From Kate’s Writing Crate…
I recently
discovered a witty blog entitled The Inky Fool: On Words, Phrases, Grammar,
Rhetoric and Prose by Mark Forsyth. As a reader and writer, words have always
fascinated me—and now so does this blog.
I love to learn new words
and tsundoku, from Japan, is my latest favorite since I read about it in Forsyth’s
post on January 7th. He shares: “…I’m not entirely clear whether tsundoku is the act of buying a book and not reading it, or the pile of
books thusly abandoned on a bedside table. Or maybe it’s both.”
His funny discussion about his
two tsundokus inspired me to look at mine. However, I confess I have more than
two.
To be perfectly honest, I
have a small tsundoku next to the bed and another on top of a bookcase near the
bed. There is a medium-sized tsundoku on a
table in my reading corner as well as on a chair, but my biggest tsundoku is on the shelves of a
bookcase dedicated solely for this purpose in my office.
I never had a name for these
piles before. Now I can tell anyone—living here or visiting—who makes
disparaging comments about them that they are, in fact, tsundokus. If there is
a name for them, then they have the right to exist!
I need to read so books are
constantly coming into my living space. I try to keep them in organized
tsundokus. The ones I want to read the most go near the bed or in my reading
corner. The rest I place in the bookcase for future browsing when I’m looking
for something new to read or review for this blog.
While most of my tsundokus
may look chaotic, they aren’t. I can keep track of the location of these
books as I only buy ones that truly interest me. So while they may
sit around for a bit, I will read them…but not right now
as The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of
the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth, The Inky Fool, has captured my attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment