Book pile

Not long ago, I described the pile of books that totter next to my bed, clamoring urgently to be read. In the National Post, Jeannie Marshall looks at ways people cope with this anxiety. "This late in history,' what shall we choose to read? A simple calculation shows that none of us has enough time left."

"His own advice to people who feel overwhelmed by reading is to try to read for two or three hours every day. And then he laughs. "I have never been able to work out a way to do that," he says. "I do read a lot and I might read for three or four hours one day and might not be able to read at all the next."