the word dates back to the very beginning of modern japan,

the meiji era (1868-1912), and has its origins in a pun.

tsundoku, which literally means reading pile, is written in japanese as 積ん読

tsunde oku means to let something pile up and is written 積んでおく

around the turn of the century they swapped out the

oku (おく) for doku (読) – meaning to read.

because tsunde doku was hard to say,

the word was combined to form tsundoku.

—

this is the perfect word to describe certain places in my cottage

—

—

credits: dan colman, mental floss, reddit image