Tsundoku 積ん読

tsundoku · from Japanese

What does tsundoku mean?

Tsundoku is buying books and letting them pile up unread, a pun on 積む tsumu (pile up) and 読書 dokusho (reading).

The word dates back to the Meiji era and combines 積んでおく tsunde oku (leave piled up) with 読 doku (read). It is a classic example of Japanese wordplay producing a single word for a universal habit. It has become popular in English-language lists of untranslatable words.

Examples

積ん読 tsundoku; my shelf of unread graded readers; buying a third Japanese grammar book before finishing the first

Kungfucius says: Tsundoku: proof that buying a book feels almost as good as reading it.