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Do you own more books than you could ever read? Did you just have to stop yourself from buying your tenth book this month because you haven't even finished reading the books from last month? Is your pile of to-be-read books growing by the minute? Do family members judge your ever-growing bookshelf by saying things like, "Have you even read 20 of all these books you keep buying?" No matter if you're proud of your personal library or overwhelmed by it, there is a reason why you do it. Oh, and there are a few words for that, too. P.S. This is a judgment-free zone. I'm not here to tell you to keep all of your books; I'm also not here to tell you to get rid of all your books. You'll be able to decide at the end of the video for yourself. [Music]
Okay, I'm gonna be real with you. I'm not the type of person to buy excess books, and there's one real reason for that: unread books completely overwhelm me. If they're on my shelf, they need reading; otherwise, they will sit there and judge me. This reason makes me incredibly curious about why other people don't feel this way—why so many people fill bookshelves full of books that they have never read and may never read. Why do some people own more books than they can possibly read in their lifetime, and yet every month add a few dozen more to their shelves? Turns out, there are a few reasons. [Music]
One theory suggests that all these books come together to create something called an anti-library. This library isn't a sign of failure but actually something that has real benefit. Author Nassim Taleb talks about this concept in his book, *The Black Swan*. He suggests that read books are far less valuable than unread ones, and a library, even a personal one, should contain as much of what you don't know as what you do know. The idea is that if you have a personal library filled with unread books, it will serve as a reminder that you don't know as much as you think you do. It would also keep your mind open to new ideas and opinions. At first, I thought this idea was quite silly, and if I'm honest, a little bit elite, but I think it can be reframed in a different way: all of the unread books in your library are worlds waiting to be explored and knowledge waiting to be absorbed. In this way, a collection of unread books might actually be more exciting than a collection that has already been read.
There's something else here, too. While some at first may feel overwhelmed and weighed down by the sheer amount of knowledge in their personal library that they may never be able to read, gradually we get used to this feeling and in time develop a relationship with it. Because while your personal library may feel ever-growing and limitless, it is your home, your escape, and in some ways, that brings you comfort. [Music]
It doesn't end there, my friends. You can take or leave any of these explanations if you want to; either way, they're all fascinating. Let's first talk about *sundoku*: the act of leaving a book unread after buying it. This book is usually then piled with other unread books. If you want to feel better about your pile of unread books, this is the way to do it, and compared to bibliomania, it's pretty tame. Bibliomania is the act of creating a book collection, whereas sundoku is a little bit more innocent because you're buying books with the intention of reading them. The collection and pile of books is accidental. Bibliomania and sundoku appeared around the same time. Bibliomania is something that's actually quite serious; in fact, bibliomania was described as someone suffering from the obsessive tendency to collect books. It was truly feared as a pseudo-illness because collectors would spend their entire fortunes to build a personal library in the 1800s. Only you know which word describes your situation better, but it's safe to say that sundoku is the lighter side of book collecting.
It's clear that whether you buy more books than you can ever read or not, when you buy new books, the experience we have is very similar to one another. When buying a new book, um, the mind is tricked into thinking that we've already read at least half of the book already. The tentative excitement that comes with that makes buying books really easy. Plus, having a ready-made personal library on hand for when and if you decide to read a book probably gives you a lot of pleasure, too. So either you're frightened by your own mortality, and so having a pile of unread books fills you with dread like me, or the unknown knowledge and stories draws you in, attracting you to keep reading and adding to your ever-increasing pile of books. In fact, depending on which you are, having an unread pile of books may overwhelm you or encourage you to keep reading. If you have an unread pile of books that actually encourages you to read, then please continue adding to your library. If, however, you feel overwhelmed by your unread books, then it might be time to think about removing some of those books from your life so you can get back to reading again. You can come up with a million reasons to justify adding new books to your unread books; I'm here to judge you for it or add to your guilt. I'm just happy you're reading, but I want to know from you: do you buy more books than you will ever read? What does your personal library look like? I would love to know, so leave me a comment, and I will see you next Thursday for another video.