So many eBooks; so . . . .

I have come to the conclusion that somewhere along the way, I have contracted a rare and bizarre form of narcolepsy. Every time I pick up a book I fall asleep. Wouldn’t be so bad except that my eBook reader is full and my nightstand is overflowing with books, that theoretically, I want to read.

Over the last week I have dipped into all of them, read a few pages and promptly fallen asleep.

For example on my eBook Reader and Palm are the books I have bought because for one reason or another they appeal to me:

• The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by Jacobs, A. J
• How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Gill, Michael Gates
• A Perfectly Good Family by Lionel Shriver
• One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life: A Story of Race and Family Secrets by Bliss Broyard
• The Godmother by Carrie Adams
• The Man Time Forgot: A Tale of Genius, Betrayal, and the Creation of Time Magazine by Isaiah Wilner
• Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
• Musicophilia Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks.

On the night stand I have a collection of books that my friends and family have loaned (or in some cases forced on) me because they think I will enjoy them or because they want me to read them for some reason:

• Life is A Beach by Claire Cook
• Die, My Love A True Story of Revenge, Murder, and Two Texas Sisters by Kathryn Casey
• Love at Goon Park: Harry Harolow and the Science of Affection by Deborah Blum
• Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption by William Cope Moyers
• When the World Was Steady by Claire Messud
• Anything for Jane by Cheryl Mendelson

What to do?

I have tried an uncomfortable chair, sitting in a crowd at Starbucks and drinking coffee (lots of coffee). Nothing seems to work. But I have a solution to my problem.

It is in the slim volume I have taken to carrying in my purse entitled How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard.

I am sure that this will be a great help to me if I can stay awake long enough to read it.