Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them

Re:Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them by dragonwriter on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @08:33PM (#25451232)

> Where does the art thing come from in the article title?

A somewhat flowery but common English idiom used in preference to a bare noun or bare gerund phrase when referring to a generalized practice, particular in titles.

Has nothing to do with Japan.

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Re:Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them by jtxx on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @08:44PM (#25451306)

I remember this saying originating as a riff on The Art of War, but I have no evidence of that

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Re:Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them by qiqing on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @08:57PM (#25451428)

Not a Japanese speaker, but I'm a native Chinese speaker. I know that Bingfa (The Art of War) could also be translated as The Practice of War or Methods of War. Translations are always interpretations because phrases aren't exact.

The Art of JavaScript sure does sound more exotic than The Practice of JavaScript, so I can see why a translator would make that choice.

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Re:Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them by SamBam on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @09:32PM (#25451678)

Even in English, one of the meanings of "art" is a "skill as a result of learning or practice."

The word itself comes from Latin "ars," meaning a skill, a craft.

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