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Why you keep buying books you don’t read (and why it feels so good)

Daily Maverick · 🇿🇦 public South Africa · · 773 words · By Michelle Spear
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What to know about Why you keep buying books you don’t read (and why it feels so good)

At busy times, I find I simply cannot read as much as I would like to.

Claims checked 9
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center86%
Right14%

7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

At busy times, I find I simply cannot read as much as I would like to.

Why it matters

Life has a habit of filling every available hour with work, meetings, emails, chores, errands and deadlines.

Common ground

Standing in one of my natural habitats – a bookshop – it is frustrating to see so many things I want to read while knowing I do not have the time.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-03-why-you-keep-buying-books-you…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 9 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4
info Single Source 2
help Insufficient Evidence 1
verified Verified By Reference 1
verified Verified 1
info
Claim 1: “Psychologists increasingly recognise positive anticipation as a contributor to wellbeing.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided search results for this claim are dictionary definitions of the word 'positive' and do not provide psychological research or recognition of 'positive anticipation' as a contributor to wellbeing.
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web search NEUTRAL — 6 days ago · sure, certain, positive, cocksure mean having no doubt or uncertainty. sure usually stresses the subjective or intuitive feeling of assurance. certain may apply to a basing of a conclusio…
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/positive
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web search NEUTRAL — The most important thing is to go into the exam feeling positive. It's a humbling experience to see people being so positive about life when they have so little.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/positive
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web search NEUTRAL — 1 day ago · Some common synonyms of positive are certain, cocksure, and sure. While all these words mean "having no doubt or uncertainty," positive intensifies sureness or certainty and may imply opin…
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/positive
help
Claim 2: “the distinctive, slightly sweet scent of paper and ink is detected by the olfactory system and routed directly to regions involved in memory and emotion, including the hippocampus and amygdala.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found for this claim in the provided search results.
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Claim 3: “It combines the idea of stacking things up (tsunde), leaving something for later (oku) and reading (doku).”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (Lexistry, Upworthy, and another web source) confirm the etymology combining 'tsunde-oku' (stacking/leaving) and 'doku' (reading).
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Cultural Context & Origin. The word dates to the Meiji era (1868–1912), combining 'tsunde-oku' (to pile things up and leave them) with 'doku' (reading). Japan's deep literary culture — with the world'…
https://lexistry.com/untranslatable-words/tsundoku
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web search NEUTRAL — Origin: Japan Etymology: From tsun (“to pile up”), oku (“to leave for a while”), and doku (“reading”). What I love about Tsundoku is that it validates the positive experience of acquiring books and le…
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tsundoku-stacks-piles-hope-di…
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web search NEUTRAL — The word “tsundoku” comes from Japan’s Meiji era, a time when books and reading were becoming more popular. It combines “tsunde-oku,” which means to pile things up and leave them, with “dokusho,” whic…
https://www.upworthy.com/what-is-tsundoku/
verified
Claim 4: “The Japanese have a far more elegant word for it: tsundoku.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and multiple web sources confirm that 'tsundoku' is the Japanese phenomenon of acquiring reading materials and letting them pile up unread.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — ) is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in a home without reading them.[1][2][3][4] The term is also used to refer to unread books on a bookshelf meant for reading …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku
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web search NEUTRAL — Tsundoku — the habit of acquiring books and then letting them pile up without reading them.These days with the increase in kindles and ebooks I think the word tsundoku is just as likely to refer to th…
https://medium.com/japonica-publication/tsundoku-the-japanes…
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web search NEUTRAL — The Japanese habit of acquiring books and letting them pile up unread. A very-common interest, ranked 56/100 on the KINKSpec popularity index.
https://www.kinkspec.com/entry/tsundoku
verified
Claim 5: “the nucleus accumbens, a structure that helps generate feelings of reward.”
VERIFIED
SpeechFit and other sources confirm the nucleus accumbens is a critical region in the brain's reward and pleasure system.
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web search NEUTRAL — The nucleus accumbens, often referred to as the accumbens, is a region in the brain that plays a critical role in the reward, pleasure, and reinforcement learning system [1]. It's involved in both ave…
https://speechfit.io/glossary/a/accumbens
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web search NEUTRAL — Ventral striatum. Nucleus Accumbens is a part of what brain structure involved in the reward system? suppress. Oxytocin acts on the amygdala to do what to the fear of betryala? ~
https://quizlet.com/42157989/functions-in-the-brain-flash-ca…
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web search NEUTRAL — Happiness is a kind of subjective feeling of positive emotions. Since the psychological process of reward is closely linked to pleasure, studies to elucidate the brain mechanisms of happiness have foc…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274501057_Brain_mec…
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Claim 6: “dopamine responds not only to rewards themselves, but also to the expectation of reward.”
CORROBORATED
OER Commons and other sources explicitly state that dopamine is released in response to both actual rewards and the anticipation of rewards.
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web search NEUTRAL — Major dopamine pathways. As part of the reward pathway, dopamine is manufactured in nerve cell bodies located within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and is released in the nucleus accumbens and the p…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine
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web search NEUTRAL — The act of anticipating the reward is often more exciting to the brain than receiving it. Why Anticipation Triggers Dopamine Release. 1. Survival Mechanism: From an evolutionary perspective, dopamine …
https://www.flybodies.com/post/the-science-of-dopamine-why-i…
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web search NEUTRAL — Dopamine is released in response to both actual rewards and the anticipation of them, driving individuals to seek out behaviors that are rewarding (Schultz, 2015).
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/128330/student/?sec…
info
Claim 7: “The ventral tegmental area [is] a dopamine-producing region in the midbrain involved in motivation”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence for this claim only defines the anatomical term 'ventral' (belly side) but does not specifically confirm that the VTA is a dopamine-producing region in the midbrain involved in motivation, although this is common scientific knowledge, the provided search results failed to capture it.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — These two terms, used in veterinary anatomy, are also used in human anatomy mostly in neuroanatomy, and embryology, to describe something at the back (dorsal, posterior) or front (ventral, anterior) o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_location
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web search NEUTRAL — The ventral body cavity is a body cavity in the anterior aspect of the human body, comprising the thoracic cavity and abdominopelvic cavity. [1] The abdominopelvic cavity is further divided into the a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventral_body_cavity
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web search NEUTRAL — Feb 21, 2024 · “Dorsal” refers to the back or vertebral side, while “ventral” refers to the belly side. In a fish, the dorsal fin is on the back, and the belly is the ventral side.
https://sciencenotes.org/anatomical-terms-of-location-anteri…
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Claim 8: “The hippocampus, a structure deep within the brain best known for its role in memory, also plays an important part. While we often think of the hippocampus as helping us remember the past, it is equally important for imagining the future.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm the hippocampus is crucial for episodic memory (past) and is also involved in imagining future events (future episodic events/replay).
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web search NEUTRAL — The Hippocampus: Building Memories for Future Decisions Decades of research have advanced our understanding of the neural mechanisms that contribute to long-term memory for events or episodes, referre…
https://shohamylab.zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/sites/sho…
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web search NEUTRAL — Contribution of the hippocampus to past and future episodic events Substantial evidence has shown that the hippocampus is crucial for episodic memory, in.
https://inserm.hal.science/inserm-00728717/document
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web search NEUTRAL — The hippocampus, the past and the future.This phenomenon is called hippocampal replay. The replay typically happens at a much faster speed than the original sequence. However, the pattern is the same,…
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/exercise-time-travel_n_745225…
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Claim 9: “One important pathway runs from the ventral tegmental area, a dopamine-producing region in the midbrain involved in motivation, to the nucleus accumbens, a structure that helps generate feelings of reward.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources, including BlueChew and Neurosity, explicitly describe the mesolimbic pathway as running from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Dopaminergic components from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) innervate areas of the brain engaged in executive, affective, and motivational functions, along with the prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala…
https://brainly.com/question/30006519
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web search NEUTRAL — Sexual desire begins in the brain's reward system. The mesolimbic pathway—running from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens—drives the motivational aspects of sex.
https://bluechew.com/our-stories/dopamine-and-erectile-funct…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The mesolimbic dopamine pathway, running from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens, is the brain's central reward circuit. When you eat something your brain codes as rewarding (ty…
https://neurosity.co/guides/mindful-eating-brain-awareness
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.