You haven’t read it yet.
But you’ve been thinking about reading it for months.
That book has already done its job.
It’s running in the background.
Unread books still take up memory:
- You plan around them
- You defer other reading because of them
- You imagine the version of yourself that’s read them
They’re not inactive.
They’re deferred execution.
The Stack Is Real
Your to-read pile is a workload queue.
- High priority at the top
- Some jobs pre-empted by newer arrivals
- Some tasks permanently blocked, but still not cleared
You know which books you’re avoiding.
You know which ones you’re saving for when you have “more bandwidth”.
And that’s the thing. They don’t just wait.
They shape the context.
Reading Isn’t Binary
“Have you read it?” is too simple.
Better questions:
- Have you thought about reading it?
- Have you read around it?
- Have you already absorbed its influence sideways?
A shelf of unread books isn’t failure.
It’s a live system.
Idle, but not inert.