Very relatable!
It is also the reason I pretty much only read finished series (some exceptions for me were Feist’s Magician or Erikson’s Malazan series). Tbh, I really hate having to wait for the next book, sometimes even for years (and then having to reread previous books, because you’ve forgotten half the story), plus you can never really know if the author will actually finish it. It’s why I never bought any ASOIAF-books, I was waiting for it to be finished, but now that’ll probably never happen.
Just don’t have the time, patience and discipline to stay up to date with and juggle reading a bunch of different ongoing book series ‘at the same time’ - so I have an extra list with unfinished series that I check up on once every two years or so, to see if they’re complete and I can start reading them yet. It keeps the backlog a bit more manageable.
I made a deal with myself to go to bed at least an hour earlier than I usually would, just to read. I’ve read every night for the past … I don’t know how long, years anyway. I figured I would otherwise just waste this time on lemmy (or reddit in the past), and reading is a better use of my time than doomscrolling. ;) So I’ve been consistently going through books, even on days where I have little other free time.
But even so, I just have so many books I want to read. Wonder if I get to read everything I want to read before I go to my grave, and that’s not even including all the books that haven’t been written yet that I’ll also want to read. :p