Tsundoku: the pile you mean to read
Kosuke Nakabori sells second-hand books in Tokyo. He explains tsundoku, the pun for books bought and left to pile up, and why a pile is a list of hopes.
With Kosuke Nakabori · Second-hand bookseller, Tokyo
Show notes
Tsundoku is written 積ん読: to pile up, a small ん, and to read. It began as a pun on tsunde oku, to pile something up and leave it there, and it has outlived the joke.
Kosuke Nakabori buys whole towers of unread books back when their owners move house, sometimes with the receipt still marking page twelve. He does not find it sad.
In this episode
- The pun inside the word
- What a bookseller learns from a pile
- Guilt, habit, and having a name for it
Transcript
Click a time to play from there.
- 0:00
TeodorThis is The Long Vowel. I'm Teodor Halvorsen.
- 0:04
OdileI'm Odile Marchetti, and I have a confession that fits today's word.
- 0:09
TeodorOur guest is Kosuke Nakabori, who sells second-hand books in Jinbocho, the book district of Tokyo. Kosuke, the word?
- 0:18
KosukeTsundoku. It is written with three characters: to pile up, a small n, and to read.
- 0:24
OdileSo, reading by piling.
- 0:26
KosukeYes. It's buying books and letting them stack up, unread. Not one book. A tower.
- 0:34
TeodorIs it a serious word?
- 0:37
KosukeIt started as a joke. There is a phrase, tsunde oku, to pile something up and leave it there. Somebody swapped the last part for doku, reading. It sounds almost the same. So it's a pun that became a word.
- 0:52
OdileHow old is the joke?
- 0:54
KosukeMore than a hundred years. It goes back to the Meiji era. People have always bought more books than they could read.
- 1:02
TeodorYou sell the books. Is tsundoku good for you?
- 1:06
KosukeVery good. But I also buy the towers back. When someone moves house, I get a call. Forty books, the spines still stiff. Some have the receipt inside, as a bookmark, on page twelve.
- 1:20
OdileThat's painful.
- 1:21
KosukeIt's not sad, I think. Each book was a plan. Somebody thought, one day I will be the person who reads this. The pile is a list of hopes.
- 1:32
TeodorDo people in Japan feel guilty about it?
- 1:36
KosukeA little. But the word helps. If there is a name, it's a habit, not a failure. My customers say, I am doing tsundoku, and they laugh.
- 1:46
OdileMy pile is by the bed. Eleven books.
- 1:50
KosukeThat is a small tsundoku. Please come to Jinbocho; we can fix that.
- 1:55
TeodorKosuke Nakabori, thank you.
- 1:57
OdileThat was tsundoku. Next time, a word from Arabic that only happens with music.
In this episode
Kosuke Nakabori
Second-hand bookseller, TokyoKosuke runs a small second-hand bookshop in Jinbocho, the book district of Tokyo, and buys whole libraries when people move.Odile Marchetti
Host and subtitler, LyonOdile writes subtitles for film and television and keeps a notebook of the lines that never fit on the screen.Teodor Halvorsen
Host and sound editor, BergenTeodor edits sound for documentaries and radio, and records the quiet of every room before the guest arrives.