Tsundoku

That is so true and kind of depressing.

There is this great Japanese concept called tsundoku.

Tsundoku.

Yeah.

It refers to the practice of buying books, letting them pile up in your home, and never actually reading them.

man, I feel personally attacked right now.

We all do it.

But people who engage in Sudoku aren't necessarily doing it to show off.

The purchase of the book feels like the acquisition of the knowledge.

Yes, the Tsundoku effect.

Tsundoku?

Yeah, the Japanese literally have a word for acquiring reading materials and letting them pile up without reading them.

Oh, I love that.

We explored the Zeigarnik effect and how your brain uses that new saved note tag to artificially close open loops, which relieves the cognitive stress of information overload.

We discussed why writing a to-do list makes you sleepy, and why putting a heavy textbook on your nightstand magically makes you feel smart.

The Sudoku effect.

At the same time, buying technology is not enough.

In Japanese, we have a word, tsundoku.

It means buying books and leaving them unread.

I do this too, actually.

Also we get-

And it kind of tries to tie it to the Japanese concept of, like, Tsundoku, and I, I don't know.

Again, it's, it's tr- it's doing a lot.

[laughs] There's-

... championing.

I d- Here's a question.

Does that shit actually exist, Tsundoku? I've been seeing this little thing on the internet since I fir- we first started doing Book Riot.

Yeah.