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Comment by bnj | Hacker News Reader

I wish this piece had moved beyond finding out about a new word and what it means. It felt like it could have been the introduction to a longer piece about actually learning to stop worrying about unread books, but instead the author seems to have trailed off in a mirror to the books the piece focuses on.

Is the discovery that other people have a word for the accumulation of unread books really enough to make the attached anxiety melt away?

I'm the grandchild of librarians on both sides, and I've had the urge to archive and catalogue and preserve and retain for my whole life. It's crippling. There's a perverse illusion buried in the need to collect and archive books and possessions. I wish the author could have done more than scratch the surface for me!

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Yea, I'm the same way over books.

I won't get rid of my technical reference books, and my 1st editions.

I have come to realize I can't waste anymore time on bad writing though.

I have way to many books, and I need to get rid of 90% of them. I just can't toss them though.

Have you considered donating them? I believe that public libraries can benefit from the proceeds of selling them should they not have a place for them in their own stacks.

In my experience, most donated books go straight to the "for sale" cart, and if not sold, are tossed straight into the dumpster. When I was younger I was a part-time janitor in a library, and every day there was another pile of books in the recycling bin for me to bring out to the bin outside. Normal public libraries don't want old books; they're busy enough clearing their shelves of books that haven't been read in ages for new stock that patrons will actually be interested in reading.

In other words, just toss them in the dumpster yourself, unless there's a particular reason you're library might be interested in them (for example, if you have a large collection of Tintin books or Bill Peet children's books in like-new condition, they will probably be interested, because those books are timeless).

But do take the effort to see if paper is recycled in your municipality before dumping them.

The article was little more than finding the Japanese term for it and selling it as some ground-breaking concept. Which still is enough to be seen as a cultural expert, it seems.

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