[Hereford Eye]

Out of curiosity, I spent a couple of days compiling a list of books I know that I have read. The task was much simpler than it might have been due to my access to my own book collector software, Amazon.com and Wikipedia. There are still books missing from my list. Every time I go to bed I remember a few more.
Let's stipulate that I am no longer young. Let us further stipulate that I remember reading books at nine years of age. Given that, then I have been reading books for 732 months. My list identifies 2140 books that I have read for an average of 2.9 books per month over the span of my life. 775 of those books are no longer in my personal library.
I bring this up, not too much to brag, but to wonder if that rate of devouring reading material is average, above, or below for folk on this board.

[PeterWilliam]

H.E.,

Obviously, I can't speak for others, but I read your opening post and began going through some numbers, in a very general sense, mind you. With the use of the goodreads site, I was able to accurately record what I read last year. I finished 2011 with 54 reads. Nothing astronomical, but fairly decent with two little ones, as well as attending graduate school full-time and working 32-40 hours/week. Some years of my youth were spent probably reading fewer books (i.e. lots of time wasted in the pursuits of youth). There have been plenty of years where more than 54 books would have been read.

All in all, I think the number you have sounds about right for what I would say that I have read. I would guess that many here have read somewhere in the same neighborhood, but that's because it's a site aimed at genre fiction fans (i.e. people reading books regularly).

What I find myself wondering occasionally is 'Where do we (i.e. the aliens who populate SFFWorld) come in at among the reading of people in general?' That is to say, given the totality of people in Canada, or the UK, or the US; what is the average number of reads/month, or reads/year? Trivial, but I would be interested to know.

[Darksbane]

What I find myself wondering occasionally is 'Where do we (i.e. the aliens who populate SFFWorld) come in at among the reading of people in general?' That is to say, given the totality of people in Canada, or the UK, or the US; what is the average number of reads/month, or reads/year? Trivial, but I would be interested to know.
Here's something to answer that, for the USA anyways (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14175229):

"One thing is certain: Americans—of either gender—are reading fewer books today than in the past. A poll released last month by The Associated Press and Ipsos, a market-research firm, found that the typical American read only four books last year, and one in four adults read no books at all.

A National Endowment for the Arts report found that only 57 percent of Americans had read a book in 2002 a four percentage-point drop in a decade. Book sales have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

Among avid readers surveyed by the AP, the typical woman read nine books in a year, compared with only five for men. Women read more than men in all categories except for history and biography."

Only 9 books on average for women, and 5 for men, and those are the avid readers? That shocked me.

[Chuffalump]

When I was at school I'd read up to five books a week. Not thick or heavy going books though. Still I think it would be fair to say an average of two books a week over my reading life so......

.....approximately 3300 books.....

Actually I'm a little disappointed in that figure, given that a significant percentage will be multiple re-reads from my own shelves.

Must try harder. :D

[PeterWilliam]

Only 9 books on average for women, and 5 for men, and those are the avid readers? That shocked me.

Whoa, same here. I must not truly understood the definition of "avid."

[Hereford Eye]

If I place the average words per page at 250* and the average number of pages per book at 250** and then I multiply by the @2140 books I've read; then I have read 250*250*2140 = 133750000 words in books.
Since I read @2 pages per minute I have spent 250 pgs * 2140 books/2 = 267500 minutes /60 = 4458 hours /24 = 185 days reading books or less than .01% of my life. That's kind of disheartening. I thought I'd read more than that.

Only 9 books on average for women, and 5 for men, and those are the avid readers?
A while back, William J. Lederer identified the problem in A Nation of Sheep. Without the education of books and newspapers, the herd follows blindly.



* http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=608972 avg # words/pg
** http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080812044446AAaWOK4 avg # words/novel. @200 pages seemed low to me but 80000/250 seemed high. So, I compromised.

[Loerwyn]

I did 104 last year (well, more as some were omnibus editions, but there were a few not-quite-books in there too, etc) according to Goodreads, which works out at about two books a week, or one every three and a half days. Hardly true, as many were graphic novels which took an hour or so at the very most.

This year I'm on 8 books to date, so saying there's been 43 days of 2012, that means I'm at a glacial pace of one book every 5.4 days, which is roughly one a week.

I'm slow :D

[Caedus]

I don't really keep track of what I read, but I bet it's not even close to the numbers some of you are doing. If we are talking fiction books, then those are a dime a dozen. I do read quite a lot though. Another thing is that I tend to pick up interesting books and read portions of them I find interesting. I find reading non-fiction books from end to end too tedious.

[Daddy Darth]

Wow - I don't have a clue. I'd like to read a lot more. Damn you TV and your sexy flat screen. I read about a book a month I guess, almost regardless of length.

[Daddy Darth]

Strangely I have not named my tv! :p