Torture! It’s torture, I tell you. I have tonight, tomorrow night, Friday night and Saturday night. Looking at the not-yet-read books I have piled on the shelf, none of them seem short enough that I could start them now and be done with them by Saturday night when I simply must be done with it because I can’t take a book that I’m nearly finished with all the way to the States if it turns out to be one I want to keep, thus meaning I must bring it back again! (Especially one my mother already mailed to me ONCE across the ocean)
I must bring books with me, of course, for the trip, since to be traveling without something to read is a blasphemous thought, but I know I shall most likely finish 1 or 2 books on the trip alone, so planning must be done carefully. I want to buy books while I am IN the States, so the more books I take with me, the less books I will be able to buy while there and bring back. It is all so difficult!
To make it worse I have the first 2 books in an 8-book series that I have been coveting for ages to read, and I want to dive into them now, but I simply must have the rest of the series before starting because after having read a DIFFERENT 8-book series by the same author, I know what I am getting into, and I will be leaping and gulping down book after book and the very idea of having to STOP and WAIT in the middle of the story while I order the remaining books is a thought simply not to be borne.
So, for the next few days I will content myself with re-reading short books, well-loved books that I know I can finish before my rapidly approaching deadline. It may be torture, but I can live with it, if I must.
*Logan Pearsall Smith
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