Overloaded: Is there simply too much culture?
&quot;Too many books&quot; was apparently a problem already 2000 years ago; here&#x27;s Seneca advising his friend against it, in his letter-2:<p>[quote]<p><i>Be careful, though, about your reading in many authors and every type of book. It may be that there is something wayward and unstable in it. You must stay with a limited number of writers and be fed by them if you mean to derive anything that will dwell reliably with you. One who is everywhere is nowhere. Those who travel all the time ﬁnd that they have many places to stay, but no friendships. The same thing necessarily happens to those who do not become intimate with any one author, but let everything rush right through them. [...]</i><p><i>&#x27;But I want to read different books at different times,&#x27; you say. The person of delicate digestion nibbles at this and that; when the diet is too varied, though, food does not nourish but only upsets the stomach.  So read always from authors of proven worth; and if ever you are inclined to turn aside to others, return afterward to the previous ones. Obtain each day some aid against poverty, something against death, and likewise against other calamities. And when you have moved rapidly through many topics, select one to ponder that day and digest. This is what I do as well [...]</i><p>[&#x2F;quote]