Pile-Up

As I write this, I have got a hell of a problem. As you read this, I pray that I have resolved it. I appreciate that I may be worrying you, but you'll see that I'm not exaggerating the severity of the issue. The thing is that I have got too much to read. It is my curse that I am so inquisitive. I can't look in any direction without seeing something I want to read, watch or know more about. My list of materials to take in grows rapidly, and well in excess of my ability to work it down.

Let's look at my reading problem specifically. I've been reading an interesting book of oral history on the Great Depression. It felt a relevant tome to take up. Then while I was still in the early stages of that, I was reading a newspaper article on certain classic old books of self-help getting updated for today's world and whether this was necessary. A particular book was mentioned that I decided I just had to read. I reserved it just as soon as I was able.

I was counting on the book taking a while to come. I would then have a while more before I had to pick it up. I was hoping that in this time I would be able to finish the book I was on. I certainly was going through it gamely, but my appetite for movies betrayed me. You see, I went in to pick out some new movies while sitting there in the library was my reserved book. I could hardly leave it there and take with me the movies, could I?

Now here staring me in the face is the second book while I struggle to beat the clock and read the prior one along with movies I must watch, my own writing and all the rest of life. Even worse, there are still other books I desperately want to read. In particular there are some plays by Aeschylus that I feel duty-bound to read (as there is a quotation from one that I want to use but can't until I know its context). Pray for me that I have the strength to leave each passion alone until there is the time to exorcise it?