積ん読 Tsundoku – My reading line up

I was inspired to write this blog by Peregrinja’s post over on her blog, The Blog of a Reiwan Lady, on her own habit of collecting novels but in Japan and back home.

I am sure that for most people reading this blog, Tsundoku(積読) is a word that you have seen before.  Its basically the habit of collection books but not actuality reading them. The word implies that the book collector had originally planned on, or still does plan on reading the vast amount of books that they have managed to collect.

When I was younger, I was an avid reader in my native language and would read non-stop no matter where I was. My parents really supported my hobby and got my as many books as I wanted. While I had an extremely large collection of books, they were all books that I had read cover to cover and I never really got into the habit of letting books sit around unread. That changed when I moved to Japan. I started feeling guilty about reading books in my native language when I felt that I should have been using that time to focus on my Japanese. This lead to me putting a pause on reading for pleasure for quite a long time.

I still loved books and would often stop in used book stores while I was living in Japan. I would look around and get use to which books were popular or famous and would buy some anytime I saw one I was interested in for 100yen. I started to get a decent library built up, but my newly found mixed feelings towards reading continued. I mean I guess from the start I used to make efforts and would read pages at a time, sometimes chapters at a time. But I was never really able to finish a book until very recently. I am not sure what the exact change was, but it just felt like suddenly I was able to pick up a book and read it with no issues.

If I combine the novels that are several volumes long, I have 26 books that I haven’t read yet. 8 of those books are fairly new as I purchased them with in the last month. I do have plans to buy more books as I still have around $400 dollar left in my 12 month book budget.

The list looks really short to me now that I see it laid out like this. I just had an image in my head that I had an unreasonable amount of novels. When I moved into my new place earlier this year, but box of books was by far the heaviest item we had. But I guess my view points has changed with my goals. Now that I am reading almost daily, I feel that I don’t have enough books and am already keeping an eye out for books to put into my next order.

I wanted to use this post to give you guys a preview of what reviews may come in the future. This list does not include books that I have finished reading. But here is everything that is waiting for me right now in no real order.

生きる僕ら by 原田マハ
ツバキ文具店 by 小川糸
スーパーマーケットでは人生を考えさせられる 銀色 夏生
AX アックス by 伊坂 幸太郎
妊娠カレンダ− by 小川洋子
朝が来る by 辻村 深月
夜のピクニック by 恩田陸
天国はまだ遠く by 瀬尾まいこ
デッドエンドの思い出 by 吉本 ばなな
ゆめみるハワイ by 吉本 ばなな
もしもし下北沢 by 吉本 ばなな
ふなふな船橋 by 吉本 ばなな
夜は短し歩けよ乙女 by 森見 登美彦
四畳半神話大系 by 森見 登美彦
1Q84 books 1-3 by 村上 春樹
ノルウェイの森 books 1 and 2 by 村上 春樹
海辺のカフカ books 1 and 2 by 村上 春樹
ねじまき鳥クロニクル books 1-3 by 村上 春樹
ガン入院オロオロ日記 by 東海林 さだお
太陽のパスタ、豆のスープ by 宮下 奈都
羊と鋼の森 by 宮下 奈都
神さまたちの遊ぶ庭 by 宮下 奈都
お友だちからお願いします by 三浦 しをん
そして生活はつづく by 星野 源
よみがえる変態 by 星野 源
怪笑 by 東野圭吾

 

I have managed to lose all of the bad feelings I had about my book collection and now get excited when I look at them.  I just think about what it will be like once I have read 50 or 100 books in Japanese.  With each book I read, reading in Japanese gets easier and more enjoyable. Cannot wait to level up and write a bunch of reviews for those who are just as passionate as I am about become literate in Japanese as I am.

I no longer have that large childhood collection of books.  As I’ve gotten, I have become more and more minimalist and have since sold all of the books that I owned that were written in English.  I have sold a few of the Japanese books before I moved and have donated a few to the Japanese department of a local university.

I had all of these books sitting in my closet up until recently. But I decided that since I have been spending more time reading that I should bring my books out into the day light and put them somewhere where I could see them.

These are not all of the books that I plan on reading this year.  There are still a few more that I do not count as 積読.  I am still in the process of rereading a few novels so that I can write reviews for them.  Also, a very kind professor at the local university has lent me a few novels as well! Since I am borrowing these books, they will be a priority for me to finish.  These books are:

永い言い訳 by 西川美和
幸福な食卓 by 瀬尾まいこ
舟を編む by 三浦しをん
紙の月 by 角田光代

I am really happy that I reached out to this professor and have been in contact with her for a few weeks now.  I think this is really one of the personal benefits of starting this study blog.  It has really encouraged me to message others and get to know more people.  Even just having my books out in the open has had a positive change.  One of my family friends saw my collection and was asking my partner about them.  This friend also loves reading and has been asking what kind of novels I enjoy as they want to send me some!  I am so happy to have so many people supporting me on this journey.