An antilibrary is a collection of books that are owned but have not yet been read. The term was coined by

Nassim Nicholas Taleb Nassim Nicholas Taleb (; alternatively ''Nessim ''or'' Nissim''; born 12 September 1960) is a Lebanese-American essayist, mathematical statistician, former option trader, risk analyst, and aphorist whose work concerns problems of randomness, ...

. The concept it describes has been compared to the Japanese ''

tsundoku ''Tsundoku'' ( ja, 積ん読) refers to the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them. It is also used to refer to books ready for reading later when they are on a bookshelf. The term ...

''.

Etymology

The term ''antilibrary'' was coined by

in his book '' The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable'' to describe the books that many people own but have not read. Taleb argued that such collections of books make people more humble and curious. He based the concept on the books kept by

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of the ...

, writing that Eco "separates visitors into two categories": those who praise the size of his library and those who recognize that a library is a tool for research. Describing books that have been read as "far less valuable than unread ones", Taleb stated that "the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an ''antilibrary''." Taleb additionally referred to people interested in antilibraries as ''antischolars''.

Analysis

The Autumn 2015 issue of '' HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory'' included an editor's note which stated that "a scholar conscious of the power of his antilibrary is not concerned with treating knowledge as a property to possess or consume; rather ..how much you don’t know—and how to find out that information when you need it." The editor, Giovanni da Col, further stated that the lower cost of

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

publishing "generates more genuine possibilities of an ''open antilibrary''". In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 2018, Kevin Mims compared Taleb's concept of the antilibrary to the Japanese term ''

'', which also refers to books that have been purchased but not yet read. Mims additionally stated that "people like Taleb ..and whoever coined the word ''tsundoku'' seem to recognize only two categories of book: the read and the unread", pointing out that many

reference books A reference work is a work, such as a paper, book or periodical (or their electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information is intended to be found quickly when needed. Such works are usually ''referred'' to f ...

are not meant to be read in their entirety and stating that he owned many

biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

which he had not fully read. Writing in

Big Think Big Think is a multimedia web portal founded in 2007 by Victoria Brown and Peter Hopkins. The website is a collection of interviews, presentations, and round table discussions with experts from a wide range of fields. Victoria Brown is the acting ...

in 2018, Kevin Dickinson stated that the value of the antilibrary comes from the way it "challenges our self-estimation by providing a constant, niggling reminder of all we don’t know", fostering

intellectual humility Intellectual humility is the acceptance that one's beliefs and opinions could be wrong. Other characteristics which may accompany intellectual humility include a low concern for status and an acceptance of one's intellectual limitations. Intelle ...

Etymology

Analysis

References

Further reading