In Japan I learned a wonderful word that created an unexpected and painful self-awareness. “Tsundoku” is made up of two characters that mean “pile” and “read” and basically means to “buy books to make piles”, with the implication that those books don’t get read. The nightstand books tend to reveal who we want to be, they are are aspirational, and after bursts of purchase we tell ourselves that we’re going to “go to bed an hour earlier” or “block off some time” to dig into the books. I’ve just had the burst (even though I have an existing backlog of books) and my “pile” is ready for 2019.
Here we go:
Oh yeah, and I’ve got the “be a better Dad” pile that generally sits in the front seat of my car. The reading habit I’ve built is to get to pick up a half hour early and knock off a couple of chapters. So far this category has been 90% bullshit, but there have been just enough good nuggets to keep the consumption flowing.
