This week’s WG is about Shiny Book Syndrome, or the overwhelming urge to read the book you acquired most recently, leaving “piles of poor unread books on [the] shelves to collect dust.”
The post goes on to discuss how to alleviate the symptoms, even going so far as to suggest numerous challenges to read the books you already own.
Funny, a friend and I were just discussing this yesterday, and we felt the opposite about this. See, too often we feel that intense desire to read some specific book (usually the newest, though not always), but we put it off for whatever reason in favor of something else. And then that feeling fades, and we have trouble, months down the road, getting that same excitement to build. We agreed that it’s actually a better idea to read something while you’re champing at the bit to do so, because otherwise it may well end up being just another book collecting dust on your shelves.
Now, this isn’t to say that one should only read their newest books and ignore the older ones. Rather, if you’re feeling really eager to read something in particular, then read it. The mood may not strike again for quite a while.
I think all of us suffer from it to some extent or the other!
Here is my Weekly Geeks post!
Heh, I know what you mean! Many’s the time I’ve bought a book with enthusiasm, put it aside without reading it, and then picked it up again without that same level of enthusiasm. Not that I didn’t want to read it, just maybe not quite to the same extent.