feel this need to buy so many books?  I know that my books make me happy and that's always a good thing but is there more going on here?  I recently read a description that fit me to a T.

Highlights that made me feel better about my constant need for new books: 

 "Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity." – A. Edward Newton, author, publisher, and collector of 10,000 books.

“A library of mostly unread books is far more inspiring than a library of books already read. There’s nothing more exciting than finishing a book, and walking over to your shelves to figure out what you’re going to read next." [The Wonderful and Terrible Habit of Buying Too Many Books, PWxyz (news blog of Publishers Weekly), February 16th, 2012]”
― Gabe Habash

Libraries of the rich & famous

In my research, I found that there are many rich and famous people and authors with extensive libraries.  A few examples are...

Karl Lagerfeld has more books than pretty much anybody. During a “master class” at the 2015 International Festival of Fashion and Photography, Lagerfeld explained: “Today, I only collect books; there is no room left for something else. If you go to my house, I’ll have you walk around the books. I ended up with a library of 300,000.

In 1978, George Lucas established the Lucasfilm Research Library—first collecting volumes at his Los Angeles office, and eventually moving the library to the main house at Skywalker Ranch. In addition to the more than 27,000 books, the collection includes over 17,000 films, as well as photographs, periodicals, press clippings, and more.

Food writer, television personality and “domestic goddess” Nigella Lawson is pictured above in front of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with thousands of cookbooks in her house in Belgravia, London. It’s not just cookbooks that populate her reading lists, though—she also has a literary bent.

You can see more libraries of the famous at Books Rock My World.

Now that I've read about people with so many more books than I have, I feel better about my obsession with books.  Amazon - I'm on my way!

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter. 

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