Rediscovering Long-Form Media

The late Arthur C. Clarke’s library in Colombo (photo taken by me in 2016)

I had a problem. I kept buying books but I never read them. The Japanese coined a term to describe this malady — tsundoku, a portmanteau of sunde-oku (積んでおく, to pile things up ready for later and leave) and dokusho (読書, reading books) [thanks, Wiki!].

When buying the books, I obviously had the greatest intentions to read them, yet found myself endlessly reading (ok, mostly ‘doomscrolling’) through the latest in…