I’ve just finished reading Garth Nix’s Abhorsen Trilogy
– a superb fantasy series. To my surprise, as I was enjoying this epic saga, I discovered a powerful lesson about procrastination.
WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD (I’ve tried not to give away much of the plot.)
In the world of these books, the dead don’t always stay dead. They try desperately to return to life, often with the help of evil necromancers. But there is a special person, known as the Abhorsen, whose job is to fight the necromancers and send the dead back. Also, death is an actual place where the Abhorsen can go in order to do their work – a cold, treacherous, and terrifying place. The job is hereditary, and the training involves both direct instruction and studying The Book of the Dead.
The Book of the Dead is an ancient, disturbing tome, imbued with dangerous magic. It can give the reader chills and terrible nightmares. The book changes from moment to moment and from reader to reader, and it can even influence your memories. Only a certain kind of person can open the book, and some cannot close it, doomed to be forever trapped by its pages.
In the second novel of the series, Lireal, Sameth, is next in line to be the Abhorsen, and he is the only living heir to that position, so he must learn how to do the job. This means he must study The Book of the Dead. But the book terrifies him. Whenever he so much as looks it, he gets uncontrollable chills and shakes, and he cannot bring himself to open it. The fate of the kingdom – and perhaps the whole world – depend on Sam doing what he must.
After a session of reading Lireal, I realized that The Book of the Dead is a symbol for any daunting task that we’re inclined to avoid. But compared to Sam’s job, the things I’d been procrastinating on seemed, well, pitiful. I looked at the nastiest item on my to-do list and said to myself, “Well, at least it’s not The Book of the Dead,” and got started.