I think this problem is extremely common and goes well beyond books. We have so much access to information and entertainment. The backlog can be so huge that it gives you anxiety. I struggled with this once I entered young adulthood and had the opportunity to learn how to... actually do things for fun and leisure. I had to start very slow. This included reading.

IIRC, I read an article where someone described the same sort of thing you are talking about. It was featured on Pocket, maybe a couple of years ago.

But what they said in their article helped me realize that it is just impossible and unrealistic to feasibly get to every single little thing on the backlog list, for anything. It focused on reading, but you can apply that to movies, TV, music, video games, etc. You name it, it likely fits.

What I remember is this: just pick whatever you want to read at that moment and read it. What you don't pick, you can always read another time. And if later you change your mind and don't want to read it, you are allowed to not read it. It's not going anywhere. If you change your mind again and do want to read it, that's fine too. Make peace with the idea of it being unfeasible to get to absolutely everything in your backlog, because it's likely impossibly long, and that there isn't a deadline to get through that. You can go at your own pace in any order you please.

And if there's so many choices that it's paralyzing, just pick anything and start reading, or whatever.

I'll have to see if I can find that article, if I remember to actually look later.