My first book group is reading Guterson’s “The Other.” My mother/daughter book group is reading Smith’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” My office book group is reading Zusak’s “The Book Thief.”

My #1 Rule is Pile on the People and my #2 is Escape through Literature. But I may be outdoing myself. 

On a night like tonite, when I’ve finally finished my writing, the dishes, and homework patrol, I don’t know which book to open. Rather than choosing any one, I let all of them languish. It’s not just the books, but my classmates’ “Bootcamp for Journalists” writing assignments. And on the Kindle, I’m in the middle of Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” and Brown’s “The Lost Symbol.”

I lump them all and dive into a long article in The Atlantic or The New York Times magazine.

Why do I place so many reading demands on myself? I like drowning in literature.

And maybe one of my rules could serve as an antidote to my habit (compulsion?) to pile on too many book groups and too many books: Rule #5 “Expect the Best/Love What You Get.”