Of all the problems (of lesser importance I must stress) that a person can have, choosing what to read next is pretty much as low on the totem pole as one can get. Really, for a reader, is it even a "problem"? Maybe just a small dilemma, but being someone who is an eternal ditherer like me, it can really cause reading havoc. And if you saw the state of my night table reading pile, you would know that havoc is not what I need.
Over the weekend I culled from the pile the books I had "kind of" started or intended to read, but that the experience had not quite gotten off the ground. It is not that I don't want to read the book. My problem always is that I want to read all the books, but how much actual reading time do I even get and then one must take into account how fast, or in my case how slow, a reader I am. {Internal heaving sighing here}. I am spoiled for choice and have a lack of diligence or self-control.
I can't even settle on a new monthly prompt book. So, turning again to my library book pile and adding a new book from the new book cart I came across today (actually a replacement book for a book long in our collection that was falling apart and needed a replacement), I have now a copy of Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, and Anna Gavalda's French Leave. I'm thinking it is going to be Miss Marple, because Miss Marple is about my speed at the moment. I had been reading the Miss Marple mysteries in the order they were written/published, but maybe that is silly and who cares and what I have in my hands appeals, so just be daring, right? The Gavalda, however, is quite short, and you can never have enough books in translation in the reading pile. Both books are going to be opened tonight and perused and dipped into and one is going to be "The Book". No more dithering.
As for that pile of languishing partially read books? Some are quietly going back into their shelf slots and back to their book piles. Maybe one or two will stay near the night table to be slotted back into the reading pile as I . . . finish other books. But most importantly I am going to crack down a little and focus on what is at hand. (Until tomorrow when I share the books I found at the public library sale over this past weekend).
I either have too much time on my hands, as you can see, or not nearly enough. The trials and tribulations of being an obsessive book reader.
Do you have a pile of languishing books? Do you return books back to their spots on your shelves when you find you are in over your head? Do you spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about what you are going to read next? I could use a nice vacation about now. A week in a cabin with a good view, lots of warm beverages, a book with the lovely sound of water rushing by and yes, lots of reading time.