Drowning

Guys, I have a serious problem.

I'm drowning.

Not emotionally, in a depressed "I can't keep up with my feelings of sadness" kind of way. And not in an actual drowning in water kind of way.

I'M DROWNING IN MY BOOKS.

You see, I read books in 2 formats: actual physical books, and Kindle books. Actual books that I get from the library are wonderful because once I have them, I can keep renewing them forever and ever and there's no rush to read them. Kindle books, however, are not so simple. There are a few types of Kindle books that I read:

- Kindle books that I own. There are very few of these since I don't like to pay for books, which is unfortunate because, like physical books, these are easy to deal with. Yesterday I bought Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close from Amazon because it was on sale for 25 cents. I probably won't read it for awhile.

- Kindle books that I get from the Amazon Lending Library. As an Amazon Prime member, I get to borrow 1 book a month. I can keep them for as long as I want, but even if I finish one in 2 days, I still can't borrow another one until the 1st of the next month. I don't like to get behind on these books because I want to fully utilize this part of my Prime membership, and it's nice to be able to pick out a new book and have access to it immediately (unlike library books, which I typically have to wait for). Sadly for me, my current lending library book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is from February and I don't anticipate finishing it anytime soon. So I probably won't be getting a free March book. Wah.

- Kindle books from the Brooklyn Public Library. Library e-books are tricky. When I get an email that one of my books is ready for download, I have 3 days to download it. Once it's on my Kindle, I have exactly 2 weeks to read it. No renewal option.

Normally this is all fine and well because I read books at lightning speed (according to Goodreads I've finished 18 books so far in 2012 and am in the middle of 5 more). So as the books I've put on hold start coming in, either in hard or soft copy, I adjust accordingly. If I'm reading an actual physical book and a library e-book comes through, I'll temporarily abandon the first book because I know I have unlimited time to read it while I only get 14 days with an e-book. It's always worked out.

However, I feel like I'm on the brink of losing control of my reading. For the first time since I got my Kindle in November, I'm afraid I won't have time to finish something or other.

You see, I got an email today that 1Q84 is ready for download. I just started reading Fire, another library e-book, but I'm confident I can finish it before 3 days from now, the point at which I have to download 1Q84 or I lose my spot in line. The problem is that 1Q84 is over 900 pages long, so even at my current pace it'll take me a bit to get through it.

AND

Because I can go to the library's website to check the status of the e-books I have on hold, I can see that I'm probably going to get The Girl Who Played With Fire pretty soon also. This book is over 700 pages.

I ONLY HAVE 2 PRECIOUS WEEKS WITH EACH OF THESE BOOKS BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR FROM MY KINDLE.

I JUST DON'T THINK I CAN KEEP UP WITH THIS.

What I need to do is to STOP PUTTING BOOKS ON HOLD. I've turned into a monster.