From a New York Times By the Book interview headlined “Patrick Radden Keefe Has One Big Rule for His Reading Time”:

What books are on your night stand?

I’m an appalling reader, promiscuous and inattentive. I spend hours every day reading, but I magpie around and don’t finish things. As a consequence, books tend to pile up on my night stand in teetering stacks, accumulating passive-aggressively, like an accusation. Fortunately, I consider random Jenga towers of books to be the height of sophisticated décor. My wife feels otherwise; but then, she’s one of those systematic readers who finishes every book she starts, so there’s no accounting for taste.