The Anti-Library

I love reading books as a way to escape reality, andI also love buying them, even if I won’t read them for years. My personal library keeps growing, and at some point, my “to be read” pile might be bigger than the books I’ve finished.

Some people might find that pointless,or a waste of money for books you aren’t going to read. There is a concept called “Anti-Library” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book called “The Black Swan”.

This concept suggests that the books you have not read are far more valuable than the ones you have read. Books you’ve read are the knowledge that you acquired and the books yet to read are the world of knowledge waiting for you to explore and discover.

It may sound weird but Anti-Library reminds you that you don’t know everything.

The psychology behind buying more books than actually reading the ones in your shelf is that unread books represent our version that we might become. There is a japanese term for this called “Tsundoku”

It’s the art of buying books and letting them pile up. The eagerness of buying books brings equal joy to readers as reading them.

Never feel guilty for buying books just to let them sit on shelves. A famous novelist, Umberto Eco with over 50 books published, and more than 30,000 books in his private library, he actually never read half of them.

Books you have not read yet, doesn’t define failure but are the reminder that there is vast knowledge yet to dive in.