I’m standing in front of a buffet of all my favorite foods. Salmon, scallops, or crab?  Baked, roasted, or mashed potatoes? Dark chocolate brownies or apple crisp with ice cream?

Do you ever feel like this? Frozen in place, overwhelmed with all the possibilities?

I love choices, but there is a downside to too many options. If I choose one good thing, I miss out on another or at least that’s the fear that drives me.

At one of my favorite places in town, our local library, I often feel this same way. Our new librarian has been buying more new books than the library has for several years. And so I stand at one display or another.

A classic or historical? Literary or memoir? A debut novel or an old favorite?

I come home with an armful, but often end up bringing several back that I don’t have the chance to read. I feel guilty. And then there’s online and local bookstores.

Like the buffet, my book options have needed me to become more choosy. I’m learning to set a book aside if it isn’t as good as I’d hoped. Recently, I discovered Goodreads has a category called Abandoned, and I’m learning to use it.

Instead of feeling guilty because I didn’t clean up my plate … I mean finish the stack of To Be Read (TBR) books on my nightstand, I feel more free abandoning a book that isn’t for me. There are so many books in the world and so many different readers, too.

We all like different items on the buffet and need to be thoughtful as we fill our plate, but we may also sample something that looks interesting and be delighted to discover something new. Something unexpected.

Do you have a stack of TBR books to consider again?

Have you recently found a new author, series, or genre? If so, how?

Please share your comments below. I’d love to hear what you’re reading or what you’ve abandoned.