"Bookshelves Full of Unread Books" Do You Know 'Bookhoarder'?

Increase in 'Book Horders' Who Buy Books but Don't Read Them
4 out of 10 Adults Say "I Haven't Read a Single Book in a Year"
Experts Say "Psychological Factors Like Depression and Stress Are Influential"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ga-yeon] "There are so many books that look interesting that I keep buying them, but I haven't actually read any."

Office worker A (27) purchases about 200,000 KRW worth of books every month through an online bookstore. However, the number of books he actually reads is very few.

A said, "Browsing online bookstores is my hobby," adding, "If I find a book that looks interesting while browsing, I tend to buy it. I think I purchase books once every 2 to 3 weeks."

He confessed, "I keep buying books, but they just sit on my bookshelf neglected. I buy them because I want to read, but since I don't have much free time in daily life, I hardly get around to reading them. This sometimes makes me feel a bit self-critical."

Recently, the number of modern people who refer to themselves as 'book hoarders' has been increasing. A book hoarder is a coined term combining 'book' and 'hoarder,' meaning a person who suffers from a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder of not being able to throw things away and accumulates them. It refers to people who buy books but only pile them up without reading.

This phenomenon is known to occur not only in Korea but also overseas. In Japan, a word with the same meaning as book hoarder is used: Tsundoku (積ん?). Tsundoku is a compound word derived from 'doku,' meaning 'to read,' and 'tsun,' derived from 'tsumu,' meaning 'to pile up,' referring to people who pile up reading materials.

Tsundoku has recently become widely used in English-speaking countries as well. Searching for 'tsundoku,' the English transliteration of 츤도쿠, on Instagram yields tens of thousands of posts. Professor Andrew Gersh of University College London explained in an interview with the BBC last year, "This term appears in literature from the Meiji era in Japan in 1879," suggesting it has likely been in use even earlier.

Domestic online book purchase transaction amounts are on the rise. According to Statistics Korea's '2019 Annual Online Shopping Trends' released in February last year, the online book purchase transaction amount in 2018 was 1.8845 trillion KRW. This is a 3.5% increase compared to the previous year's 1.8211 trillion KRW. In 2017, it was recorded as 1.6819 trillion KRW.

However, the annual reading rate appears to be declining. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's '2017 National Reading Survey,' 4 out of 10 adults answered that they do not read even one book excluding general books (excluding textbooks, study guides, exam books, magazines, and comics). This is the lowest rate since the government began investigating reading habits in 1994.

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Office worker B (30), who says reading is a hobby, said, "Since joining the company, whenever I feel stressed, I go to bookstores or buy books," but added, "The books I bought just remain on the bookshelf. I have been continuously buying books for years without reading them."

B said, "At some point, I think I stopped being able to read books. Lack of time is one reason, but I have become so lethargic that even when I have free time, I just lie down doing nothing or sleep," adding, "If that's the case, I shouldn't buy books, but it has become a habit, so I keep buying them."

Some point out that this phenomenon is caused by depression, burnout syndrome, and other factors. The opinion is that prolonged stress or depression worsens lethargy.

Experts analyzed that such phenomena occur because hobbies requiring concentration, such as reading, are easily disrupted by psychological factors.

Professor Kwak Geum-ju of Seoul National University's Department of Psychology explained, "Psychological states such as lethargy, depression, and frustration can be seen as influencing factors."

Professor Kwak added, "People like this have a strong desire to read books, so when new books come out, they buy them but cannot finish reading. Then they feel self-critical, thinking 'I bought these but can't read them,' and this situation repeats," suggesting, "Since such thoughts themselves cause stress, it is important to break this vicious cycle."

She continued, "Psychology and the body are closely connected, so if you don't engage in physical activity, you become psychologically depressed, and then you engage in even less physical activity," adding, "Giving up multiple things after being frustrated by one is called 'overgeneralization.' To prevent this, it is good to engage in activities completely different from what causes stress or to do physical activities," she advised.