
Tsundoku - heelhook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku
======
cgriswald
I had a bedroom converted into a library when I bought my house. It's about
half filled with books now. I've read about 95% of the fiction and about 15%
of the non-fiction.

I get a lot out of the library. It's a _great_ place to work or study. It's
both devoid of and filled with distraction. (I also had a bedroom converted to
an office... which, except for the girlfriend's sewing table, is almost
exclusively used for PC gaming...) Having all those unread books around means
I'm never bored, and I'm always subtly being pushed to learn the things I want
to learn.

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jdtang13
I don't really think this word is actually a thing that Japanese people really
say.

The Japanese wikipedia version of this article is also a stub, and there's
only 550K results in Japanese google, which is pretty much identical to the
amount if you search "Tsundoku" in English. If you search for the phrase in
hiragana only, the results become even less at 75K.

~~~
praptak
Since the phenomenon itself does definitely exist and there is no single word
for it (that I know) I am all for using tsundoku for it :)

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mdszy
Right down there in the other "Book Collecting" articles it literally says:

> Bibliomania (tsundoku)

There very clearly is a word for it. Bibliomania.

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lopan
Oxford says bibliomania = passionate enthusiasm for collecting and possessing
books. It doesn't say anything about whether you read them or not.

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jagger27
Guilty as charged. My stack is mostly out-of-date programming tomes that were
worth reading when I bought them. I also have a collection of Audible
audiobooks that I bought to spend my built up credits before cancelling.

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jhallenworld
Hah, this happened to me when I cancelled Audible. My solution was to use the
remaining credits for the first four of the The Wheel of Time (14 novels
long). But now I'm addicted and had to sign up for Audible again.

Also the credits expire, even when you are signed up.

(Also, as far as physical books, you should see my basement... Buying
technical books was a business expense when I was self-employed).

~~~
loco5niner
> My solution was to use the remaining credits for the first four of the The
> Wheel of Time (14 novels long).

Thanks for the inspiration. I've been putting this off because i didn't have a
solution, but just pulled the trigger.

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Niccizero
May also apply to videogames, comics, digital media, hobby/craft supplies,
etc.

~~~
levesque
It's weird that something that is meant to be entertainment can become a chore
(videogames and hobbies for instance). Is it merely because we are tired or
because there is another activity available that is so low energy that it
becomes more desirable in comparison (e.g., watching Netflix, mindlessly
browsing the internet)? Sometimes I wonder... if none of those activities were
available in my house, what would I do instead?

~~~
munificent
This question is _highly_ relevant to me. I recently got a small bonus at work
with the interesting stipulation that I couldn't take it in cash. (Basically,
they let you expense something on the company card for personal use.)

I've been getting back into making music so I wanted to spend it on something
fun related to that. And this triggered a surprisingly intense amount of
anxiety where I found it really hard to decide what to get. After a lot of
soul searching, the understanding I reached was:

There are two flavors of happiness I'll call "joy" and "satisfaction". Joy is
stuff where the act itself is intrinsically pleasurable. Taking a warm bath,
eating a good dessert, a conversation with close friends. Pleasures to the
senses that require no effort on your part. Satisfaction is stuff where
_having done_ the act feels good. Writing a short story. Cleaning the garage.
You only get out of it what you put into it. If you've heard of "type 1 fun"
and "type 2 fun", it's that same distinction. In practice, most hobbies blend
the two.

There's a sort of third in-between category for activities whose
joy/satisfaction ratio is skill dependent. Sitting down at a piano when you
don't how to play well is almost pure satisfaction. It's uncomfortable and
repetitive. It doesn't sound great. Your fingers hurt. But you feel good about
making progress practicing the skill. Sitting down to play piano when you have
mastered it is very enjoyable. You get to perform and it feels good seeing
your body create the delightful sounds you hear in your head.

My experience is that the hobbies where people acquire the stuff but then
don't use it are the ones that weight more towards satisfaction than joy, and
in especially the ones that are skill-dependent. YouTube makes the latter
particularly failure prone because there are infinite videos of people who
have mastered skills that make the hobby look like pure joy.

(For me, the realization was that since I wanted to maximize joy, I should get
gear that built on my existing music skills instead of requiring me to learn
more to get fun out of it. I got a little MIDI keyboard and a looper pedal
since I already know how to make music on a computer and play a little guitar
and those make that existing skill more rewarding.)

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X6S1x6Okd1st
>This question is highly relevant to me. I recently got a small bonus at work
with the interesting stipulation that I couldn't take it in cash. (Basically,
they let you expense something on the company card for personal use.)

That sounds like tax evasion

~~~
munificent
You do still file an expense report so I feel confident that it's on the up-
and-up for tax purposes. The docs said they did research and people got a
greater sense of reward from bonuses like this instead of just having the
number in the next direct-deposited paycheck be slightly larger.

Anecdotally, it certainly made a larger emotional impression on me. I had
gotten a similar cash bonus a while back that I intended to also use for music
stuff and basically procrastinated figuring out what to get until I forgot
about it entirely. This time I actually got something and then sent a nice
email to the person I got the bonus from thanking them.

It's been a really nice experience.

~~~
X6S1x6Okd1st
I've understood expense reports to be buisness expenses that were first paid
for by the employee and the employer compensates them for it. In that case
it's not taxed as income as it was never really anything the employee "got".

It all depends on how your company accountants do it, they could be doing
something unusual, but the way you've described it sounds like tax evasion.

I dont really care, but if you like the benefit you may not want to bring it
up in public forums.

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bobske4
Me and my wife does it because we value and want to reflect to our kids and
others ...there's no English word descriptive enough here... but in Greek it's
called paideia, German: bildung. Danish/Norwegian: dannelse. Closest word is
probably education.. but it's too narrow.

~~~
cgriswald
Lucky kids.

One of the best things my mother ever did for me was always have a ton of
books around. Fiction, non-fiction. Garbage. Masterpieces. Even the ones I
wasn't allowed to read "until I was older." I also had a grandmother that
worked at a bookstore for most of her life. I have, and love, a Kindle, but I
can't imagine a life without books.

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agentultra
Owning more books than you'll read is good for you:
[https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/do-i-own-too-many-
books](https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/do-i-own-too-many-books)

You never know where reading will take you next.

~~~
lb1lf
This. I try to maintain a TBR (to be read) shelf or two at home, comprising a
few dozen titles, both fiction and prose.

The reasoning is that I'd rather have a choice when picking up the next book,
rather than just having to read the last one I bought; as you say, you never
know where reading will take you next. Often, reading a book on a subject
makes me want to check out a few of the works referenced, and before you know
it, the TBR pile has increased in size...

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phenkdo
I usually buy books all excited about a topic I love (history or behavioral
economics etc.) but they just pile up. Work pressure and exhaustion during the
week and family stuff on the weekend is overwhelming any reading time :(

~~~
jjuel
I am in the same boat, but have been making a conscious effort to get more
reading in. Just squeezing time here and there. Waking up earlier in the
morning, before bed when I had been winding down with YouTube videos or
piddling on the internet, toliet trips. In the end it takes longer to finsh by
reading fewer pages at a time, but it is working at actually reading more.

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newnewpdro
Somewhat related; when a friend bought his first home, he filled bookshelves
in the living room with books that were popular in his circles as part of
decorating and a means of social manipulation.

He never had and likely never will read any of them, it was primarily an
attempt to buy social favor with guests. He'd just say he had a poor memory
for books he read long ago whenever someone tried discussing them at a house
party.

It was unnerving how effective this was.

~~~
pmiller2
Books do make great decorations. People have been doing the same thing for
decades.

“Don’t have sex with someone who doesn’t own any books” used to be somewhat
common dating advice. With e-readers, it’s not as applicable, but the
principle is still good.

~~~
newnewpdro
In some sense e-readers are an advantage, since it's less easily spoofed;
instead you have to discuss the content of books with them, rather than be
impressed by their collection of potentially unread paper lining the shelves.

~~~
cgriswald
Until they lie to you about their obsession with Middle Age poetry from the
region surround the Black Sea.

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mdszy
I too find a six-sentence long wikipedia article to be "hacker" "news".

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praptak
Hobbyists use GAS for a similar practice. It stands for Gear Acquisition
Syndrome where you buy much more hobby-related gear that you can use.
Photography, electronics and electronic music are some hobbies particularly
known for this.

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cameronfraser
ugh just reminded me of all the money I dumped into modular synths

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praptak
Wanna resell them? Just kidding, I won't buy anything until I can actually
learn to play keyboard :)

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frostyj
Just checked my steam account...

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strifey
I always have a pile of fiction near at hand, but I'm relatively good with
getting through those. My non-fiction pile is the one that gathers the most
dust...

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jjuel
As much as I like to buy books I have realized it is much more economical to
just check it out from the library.

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pottertheotter
This is me and HN. I save so many articles to Pocket but only are ever fully
read.

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jcmontx
I am absolutely sure this was posted due to the IndieHackers newsletter

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heelhook
Yes. It was.

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dunkelheit
I do it with browser tabs.

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tyagis
....oh lord! I am not the only one then!

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thrownblown
and i wonder why my fan is going full blast all the time.

