The Bedside Library of Unfinished Lives

It’s 8:47 p.m. and Oathbringer is taunting me from my Libby app again.

I’ve been “reading” it for months. And by “reading,” I mean I hit play on the audiobook once a week for eight minutes before falling asleep because I woke up at 4:15 a.m. that morning.

The thing is a literary brick — 1,300 pages of dense, high-fantasy world-building that demands your full attention. Which, lately, I don’t have.

For a while, I thought this was just about the book. That life had become too busy or I was too tired.

But the more I let it sit there, silently shaming me, the more it started to feel like a metaphor.

That unread book became a stand-in for every unfinished thing in my life. Not just stories — but side projects, creative goals and bucket list items that quietly age on the shelf, waiting for me to finally start “the real work.”

And maybe you have one too.

That “book” you swore you’d get around to: launching the business, learning the language, writing the actual book.

But life, like my 10 month old, doesn’t care about your reading list. It just wakes you up screaming at 2:07 a.m. and asks whether you still want to do this.

There’s something unsettling about how easy it is to never even open the cover. I think most of us live with at least one unopened book — an idea that feels important, sacred even, but so intimidating we’d rather leave leave the dust cover on it than risk reading the first chapter and finding out we’re not a good enough reader to finish it.

We also assume we’ll always have time. That we can read it later. But some books, like some windows in life, come with a built-in self-destruct timer.

Bill Perkins talks about “time buckets” — that each phase of life has a unique set of experiences that will eventually expire.

My body is no longer improving in peak strength; I’m officially in the phase of trying to preserve what’s left. My toddler will only want to fall asleep on my chest for another year, maybe less.

Those aren’t just chapters. They’re once-in-a-lifetime footnotes.

They vanish like the writing in Tom Riddle’s diary while you’re trying to find your place on the page.

When I think about the “books” I most want to finish before the credits roll, one stands out: building a business that gives me more control over my time. That idea’s been dog-eared for years, but I’ve spent those years sketching out different product ideas, never pulling the trigger on any in particular.

I don’t need to read the whole thing overnight — but I do need to read a few solid chapters before I start pretending I know how it ends.

And look, I’ve started other books before.

Some I finished, some I shelved.

I used to think the hard part was time, or energy, or money. But in hindsight, the real enemy was courage. Starting something big isn’t about finding the time. It’s about getting over the fear that you’ll open it and find nothing but blank pages. Or worse, that you’ll start and stall and never get to find out how it ended.

Spoilers: Dumbledore dies at the end.

The truth is, we’ll all die with unfinished books. But the real question isn’t how many books are left on your shelf — it’s whether you ever cracked the spine on the one that mattered. Whether you read enough pages to know if it was the story you really wanted to read.

So here’s a small ask: pick a book — literal or metaphorical — that you’ve been neglecting.

Dust it off.

Read a page.

Write a page?

Work on it for ten minutes. You don’t need to finish it today. You just need to remember what it feels like to start.

Regret doesn’t come from not finishing. It comes from never beginning.

Words I Wish I Wrote

Links & Learnings

• New models from Anthropic 👀 AI is coming for your white collar job.

• How to crack your back without getting your partner to do that weird thing where they bear hug you from behind and jump up and down.

• Maybe the funniest prank I’ve ever heard of.

Psst… DSTLLD has a podcast now, too. I know — like the world needs another podcast, right? But here’s the thing: if you can tolerate my written rambles, you’ll probably find my in-person yammering… well, moderately tolerable. It’s basically me and a guest chatting about the same offbeat stuff you read here, except now you get to hear me stumble over big words in real time. I’m not saying it’s the greatest thing in the universe (trust me, I’ve listened to it), but if you like DSTLLD, there’s a good chance you won’t hate it. Win-win! Subscribe or follow on your favourite podcast platform:

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PHOTW: Selfishness and parenting are incompatible.