My Shelf Runneth Over

In a previous blog post I alluded to the fact that I'm in a bit of a quandary when it comes to my current selection of books to read. I'm a very organized guy by nature. That habit has served me well in my profession -- I've always got the most up-to-date information about my customers, their requirements/challenges and how best to go about solving them. I have my days planned in hourly slots which I stick to like glue. An old manager of mine gave me great advice. "Plan your work, then work your plan." Kinda like Mr. Miyagi.

"When done right, NO CAN DEFEND."

I've taken that lesson to heart (some would say a little too deeply) and that includes a habit of "triaging" the books I need to get around to reading. I've got an Excel spreadsheet with categories like "Books I Have" "Books I Need to Have" and "Books I Want to Need to Have." This past Christmas Santa was very generous to me. Over $400 in Amazon & Barnes Noble gift cards. It was awesome. I felt like a kid in a candy store as I browsed virtual shelves and filled my shopping cart.

I peed my pants a little bit when I hit the final SUBMIT button.

That was over 2 months ago. Anybody who follows my reading over on Goodreads knows that I have a voracious appetite for books of any kind. My iPad has WAY more e-books than anything else crammed into it. Plus I make it a point to hit the local library at least once a week.

So right now I'm way behind my reading. I've plowed through a number of book cum doorstops like "Locked On" and "Against All Enemies" by Clancy, and the massive Steve Jobs biography. But I've got tons more. Not to mention about a hundred titles on my e-reader I've not even peeked at yet.

The other nasty side effect of this problem is simply the more I read, the less I write. And that is a problem. I travel a lot for work and there's nothing like a coast-to-coast flight to knock off a thick tome. But I'm discovering more new authors all the time and its getting tough to keep up with what I WANT to read let alone what I NEED to read.

Don't get me wrong. Its a fantastic problem to have. I just have to figure out a better way.