TABLE TALK #147
This week’s Table Talk begins with a word we’ve only just learned, but instantly loved.
Tsundoku is the Japanese word for buying books and letting them pile up unread. It's not hoarding. It's not laziness. It's the honest hope that one will, at some point, have the time, the quiet, and the cup of tea to read them all.
🍝 MAIN COURSE 🍝
In a world obsessed with efficiency and productivity, tsundoku feels warmingly rebellious. It’s not about finishing things. It’s about collecting possibility.
Those stacks of books - by the bed, on the stairs, in the kitchen - are more than decoration. They’re a kind of living diary. A record of fleeting obsessions (that brief month you decided you were going to bind your own notebooks), old dreams, stubborn fascinations, and gifts from people who swore you’d love this one.
Sometimes we buy a book because the cover is beautiful. Sometimes because we’re magpies for an idea. Sometimes because we’re quietly plotting the long, lovely retirement where we’ll finally get round to reading everything.
And maybe that’s the point. Tsundoku is a kind of anti-library and a humble reminder of how much we don’t yet know. Every unread book quietly reminding us that there’s still more to learn, imagine and explore. An unread book keeps the ego in check. It keeps the door open.
Tsundoku also has its own small joys.
The dip-and-dabble read - pulling a forgotten book from the middle of a stack, enjoying a single story or chapter, then tucking it back until the day you stumble upon it again. The moment you notice that the book you’ve been looking at for years is suddenly exactly what you need right now.
In Japan, the word carries no shame. It’s not a failing to have more books than time - it’s a statement of faith that there will be time yet.
We're here for the optimism.
We're here for the optimism.
🍮 SWEET ENDINGS 🍮
If you’re looking to indulge your own tsundoku tendencies, a few favourites from our own shelves (read or otherwise):
- The Book You Want Everyone You Love to Read by Philippa Perry - wisdom, humour, and compassion in one.
- The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker - a thoughtful guide to bringing people together with purpose and joy.
- After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell - beautiful, layered storytelling you might just lose a weekend to.
- Full Of Beans by Amelia Christie-Miller - her second homage to the humble bean, ours is on pre-order.
(We fully expect at least half of you to buy these and never read them. But that’s kind of the point.)
🍷 WHAT'S NEW
FROM
WEDNESDAY'S DOMAINE? 🍷
I’ve been on holiday.
Back in the early days of the brand, that meant an out-of-office but still glued to my inbox - one-man bands don’t tend to keep playing when the lead goes awol.
Fast-forward three years and we’ve got something resembling a team, plenty of folk to keep things on course while I’m away, glass in hand.
Speaking of which, if you ever need a non-alcoholic sangria, Barrafina make an epic one with Sanguine, Seasn Dark Bitters and their own citrus-spice sangria mix - available at every one of their restaurants.
Until next time,
Luke x
Luke x
