“I have gone to [this bookshop] for years, always finding the one book I wanted – and then three more I hadn’t known I wanted,” said author Mary Ann Shaffer.
For many people, it is a habit to hoard books that they might never get down to reading. The Japanese call this phenomenon “tsundoku” and the word is far less popular than it should be, given how many people are afflicted by this.
The good news is that an all new, “old” bookstore is returning to Kemps Corner, and it is time to take tsundoku up a notch, with the return of Crossword.
Congress leader and parliamentarian, Dr Shashi Tharoor, the recipient of a lifetime achievement award by Crossword Bookstores, openly admits to his own tsundoku.
He talked about how every time someone called him and asked: “Have you read this?”, in reference to a book that had caught their fancy, he would leap at it despite a huge pile already awaiting his attention.
Tsundoku, however, is alive in teens as well. Teen author Neeha Gupta had launched her book at the Crossword in Kemps corner in December 2018. She is thrilled that the bookstore is all set to open again.
“When it shut down after 30 years, many of us were dejected. There are too many memories I associate with the store, including the launch of my friend Zuni Chopra’s book, which I attended at the store. Subconsciously, seeing another teen writer express herself was the reason I wrote my own book ‘Different’, ” said Neha.
Her bookshelf is full of many books she has read, and many that she fully intends to read some day.
Pune-based professional Renu Jha also talks about her habit to continuously hoard books: “Not only do I have to finish a book per week, but also try to keep up with my daughter who finishes reading one book almost every day. So, in addition to buying the latest books, I service her demands with an additional library membership.”
Renu has now transferred her tsundoku to gifting. “When I see a very big pile of unread books, I now gift them away because I have a new list of books to buy, that cannot wait.”
You see, book lovers will always justify every reason to pick up just one more book!