The cancellations of most public events and the temporary closing of public spaces as the coronavirus pandemic continues has driven people into their homes and prompted them to seek the comforts of favorite foods and beloved activities. It also is causing them to buy every roll of toilet paper they can, judging from the empty shelves at Kroger and Publix.

With everybody apparently planning to sit out the pandemic on the toilet, I would’ve expected book sales to be booming but many of my author-friends and I have seen our sales drop in recent weeks. Perhaps people are buying medical books and public health-related nonfiction instead. More likely, though, many are probably glued to their go-to news channel instead.

Personally, I don’t think it’s healthy to watch or listen to minute-by-minute updates about confirmed cases and deaths. I think it leads to a bunker mentality, where one feels under siege, with the walls closing in. We all know what to do to stay as safe as possible. Playlists abound of all the things we can sing for twenty seconds while we wash our hands.

Even if you haven’t become a news junkie, I’ll bet most of you have had the TV on more than usual. I know we live in the Platinum Age of Television, with more high-quality shows than ever to distract us from our fears, to entertain us after homeschooling our kids and doing our paid work remotely, and to keep us from going stir-crazy. Even radio seems better than ever (NPR listeners, at least, are nodding in agreement).

However, I’d like to suggest that this is the perfect time to dive into that stack of books on your nightstand and/or shelves. If you’re like me, you have more books than you could possibly ever read, even if you did nothing but that for the remainder of your days. And you keep telling yourself—and perhaps those you live with, even any four-legged, gilled, or winged listeners—that, one day, you’re going to dig into those volumes and devote yourself to reading.

Remember Burgess Meredith in The Twilight Zone episode titled “Time Enough at Last,” where he’s a lover of books who only wants time to read? As the sole survivor in a post-apocalyptic world, he finally gets his chance until Fate intervenes. Hopefully we’re not living through such a dire period, but we can empathize with his desire to finally have the time to enjoy the wealth of great books at our fingertips or just a click away.

Yes, social distancing and sometimes quarantining and forced isolation are our alarming current realities, but rather than think about being “hemmed in” or “cooped up,” remember all those books you promised yourself you would read as soon as you had the time. You might never get this chance again. I wish you happy reading—recalling the plight of poor Burgess, though, be sure to have some backup spectacles on hand!