You feel it coming on: a scratch, a cough, or a weird feeling somewhere that’s less than cold but more than a sniffle. What do you do? Google Search? Web MD? A search for symptoms, self-diagnosis?

So I used The Google and found the symptoms:

· super drained because, instead of hanging out late with friends you stay up late drowning in chapter after chapter, hand shaking as you reach for another turn…of the page

· piles of books in every room of the house

· you bring home way too many books from the library that you can read

· you dread loaning out books because no one will appreciate them like you do

· you smell a book before you purchase it, and then you smell it again before reading it

· it hurts physically and emotionally to throw out a book into the garbage

· book hangovers - falling asleep and waking up the next morning on the couch with rumpled clothes and a book on the floor

· forgetting to eat, sleep, and breathe when you get to the climax of a book. You don’t forget the restroom because...you know… …you probably bring it in. (not recommended)

My name is Mistofer Christopher and I am an… I am a Bibliophile trending to…well, it’s not compulsion but an irresistible urge or uncontrollable desire, an overwhelming fire. It’s not a craving – a gnawing hunger that I’m starving. Is it consequence? Continuing to acquire regardless of the consequences of a buildup pile. I am in control; so I will not call it an addiction. A healthy bibliophile chooses and consumes his/her materials carefully, consistently, and eventually. A literature addict simply consumes and compulsively goes for everything without regard for genre, topic, or accuracy, racing away from reality under the guise of an intellectual up. So I have a problem, actually more than one. I’ve itemized them below:

1. Clutter

2. Love of books

3. Periodical bouts of the attention span of a fruit fly

This mishmash of complications below translates to unfinished books in random places in my living space. The unbearable, intoxicating smell of a newly printed book, crisp, awaiting to be cracked open is an anticipation too much for my weak heart to slide my hand over the touchpad to PROCEED TO CHECKOUT, and click. Thankfully I am not alone with this s problem as there is a culture and a people that have observed this issue and labeled it.

tsundoku

noun

積ん読

/ˈsʌn.doʊ.kuː/

1. the practice of buying a lot of books and keeping them in a pile because you intend to read them but have not done so yet; also used to refer to the pile itself:

"My tsundoku is at 14. Where’s is yours at?“

“I learned that Tsundoku is a cool thing. This week I will add more books.“

The bulk of the books is buried in a round laundry basket transformed into a file cabinet. Others lay on the guest room bed and scattered throughout the room. I searched the room and put them all together into one tsunduko to motivate me to finish them. The plan backfired and instead of an organized Japanese pile of books, it looks to be more like a tsunami of paper with letters foaming at the mouth of the wave before they strike the harbor. I transferred the tsunduko behind my Samsung TV so it wouldn’t block Stephen Curry’s step back three…against Boston.

I need an action plan to complete just one book. Unfinished books are undotted T’s, uncrossed I’s, unlaced shoes, unfolded clothes fresh out the dryer. It’s a lovely first date and then a delayed phone call, with the slightest tinge of abandonment. “I really, really enjoyed our conversation and time together and let’s do it again.”

“Absolutely.”

“Call me!?!”

“Yah, Yah!” shaking your head in assurance. Tsundoku whispers, hidden from behind the television, potent thoughts from each quiet, sit-down date.

My tsundoku

1. “Don’t, in referring to a person, say he or she or him, but always mention the name. ‘Mrs. Smith thinks it will rain,’ not ‘she thinks it will rain.’ There are men who continually refer to their wives as she, and wives who have commonly no other name than he for their husbands. This is abominable.”

Don’t: A Manual of Mistakes & Improprieties more or less prevalent in Conduct and Speech.

Photo by Mistofer Christopher - My Tsunduko

2. “In order to change your life, you must force it. Not through strength or stubbornness, but by consciously creating the environment to enable seamless navigation through the process.”

3. “When you listen with empathy to another person, you give that person psychological air. And after that vital need is met, you can then focus on influencing or problem solving.”

Page

“It just sits there, with a mouth

full of entitlement, staring at you

and wondering why it is still

not a masterpiece.”

“First, Washington’s notion of religious liberty sprang from his reflections on human nature…different persons needed liberty of movement before God and conscience, both in religious and in political affairs. Each must learn not only to tolerate, but to respect these differences in others. Second, Washington held that religious liberty was the very first imperative of government, and that there were a number of things government must do, and abstain from doing, to nourish its exercise:”

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

— Michael Porter

In scanning the mountain loads of suggestions and advice from The Google and friends, I’ve placed life hack on top of the pile  that context and location mean something. After picking the topics that fire my mind, move on to locations and context, a book before bed, a book to read when out and about and waiting on lines, an audio book for chores, driving in the car and jogging, and if there are other areas where you read…add it to the list…Please wash your hands for at least 30 seconds!

Happy Reading! What books are in your tsundoku? Comment below.

Tsundoku

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