"The moment he recognized what exactly was on one cartridge he had a strong anxious feeling that there was something more entertaining on another cartridge and that he was potentially missing it. He realized that he would have plenty of time to enjoy all the cartridges, and realized intellectually that the feeling of deprived panic over missing something made no sense."

David Foster Wallace in Infinite Jest, describing the same irrational anxiety that caused me to dump The Crying of Lot 49 so that I could read his massive book.