I’ve been re-reading Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. You know, as one does. This bit from day five jumped out at me:
The first is to treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket. That is to say: think of your backlog not as a container that gradually fills up, and that it’s your job to empty, but as a stream that flows past you, from which you get to pick a few choice items, here and there, without feeling guilty for letting all the others float by.
I have so, so many books. I feel guilty about having so, so many books, even when I give them away in my Little Free Library. And some books I may never re-read, but I keep them around because 1) I like them, and 2) you never know.
I don’t need to hustle and grind my way through my to-be-read pile. All I need to do is dip my hand into the stream and pluck out the next book. Obligation vs. fun and adventure? Well, I know which one I’d rather have.
P.S. Note on the image. It’s from 2012, so definitely human-created, not AI-generated.
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Great thought for the day! (I’m wondering if I can apply it to my job as well…. so many opportunities to contribute, but I can only do one or two really well. It’s true, but I’m not sure my boss would appreciate that logic.)
Yeah … it may not work so well on the job. LOL
I love this! I took it a step further. I bought a few books at the library book sale the other day (knowing I wouldn’t get to them soon), but after reading your post, I “dipped” my hands into “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt. Just picked a page randomly and began to read. Sometimes just a few misc. paragraphs of a book are inspiring, comforting, thought provoking, even a book I’ve never read before. I’m taking a class at the village called The Difficult Imagination. It’s helping me relax into my writing, and now with the idea of books like a river, I think I can do the same with my reading. 🙂 Thanks.
So glad you found the idea helpful. I’m also glad you’ve found a way to relax into your writing. That’s so important. I took a peek at the class. Wow! It’s a lot. One of these days I may jump back into classes, but at the moment, all my mental train tracks are taken up with the King’s End series.