Taiki Raito Pym

Taiki Raito Pym is an author whose work celebrates the love of books and the culture of reading. Their book Tsundoku explores the Japanese concept of acquiring books and letting them pile up unread, a practice that resonates deeply with bibliophiles around the world who recognise in themselves the irresistible urge to buy more books than they could ever hope to read. Pym's writing is characterised by warmth, wit, and a genuine love of books as physical objects and as vessels of knowledge, imagination, and possibility. The concept of tsundoku has gained international popularity as readers worldwide have embraced the Japanese word for a behaviour they know intimately but had never had a name for, and Pym's book provides an affectionate, insightful exploration of why people collect books, what their libraries say about them, and why the act of acquiring books brings a pleasure that is distinct from, though complementary to, the pleasure of reading them. The book appeals to anyone who has ever felt guilty about unread books on their shelves or who has tried and failed to resist a bookshop, which is to say virtually every book lover alive. Tsundoku is available as an audiobook, offering listeners a charming, relatable celebration of the joy of owning books, even the ones we may never quite get around to reading.