Tsundoku
Etymology
A Japanese coinage from the Meiji era, roughly 積んどく. It puns on tsunde oku, "to pile up and leave for later," with the oku swapped for doku, "reading" — so the word literally folds "piling up" and "reading" into one. Unlike some words on this list, its playful, self-deprecating tone is genuine to Japanese usage rather than added in translation.
noun · /tsoon-DOH-koo/
The habit of acquiring books and letting them pile up unread.
What it names
The specific, faintly guilty pleasure of owning far more books than you will ever get to — buying the intention to read as much as the reading itself.
Example
My tsundoku has reached the point where the unread stack is holding up the lamp.
Related idea
A bibliophile loves and often reads books; tsundoku names the collector’s gap between buying and finishing, closer to hopeful clutter than to devotion.
See also