Today’s Oscar’s Day made me think of a Japanese word I’ve had in my head for a while: 積ん読 [tsundoku]: “the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with such other unread books.”
Here is an illustrated definition with wide circulation. I wish I knew how to give proper credit to the artist, known to the general public only as the daughter of a Reddit user named Wemedge.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
積ん読 [tsundoku]
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comments: 3
I am instantly reminded of the statue in Campo San Stefano in Venice. I was there in 1979 taking a course in Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture that is still offered by Queen's University in Kingston. When it came time to walk through the Campo San Stefano, our professor pointed out the statue of Niccolo Tommaseo and blithely told us that he was called "the man who shits books."
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Niccolo_Tommaseo_Campo_San_Stefano_Venezia.jpg
There are images that show the books better - you can Google the statue. Everything old is new again.
That’s great. Thanks for sharing the info. I will be on the lookout for this guy, who must be sneaking into our house.
Here are some photos I found. He’s Il Cagalibri in Italian.
What a great word. Unfortunately, I am guilty of tsundoku.
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