A few years ago, I made a deal with myself that I’d only buy a new book if everything on my shelves had been read. Naturally I gave myself a pass on some of the classics that we buy with every intention of reading, but never quite get to. I’m not sure when it happened, but the rule of only buying new if everything got read went out the window. I somehow went from being a reader to a bibliophile.
I love books. While I’ll pass up new shoes or tech toys with little complaint, walking out of a bookstore empty handed is almost painful. But out of my collection of 2,300+ perhaps only half have been read, leading me to wonder if I need to stop buying books for now. I technically have the space (there’s still room to set up a few more shelves), but it’s difficult at times to avoid feeling guilty when I enter my library and realize I haven’t read more of the books in that room.
I feel the same sense of guilt when I don’t take full advantage of all the tools we have at our disposal right now. Google+ has been the hot topic the last few weeks, but I have yet to enter a status update despite setting up a few circles. Twitter creates great connection points at times, but weeks go by between my updates unless I’m at a conference. It comes down to a sense of it all being too much at times, which feels like a contradiction because I love information and new ideas. Between my books and the Internet, I’ve gained access to knowledge that someone 50 years ago didn’t know existed.
But I do question my ability to manage the flow of all that information. A friend of mine described it in terms of urgent versus important. The urgent things are new emails popping up in the inbox as compared to the important, like completing a long-term plan. In his view, the urgent often gets in the way of the important, but we often miss the signs because urgent demands our attention RIGHT NOW.
As much as I may enjoy reading the updates of friends, keeping up with current events, and adding one more book to the read pile, I do think about the important things that are being sacrificed. Information and our access to it can change the world, but if we haven’t figured out how to connect the flow with action, information loses its power.
