Books received, books read, joy total
The reader's year-end accounting
There is a small arithmetic every reader performs between Christmas and New Year, usually without admitting to it.
Books received. Books actually read. The gap.
The gap is not a moral failure
It feels like one. It is not.
The Japanese have a word for it — tsundoku, the practice of acquiring books and letting them pile up — and the fact that a culture bothered to name it suggests this is a stable feature of being a reader rather than a defect in you specifically.
The pile is not a to-do list. It is a set of options, and having options is most of the pleasure. A reader with three unread books has a decision to make on Friday night. A reader with none has an errand.
What the tally is actually measuring
Not productivity. If you have read nine books this year and loved four of them, that is a better year than twenty-two you cannot now distinguish.
The number that matters is the third one, and nobody tracks it: how many did you think about a week after finishing?
That is usually two or three, in any year, for anyone. Which is worth knowing before you set a target for January.
On the one you were given and will not read
You know the one. It arrived with real affection from someone who does not read what you read.
You are allowed to not read it. You are not obliged to carry it to every house you ever live in. The thought was the gift and you already received it, in December, when they handed it over.
Pass it to someone who will finish it. That is a better outcome for the book than a shelf.
For the tally, and the pile:
Questions people ask
What is tsundoku?
The Japanese term for acquiring books and letting them pile up unread. The fact that it has a name suggests it is a normal feature of being a reader rather than a personal failing.
How many books should I read in a year?
A less useful question than how many you still think about a week after finishing. For most readers that number is two or three in any year, regardless of the total.
What should I do with a gifted book I will not read?
Pass it on. The thought was the gift and you received it when they handed it over; the book itself is better off with someone who will finish it.