The Addiction
I am forced to admit that I have an addiction. No, it's not life threatening in the nature of drugs or drink, but it is a rather unhealthy, mental exercise in what, more often than not, results in a net gain of zero intellectually. I have a problem with checking out books from the library that I have absolutely no ability to complete. It seems like every time I wander into a decent library, I end up checking out something that catches my eye. Yesterday, for instance, I was in the public library determined to find one book, Christopher Hitchens' Letters to a Young Contrarian and ended up walking out with that tome and five cds. Well, this was just the beginning of the night's obsession. After reviewing the listing of the books attributed to Hitchens, I found one entitled Left Hooks, Right Crosses: A Decade of Political Writing, which I just had to check out. So, in a round about way, I was able to scour the shelves for this very book way after midnight. To my dismay, I couldn’t find the book where it was supposed to be, so I felt somewhat incomplete. This morning, though, I had the resolve and the determination to find this book by any means necessary. Wandering back over to the public library, I was able to quickly locate the above mentioned book, but, of course, I had to check out something else as well. This book, Haynes Johnson's The Best of Times, seemed like a necessary addition to my reading materials. So, in addition to schoolwork, most of which, other than a course in judicial process (10 Books, yikes!), requires very lite reading, I'm in the midst of reading Chuck Palahniuk's Diary, Noam Chomksy and Edward S. Herman's Manufacturing Consent, a book of essays devoted to John Ashcroft's plight to rob us of civil liberties, and I'm sure several others. What's the deal? Is there a cure? Why can't I stop?