I am more than a bit guilty of Tsundoku, which is buying books I don’t read. There are worse habits, and honestly I have some of those too, but I invented another word that is related, Churchilling.
I created it for my oldest. I buy both of my kids books often. Both are and have long been voracious readers.
“Churchilling” is the process of book abuse of the Tsundoku kind. It comes from a passage in Churchill’s excellent little book/essay “Painting as a Pastime”, which I would encourage you to read. It is about, among other things, the importance of hobbies. Few know that Churchill was a good enough painter that Picasso claimed he could have made a living at it.
But at one point he talked about pulling a book off the shelf in his library that he knew he would never read, and stroking the cover fondly, looking at the title page, perhaps thumbing through it, and putting it back, after apologizing to it, saying “I’m afraid I won’t get to you in this lifetime, poor thing.”
We created a rule to do our best not to Churchill our books. I am failing right now. I just bought two cookbooks. I don’t know why, but reading cookbooks calms me down. For some stranger reason, I seem to like best Central Asian cookbooks. I mean mainly the Muslim nations, plus Georgia and Armenia and Azerbaijan, but I saw a Xinjiang one today that I was sorely tempted by as well. Knowing me, I will buy it at some point.
But I have Jacques Ellul’s “Technological Society” on my shelf. I will probably never read it. I had Korzybski’s “Science and Sanity” on my shelf for a long time, before giving up the faith.
I have no particular reason for posting this. I am feeling a bit guilty I guess. These books don’t deserve this.
I will comment, though, too, that we all of us have to say no every day to an essential infinity of potential information. More books are published every day, even now, than any of us could read in a dedicated lifetime. Movies and shows by the countless thousands are everywhere.
I remember well my first trip to New York. I found it very confusing. Everyone was going somewhere. There was no way to keep track of it all. No sane person would try, of course, but it is still worth pointing out that most New Yorkers miss nearly everything that happens in their city nearly every moment of every day.
We make choices by habit. We develop patterns, interests, habits. So and so watches such and such a kind of show, or likes this kind of books, and that other person likes this different thing.
But it is worth pointing out, I suppose. again, that we are forced to say no EVERY DAY to an essential infinity of information. We have to learn to not think about it, and if some people (like me) spend too much time on the internet, it could sure as hell be worse. In my own case, moreover, I am at least as likely to be CREATING content as consuming it. This means I am paying attention most to my own experience, own thoughts, and own life, which is now that I think about it reasonably healthy.