Thanks to the internet, which is always teaching me new things, I’ve learned a new word this month. It’s tsundoku, a Japanese term for the habit of piling up reading material without getting around to reading it.

What a lovely word, and so meaningful for me since it points a sharp finger at my own pile of unread books. I can see the stack right now as I write this, hoping the tall column of volumes does not, like a literary Tower of Babel, collapse across the keyboard before I finish this sentence. I won’t take you, title by title, through that yard-high backlog of books awaiting my attention. I will only say that it’s various, ranging from the 18th century Englishman Horace Walpole’s “Selected Letters” to Tish Harrison Warren’s “Liturgy of the Ordinary” to John McPhee’s “Tabula Rasa.”

Is tsundoku especially bad in Louisiana, where a lot of us tend to live in the same place a long time? Moves can nudge you to thin out libraries, and I’m inclined to think that living at the same address for three decades, as I have, is a temptation to keep too much.

One of the great dodges of a packrat, of course, is to point to someone else who hoards even more than you do. In that spirit, I’ll mention Jill Lepore, the Harvard history professor and staff writer at The New Yorker whose personal library runneth over. When I googled her the other day, my new item of vocabulary, tsundoku, quickly came to mind. A picture of Lepore in The Harvard Crimson reveals a workplace where books have spilled from their shelves and colonized every surface, the whole room a republic of words.

All of which has made me wonder if a truly full life is inevitably like this, as insistent in its plenitude as a river spilling its banks. Lepore is on my mind these days because I’ve been reading “The Deadline,” her new collection of essays. The essays are as varied as her intellect, which ranges over everything from Rachel Carson to presidential politics to the trials and ecstasies of motherhood. Her title, “The Deadline,” points to the basic reality of a writer’s life — namely, that however grand your ideas, they’ll seldom reach an audience if you can’t deliver them on time.

This is probably the best thing about these essays — how they meet the reader at street level, always grounding themselves in the tangible, the essential, the real. There’s a lovely essay about Lepore’s mother, who carried an easel and brushes in her car just in case she spotted something worth painting on her errands. “I never knew anyone better prepared to meet with beauty,” Lepore writes.

Lepore’s essays are equally open to possibility, even when they deal with difficult subjects. Although it’s time for me to purge my pile of books, I suspect that “The Deadline” will be a keeper.

Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.

Louisiana Economic Development recently honored 10 companies as Louisiana Growth Leaders at its 2024 Spotlight Louisiana event.

The 10 companies honored were:

brandRUSSO, of Lafayette; Jaci Russo, co-founder.

Core Boiler & Mechanical Services, of Prairieville; Paola Alvarado, president.

Envoc, of Baton Rouge; Calvin Fabre, president and founder.

Finding Solace, of West Monroe; Lyla Corkern, owner and CEO.

Foret Contracting Group, of Thibodaux; Benton Foret, co-founder.

Gulf Wind Technology, of Avondale; James Martin, CEO.

M S Benbow and Associates Professional Engineering Corp., of Metairie; Leo Holzenthal Jr., president and CEO.

Martin Specialty Coatings, of Shreveport; Tim Keeley, CEO.

Restech Information Services, of Metairie; Vince Gremillion, founder and president.

Urban South Brewery, of New Orleans; Jacob Landry, founder and CEO.

The Growth Leader Legend award was presented to Tides Medical, a Lafayette-based biotechnology company that uses donated human placentas to manufacture advanced regenerative skin substitutes.

Louisiana Growth Leaders are selected by a statewide panel of economic development professionals who evaluate businesses in the LED Growth Network for community involvement and business success. The criteria include growth, strategy, innovation, philanthropy and leadership.

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Lauren Lee and Allison Ryan, of First Guaranty Bank, have completed the American Bankers Association’s Bank Marketing School.

The two-week program prepares bank marketing professionals to become marketing leaders.

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Eric Lane, owner of Gerry Lane Enterprises in Baton Rouge, has been named the 2024 Louisiana Dealer of the Year by the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association.

The award recognizes one standout Louisiana automobile dealer for their business success and impact in the community.

Lane’s dealerships have received numerous awards over the years including the top Chevrolet dealer for retail sales in Louisiana in 2022 and 2023, the top retail dealer for General Motors in Baton Rouge for 37 years and the General Motors Mark of Excellence Award from 2020 to 2024.

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Fallon Gerald Tullier, of Visit Baton Rouge, and Ian Wallis, of Louisiana’s Cajun Bayou Tourism, have made Destinations International’s 2024 30 Under 30 list. 

The program recognizes talented young people in the tourism organization industry. 

Tullier is the research and technology manager for the Baton Rouge convention and visitor’s bureau. She started working for the agency as a marketing intern in 2018, then became a full-time research specialist in 2020. She earned a bachelor’s in marketing from LSU.

Wallis is sales and marketing manager for the Lafourche Parish tourism organization. He has been with the organization since 2021. He earned a bachelor’s in tourism and travel management and a master’s in business administration, with a hospitality concentration, both from Johnson & Wales University. 

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Baton Rouge Community College, Louisiana Department of Education, LSU Health New Orleans and Xavier University of Louisiana all won honors at the 2023 Educational Advertising Awards. 

BRCC and its partner agency, Feigley Communications, earned a gold award for television advertising-single for their fall 2023 TV commercial. The school won a silver award in the special video category for its 25th anniversary video.

The state department of education along with its partner, MESH, nabbed a silver in the integrated marketing campaign for “Work Worth Doing” campaign.

LSU Health and Crucial Content took home a gold award in the special event campaign for its 90th anniversary table book and digital publication.

Xavier and Ruffalo Noel Levitz earned a silver in the total recruitment package category for their student search and enrollment campaign.

More than 1,000 colleges, universities and educational agencies submitted entries in the annual awards program.

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Sarah Barlow, provost and vice chancellor for workforce and student development at Baton Rouge Community College, was selected for the 2024-25 Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship.

Barlow was one of 40 people selected for a fellowship, which aims to prepare the next generation of presidents to lead community colleges.

The fellows, selected through a competitive process, will work closely with highly accomplished community college presidents and thought leaders over 10 months.

Barlow joined the faculty of BRCC in August 2010 as an assistant English professor. She became chair of the English and Humanities Department in 2013, then joined the student services team in 2018.

She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Toledo and a doctorate in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.