Joys of the Poly-Reader

For the Lusts, Pleasures, and Profits of this World; in the injoyment of which, I did then promise my self much delight, but now even every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a burning worm.

Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim's Progress. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, 35.

So says the Man in the Iron Cage to Christian in John Bunyan's classic The Pilgrim's Progress. I can't help but draw parallels between the Man in the Iron Cage's woes and the mental anguish Epictetus warns accompanies lusting after those things that fall outside of your control (material possessions, sexual conquest, etc.). 

Serendipitously locating such synergies is one of the joys I find in reading multiple books at once.