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“Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

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Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#71

Post by heleph »

veidr wrote: post #47
gjkood wrote: post #8

I wish my "Tsundoku" could have been an investment that could generate some passive income. But alas my copy of "Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 hours" circa 1995 (or so), is still untouched. Just never got the necessary 24 hours to learn it. Maybe I can sell it by the tonnage sometime. I thought that going the Kindle and digital media route would have saved me from adding to my "Tsundoku", but I am back in co…

I have 100+ unread books on my Kindle, but in stark contrast the piles of physical books I used to have sitting around, having them on my kindle is awesome. Any time I need a book, I know I have several great ones to choose from. So I think the advent of digital books[1] transformed my 積ん読 from a huge and ugly pile of heavy artifacts — that ultimately had to be sold at a yard sale in 2005 ($1 for all 3 gigantic hardb…

I have started sending samples to my kindle as a kind of place holder for books I'd like to read when I have time. It's saved me heaps of money!

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#72

Post by mdemare »

taf2 wrote: post #55

Sadly I use my brower tabs as my Tsundoku... I keep them open for months and even years.

Just "bookmark all tabs" (Chrome), and name them Tsundoko. Now they're just as accessible as before; you haven't lost them. But they no longer take up screen real estate or RAM.

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#73

Post by mdemare »

gjkood wrote: post #8

I wish my "Tsundoku" could have been an investment that could generate some passive income. But alas my copy of "Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 hours" circa 1995 (or so), is still untouched. Just never got the necessary 24 hours to learn it. Maybe I can sell it by the tonnage sometime. I thought that going the Kindle and digital media route would have saved me from adding to my "Tsundoku", but I am back in co…

I collect ebooks instead - better yet, I collect Kindle Samples, which are free. I can sleep peacefully at night, knowing that all books that I want to read are on my Kindle, and when I actually want to read them, I start reading, and buy them when I get to the end of the sample (and plan to continue reading).

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#74

Post by Symbiote »

beloch wrote: post #57

I go through reading phases where I blow through book after book voraciously, but somehow my Tsundoku increases simultaneously. Then I go off reading for a while and, when I come back on, I ignore my Tsundoku and start reading entirely different books instead. Just as there are Steam games I'll eventually play and games I've bought but will probably never play, I have Tsundoku that have been around for a very long ti…

Moving to a different country prompted me to sort through my tsundoku.

Unfortunately, I only removed about 5 books — ones I'd started, but didn't like and wouldn't finish. I could probably use your new word there.

The rest fitted in a medium-sized box, so didn't seem worth agonizing about when (a) the cost to add that to the shipment was marginal (b) I wasn't paying anyway.

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#75

Post by facepalm »

gjkood wrote: post #8

I wish my "Tsundoku" could have been an investment that could generate some passive income. But alas my copy of "Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 hours" circa 1995 (or so), is still untouched. Just never got the necessary 24 hours to learn it. Maybe I can sell it by the tonnage sometime. I thought that going the Kindle and digital media route would have saved me from adding to my "Tsundoku", but I am back in co…

Every book should come with an integrated solar powered Bitcoin miner :-)

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#76

Post by FoeNyx »

fiveoak wrote: post #63
taf2 wrote: post #55

Sadly I use my brower tabs as my Tsundoku... I keep them open for months and even years.

I have 100 tabs open right now across 12 windows... I think I have a problem.

When I usually end up bookmarking all my open tabs after 3 months, they are often above 1000 tabs ... and this both at work and at home. Seems some of my coworkers suffer from the same ailment but with less pronounced symptoms.

Is it serious, Doctor?

By the way, in Firefox, if you end up pinning too much tabs you are left with very few space to manage your regular tabs ... and there is no scroll buttons for pinned tabs. I should maybe fill a bug one day.

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#77

Post by binarymax »

gjkood wrote: post #69
hudibras wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One main advantage of the Kindle is that my tsundoku is now not as visible to my wife. No more raised eyebrows at the latest Amazon box to appear on the doorstep. Still have to be sure that she doesn't look too closely at the credit card statement, though...

Oh yes, the raised eyebrows and the disapproving looks. I have mastered the art of unboxing and recycling the amazon packaging within a few seconds of it reaching the front door. One must learn to manage under adverse conditions.

Wow I must be lucky. Every order of mine brings welcome encouragement coupled with optimism. Of course I will shortly be conquering the world with my newfound knowledge. No questions asked when the first chapter gets read excitedly and then shelved for eternity.

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#78

Post by mratzloff »

rickdale wrote: post #39
resolutionx wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry if this comes across the wrong way, but have you tried building your grip/forearm strength up? It's an easy muscle group to activate. However I'm not sure many muscles are good at being tensed for extended periods. I've always just shifted around the way I hold the book every few minutes.

I actually have tried this. I own the iron mind grippers and can successfully close the second one 3-4 reps. But ultimately I have pain that comes back when I start to hold a book, especially a large one.

If you can only do 3-4 reps you need to go to the level below that one. You also need to build forearm strength, which you can do with a dumbbell and forearm curls. Your goal is endurance, so many reps at a lower weight. Bicep curls wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#79

Post by mratzloff »

matthewbadeau wrote: post #64
mikekchar wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japanese is a really nice language. The grammar for plain speech is so consistent that I'm always tempted to try to write it down in BNF. The other nice thing about it is that it is economical. A noun by itself is a grammatically correct sentence. Copula and verbs are optional. Any sentence ending in a verb (or copula, as long as you change "da" to "na") can be used to modify a noun. It makes it so simple to say comp…

I hate commenting on the internet, especially since it's going to go against almost every idea that the original commenter posted. That aside, here is my advice for studying Japanese. This is purely my opinion and one method that I've been using. - Try to evaluate where you want to 'end up' with your fluency. If you want a full time job in a business environment then I highly recommend learning polite forms of verbs…

For what it's worth, I studied Japanese for 3 years as part of a college minor but never felt fluent. Television and movies are great learning tools, because you learn the rhythm and cadence to Japanese, which is much faster than you might expect if you only read it, and even faster than in conversation (as conversation partners will consciously or subconsciously slow down to accommodate you).

Re: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves

#80

Post by fit2rule »

jamesoneill wrote: post #12
fit2rule wrote: post #5

So .. enlighten me, Japanese-speakers .. would the word for "Apps I bought from the App Store but never use" be something like .. "Tsunappu" .. or, something? Because I have, literally, hundreds of those ..

Yeah, it would probably "Tsumiappuri" (積みアップリ).

Thanks for that .. I guess I've got a name for it now.
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