My Compulsions

1. I have a book queue. If I buy or am given a book, it goes at the end of the queue and I read books in the queue starting from left to right. In other words, sooner or later I get to every book in the queue, but it could be a couple of years from the time I receive a book to the time I read the book. The thesis is that the queue ensures I don't have a bunch of unread books sitting around for years cluttering up my shelves.

2. I finish every book, movie, computer game, and t.v. show season that I begin. Even if I hate it. In theory, this gives me the chance to not miss out on things that get a lot better as they go on (the t.v. show Tru Calling, for example, got really interesting near the end of Season 1).

3. Every weeknight I read three comic books, 10 pages from a novel in French, and 40 pages from a book in the queue. This ensures I make slow but steady progress in my reading material.

I confess that these things make me seem weird--but I haven't even talked about my toenail collection yet (just kidding!).