A friend of mine gave me a new word this morning: “tsundoku”, originally from Japanese slang (積んでお to pile things up ready for later and leave and dokusho 読書, reading books) it refers to having a pile of books, usually by the bed but sometimes on bookshelves, waiting to be read. It perfectly describes my Number Two Granddaughter. It’s dangerous to let her into a bookshop. Personally, I’ve been trying not to buy actual books - no room left on the shelves - but I do have rather a lot of books waiting on my kindle.
Some people feel guilty about having books pending. However, according to statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb, these unread volumes represent what he calls an “antilibrary,” and he believes our antilibraries aren’t signs of intellectual failings. Quite the opposite.
Taleb says: “Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. [Your] library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.”
Children who grow up in a house with lots of books, even unread ones, are more likely to develop a good reading habit and intellectual curiosity.
Of course, some households simply can’t afford books, which is a dreadful situation, especially as libraries are also going through a funding crisis.
And here we are in the 21st century with experts warning us that people will die of cold this winter. Every discussion news programme has desperate people stating that they don’t know how they will get through the winter. OFGEM confirmed an 80% rise in the consumer price cap from October that will take a typical household’s gas and electricity bill from £1,971 to £3,549 a year. Nadim Zahawi says it’s not just low income families that will suffer:
“My concern is there are those who aren’t on benefits. If you are a senior nurse or a senior teacher on £45,000 a year, you’re having your energy bills go up by 80% and will probably rise even higher in the new year – it’s really hard.
“If you’re a pensioner, it’s really hard. So universal credit is a really effective way of targeting, but I’m looking at what else we can do to make sure we help those who really need the help. We’re looking at all the options.”
How have we got to a point where someone earning £45,000 a year will be having problems?
Brexiteer Kate Hoey has apparently been saying that in the past we all used to put on an extra jumper. So I’ve had a Facebook conversation with various people commenting on that. Yes, I remember when it was not a routine thing for every home to have central heating. Yes, I remember frost patterns on the inside windows - no double glazing and unheated bedrooms - and I remember a certain reluctance to put my foot out of bed onto the cold lino on the bedroom floor - no bedroom carpets either. But most houses had heating of some kind in the main living room of the house. We may have put on extra jumpers but as I recall people didn’t die of cold in their own homes!
It’s not just that we’ve grown soft with our central heating. And lots of things have changed - we almost all shower daily, as opposed to having a weekly bath; we wash our clothes more often than we used to and we didn’t have tumble driers. I’m pretty sure the likes of Kate Hoey don’t really want to go back to those days. We need to find a better solution.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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