Tsundoku

Hoarder. Junkie. Addict. I admit I have a problem.

My husband tells me there’s a more accurate word for people like me, a word he learned while watching an episode of Jeopardy! It’s Tsundoku—a Japanese word meaning “people who compulsively buy more books than they can actually read in a lifetime.”

I’ve had a love affair with books from as far back as second grade when Mrs. Falk read aloud The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from The Chronicles of Narnia. Perhaps it was her rich contralto voice and her faultless elocution, or her ability to speak in differing characters’ voices, but it was then, at eight years of age, I became conscious of a deep desire to hear and read more, to imagine vivid pictures in my head, to escape to another world through the door of a wardrobe or the crack of a book spine. I went on to read all the Bobbsey Twins on the school library shelf, and then the Nancy Drews, and when I’d finished the library’s collection of those books, I graduated to my mother’s Agatha Christie novels. I’ve had a book in my hand ever since.

With COVID-19, the closures, and recommendations to isolate, this year seemed the perfect year to do something about my problem. For several months, I went cold turkey and didn’t buy a single book, instead focusing on the ones I already owned, books that have been on my shelf for years, books I had every intention of reading when purchased but hadn’t yet gotten to. I began keeping a list of the ones I read—sixty to date—making note of when I read them, how long it took, and rating my favorites with a system of stars. Here are just a few I loved:

  • The Bells by Richard Harvell, was published in 2010, and tells the story of Moses Froben, born to a deaf-mute mother, the keeper of the bells in a Swiss Alpine church. It’s assumed that Moses is deaf, too, but he possesses “a singular sense of hearing,” and at the Abbey of St. Gall, in a Vienna choir, Moses becomes the protegee of the choirmaster. The choirmaster (spoiler alert) becomes so obsessed with Moses’ soprano voice, he has him castrated, making him a musico for life, Lo Svizzero, who becomes the most famous opera singer in the world. Harvell writes, “For if we know perfect beauty, with our eyes and with our ears, even for a second, we’ll come that tiny bit closer to being it ourselves.” You can almost hear the music in the language, which was one of the best parts. The novel is face-paced and theatrical, and gives a behind-the-scenes look inside Europe’s celebrated opera houses.

  • Another favorite is The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton, a historical mystery and the first pick in my sisters’ on-line book club. An archivist (doesn’t that sound like the best job?!) named Elodie Winslow discovers a leather satchel containing a sketch of Birchwood Manor by Victorian painter, Edward Radcliffe, along with a picture of an unnamed girl wearing the famed Radcliffe Blue pendant. This sets Elodie on a journey to uncover the mystery of both. The novel spans a century and is told in multiple viewpoints—from pick-pockets to Victorian school girls to treasure hunters—each voice deeply realized in a kind of jigsaw puzzle construction, with Birchwood Manor binding all the characters together. Though it’s so much more, it just happens to be about a haunted house with trapped spirits in the form of ghosts, making it a perfect recommendation for Halloween.

  • By far, my favorite read this year is State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Published in 2011, it’s the story of Marina Singh, a 42-year-old lab researcher for the Vogel company, who is sent to the Amazon by her CEO/boyfriend to investigate the mysterious death of her colleague, Anders Eckman. Eventually making her way to a remote tribe deep in the Brazilian jungle where Anders was last seen, Marina becomes reacquainted with a brilliant if elusive former teacher, the researcher Dr. Anna Swenson. Anna, also an employee of Vogel, is working on a drug which is shrouded in mystery but when developed, will change the lives of millions. As twisty as the Rio Negro, the novel depicts wrestling with an anaconda and narrowly escaping a tribe of cannibals. It’s a deep immersion in all the flora and fauna and singular atmosphere of the Amazon rainforest, (and very topical as the rainforest biome is currently being threatened). This was a page-turner I won’t soon forget.

I’ve made a pretty good dent in reading the books I’ve purchased, but must admit I fell off the wagon sometime in June and began acquiring more books as my shelves got depleted. I’m really looking forward to reading Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler, The Stationary Shop by Marjan Kamali, and The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline. I’ll get to them…eventually.

Of course, there are support groups for people like me, groups where we gather around in a circle and pass out chips, and coffee and tea, though some choose to imbibe, and we read from big books, but medium- and small-sized books, too, and we admit we are powerless to resist the words of our favorite authors. Though we go by many names—The Page Turners, The Spine Crackers, The Shelf Indulgers—we’re collectively known as book groups.

Perhaps we’re kindred spirts. Perhaps you get it, and you’re in such a support group. Perhaps you understand part of the addiction of Tsundoku is the sheer anticipation of that next great read, and so we are compelled to hoard books and keep our shelves stocked knowing it might indeed take a lifetime.

Sigh…so many books, so little time.

Have you read any good books lately?

 

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