I admit it, I have over a hundred unread books on my ebook reader.

That almost seems like too much. Sometimes I try to wrap my head around what it would take to read it all, and I start to do the math, assuming reading a couple hours per day and the average length of books (of course not counting the anthologies that often have multiple or in one case over fifty books included) and factoring in my reading speed and attention span and…

gah!

I’m probably going to have books on that little device that will outlast the device. 

It’s too much.

And I didn’t do it on purpose. I didn’t set out to collect more books than I could ever possibly read. I didn’t make a list of all the books I should buy, add to the bottom of an already very tall stack and think well, what’s next?

Don’t get me wrong. It’s my own mistake. I can’t blame this one on the authors or the booksellers or a kooky sensibility around acquisition and collecting. It’s nothing besides raw curiosity.

And that’s the rub, ain’t it? We’re all curious. We’re all enamoured by the new and interesting. I assume that most of us are novelty seekers, digging through this oft-routine life looking for the next shiny thing, the next curiosity to poke some deep part of our brain and make us feel something real, if only temporary.

I’m right there with you.

Good thing someone hasn’t figured out how to build a giant complicated system to take advantage of that and—oh… right.