Collection or To-be-read list

• I asked a question today to a couple of writing email lists I'm on. I asked if anyone was like me. :D Is that possible? Not really, but some have same traits like having a bookshelf of writing books and not reading them. I have at least twenty books on writing, writing exercises, advice from writers, even the Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul. I love that one, although I have not totally read it through. I probably have read my Chicken Soup book more than I have any others and I even have workbooks with exercises in them to get the juices flowing, a Writer's Toolbox with fun popcicle sticks on them with ideas and twists and turns and a cute mini-hourglass timer to say, "Ready, set, GO! Don't pick up that pencil or pen, don't you dare hit delete and edit, just write!" I have books for encouragement and hope for writers, and Lord knows that what I need. So why are they laying on my shelves collecting dust with all the other to-be-read books from the latest book sales, garage sales, hand-me-downs, and consignment store purchases? Because I am either a collector of the coolest toys imaginable to a writer (I even have the novelist boot camp) or I am just so disorganized I don't know how to balance college classes in my late 30's, three teenagers, church, husband, Sunday school, life outside my dungeon, and promoting my book. Is there a way to truly balance all that? Sometimes I wonder with three psychology research papers looming over me. 6 1/2 weeks and counting. :D