It seems like only yesterday, you could pick up a full-length novel by morning, going halfway through it come sundown. Your nose was always pressed into a new, exciting paragraph, and your favourite position was sideways, a hardback pressed into the nook of your arm.

Only, it wasn’t yesterday. You can barely remember the last time you finished a book without at least two ‘Happy new month’ broadcast messages entering your WhatsApp. It’s starting to get really hard, looking at your book club members in the eye during Zoom meet-ups.

If you’re reading this and feeling bad because it’s hitting a little too close to home, not to worry, we are legion. Here’s how many self-proclaimed book lovers have fallen down the rabbit hole of incomplete books and reading lists:

Taking screenshots of books you see on social media

Promptly forgetting about it right after,

Going through recommended reading lists and swearing you’re going to purchase and read them all

Promptly forgetting about them when you close the list tab on your laptop.

Finally getting round to downloading a recommended book on your phone

Your life outside, everytime you try to read it.

The way Twitter calls you when you finally decide to read a book on your phone seriously

And you answer, every single time. Ho!

Spending money you don’t even have on hardcover books you absolutely must have!

Using it purely to decorate your bookshelf for the next three years because that’s what you do now.

Reading three books at the same time because, why not?

Never finishing them too, because na your way.