# How many books do you read per year? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489 "2007-07-28T14:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/1 "2007-07-28T14:12:31Z")
I wonder how much other people read, as I’m a pretty voracious reader. Last year, I decided to catalogue what I read and how much I read during the year, and it came up to 137 books, or about one book every two and a half days! Of course, that’s not counting the ridiculous volume of comics that I read, and I didn’t count things like trade paperbacks and graphic novels unless they were super-hefty (in excess of 600 pages, like Marvel’s “Essentials” or _Box Office Poison_, for example). How much do you read in a year? ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/2 "2007-07-28T14:24:30Z")
I decided to keep track this year, so I built an Excel file and tracked everything I read since January 1. I sorted for fiction & non fiction; plus for children’s books, and comic strip collections (which are short, quick reads). I also sorted for rereads. I was pretty excited about this, as I’ve always been a huge reader, and people often ask me how many books I read. Unfortunately, my computer crashed in June and it took my _Books Read, 2007_ file with it. I haven’t rebuilt it because… – well, because I’m a freak and I want it to start from January. So I’ll start a new one next year. Anyway, in June when my computer died, I was up to 95 books. I don’t remember the breakdown, but there were probably 15 - 20 children’s/ comic strip books, and the split between fiction and non-fiction was pretty close to 50/50. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/3 "2007-07-28T14:36:08Z")
[QUOTE=Jess] Anyway, in June when my computer died, I was up to 95 books. I don’t remember the breakdown, but there were probably 15 - 20 children’s/ comic strip books, and the split between fiction and non-fiction was pretty close to 50/50. [/QUOTE] Yeah, I intentionally chose to not count things like YA books and comics, even though I read (thinks 10’ish a week, at 52 weeks) about 520 comic books. I just felt that there was no legitimate way to quantify them. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/4 "2007-07-28T15:06:09Z")
Less than thirty , I suppose. English books are expensive here. Plus the interwebs eat up a lot of my time. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/5 "2007-07-28T15:07:34Z")
Not as many as I used to, now them I’m on my own and paying for my own books. I still read as much as ever, but now I mostly read things on the web, where it’s free. ---
**Author:** ![Eltanin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Eltanin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eltanin)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/6 "2007-07-28T16:28:59Z")
Do academic books count? I read probably 4-5 per week (if you could call that “reading”) ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/7 "2007-07-28T16:46:57Z")
Not sure. I generally finish 1-2 books a week, sometimes more or less depending what is happening in my life and how much time I have to read. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/8 "2007-07-28T17:48:46Z")
I seem to be averaging 60-70 a year, though I’m trying to hit 100-120 this year. A better measure would be pages, since as a working person I read a lot of articles as well. Indeed, as a faculty member I read hundreds of pages of student writing a week, which is time I used to spend reading published material. ---
**Author:** ![Tamryne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tamryne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamryne)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/9 "2007-07-28T19:36:09Z")
I probably average around 60 a year, with 40 of them being read during the summer break. The school year is too hectic to keep up with a complex storyline; Epic books and ancient literature wait till summer or school breaks when I can sit down and properly read the book. I spent my senior year in HS making a list similar to yours, **Jess** , but my sister downloaded a virus that destroyed the computer hard drive. I think the list was 70-80 books long after 9 months. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/10 "2007-07-28T19:41:29Z")
Obligatory pimping for [www.librarything.com](http://www.librarything.com) I’ve actually decided to keep track this year, of course, I chose some pretty big books to read (A Suitable Boy, 1400pgs) so I’m using the page count/300 to get my book number. By number of actual books this year, I’m at 19, however, by the page formula, I’m at 26. I’m part of the 50 Book Challenge at librarything. I heard the 300 pages a book averaging mechanism is pretty common around the net on such things. If I tried to keep track of page views on the internet, I can’t even fathom how much it would show I read, since I pretty much only read books before bed. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/11 "2007-07-28T19:52:54Z")
counting “re-reads” in which I may skim through the parts I don’t like? About 75-100 FML ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/12 "2007-07-28T19:53:47Z")
2-3 books a week, so 100 a year or so. Love the library! ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/13 "2007-07-28T23:34:52Z")
Wow. I used to read a book every day or two. Lately, I tend to read longer books, further in between. I’m on a Dickens kick, interleaved with an Undset kick; 600-900pp apiece. So, only a handful this year. Plus, you know, movies. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/14 "2007-07-29T02:14:04Z")
I read one a week although The End Of Faith is taking a little longer. Does reading books on line work?": I never tried it. I do go to library a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/15 "2007-07-29T02:22:46Z")
I’m also keeping an Excel file. I’ve categorized it by Author, Genre, Rating and of course Title. The problem is I keep getting behind, so I have about 10 books on the floor waiting for me to write them up. So far also counting those on the floor, I’m up to 49, I think that’s on the low side for me. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/16 "2007-07-29T02:24:34Z")
I started keeping track when we began the fifty-book challenge in 2002. Since then I’ve typically read about a hundred books per year. This doesn’t count comics, picture books, instruction manuals, or textbooks. (I probably skim about twenty textbooks a year in the process of deciding which ones my school should order.) It also doesn’t count the Bible, which I try to read in its entirety each year. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/17 "2007-07-29T12:08:06Z")
I’m going to be boring and go along with the average here: about 100–150 a year. I buy about 10 books a month and occasionally trade some in for store credit, now that I know of at least one used book store down in Ebisu. If I had an English-language library around, I would probably buy slightly fewer books, but read more overall than I do now. I used to love going to the library and research whatever I was interested in that week. It has been a long time since I’ve been able to do that, and access to libraries is probably one of the things I miss most about the US. I’ve got around 450 books at my apartment right now, which is about 1/4 the books I’ve got in storage back in the US. Non-fiction books tend to be pretty expensive; one book could be my reading budget for the month. I do occasionally buy non-fiction, but I have a tendency to read them and trade them in for credit since I rarely re-read informational books. If I refer back to them it’s usually to confirm a remembered fact, to check exact numbers, or to provide a citation. Because of that, I have far fewer non-fiction books at home than fiction in my collection, though I’ve read quite a lot of non-fiction overall. ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Obvious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Obvious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Obvious)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/18 "2007-07-29T13:00:29Z")
I’d say on average around 50 a year. There’ll be days when I read 10 or 11 pages and that’ll be it. Then there’s days where I’ll pick up something like the unabridged edition of The Stand and have it finished that night. It would probably be more than that, but aside from the latest Harry Potter and Anita Blake books, I haven’t bought a new one in years. (Curse living in a small town with no bookstore!) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/19 "2007-07-29T19:02:54Z")
I broke 70 books for 2007 last night. I have some long air travel coming up but probably little time on the actual business trip to read, so my average probably will remain the same. I’ve chosen _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ and _Angela’s Ashes_ for the flight there, on the principle that if I hate either one I have a backup, and I can give them to someone before the return flight with little remorse. On the way home I hope to read such works as _The Vietnamese Woman_ and other not-available-in-the-US English-language books that I assume will be available in Hanoi since they were in Ho Chi Minh City. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489/20 "2007-07-29T23:17:58Z")
I’ve kept track of every book I’ve read since late 1979, so I’ll start with 1980, the first year for which I have complete numbers (I put it all into a FileMaker database a few years ago, so this is easy). I’ve added comments to explain dramatic increases or drops from one year to the next. 1980: 28 1981: 20 ('81-'84: high school) 1982: 10 1983: 13 1984: 6 1985: 61 (I had just discovered a new genre that I enjoyed — mysteries — and found a few authors with good long series. Georges Simenon, H.R.F. Keating.) 1986: 15 (attended college in '86 & '87, so less time for reading for fun) 1987: 15 (started collecting comics, and also turned 21 and started drinking.) 1988: 10 1989: 5 1990: 23 1991: 1 (I finally got a TV that year 😛 ) 1992: 41 (became a Trekker, discovered Star Trek novels) 1993: 13 1994: 21 1995: 17 1996: 41 (got into reading fantasy and found a number or authors I liked) 1997: 51 (more fantasy, and also discovered I enjoyed historical fiction) 1998: 22 1999: 33 2000: 7 (not sure why I read so little in 2000. Oh, wait. I started playing Diablo II.) 2001: 21 2002: 25 2003: 17 2004: 7 (got back into comic collecting, so fewer novels) 2005: 38 (got into Dungeons & Dragons, so more novels again) 2006: 29 2007: 15 so far Counting only the complete years (1980-2006), it works out to about 21.85 books a year. That includes any kind of “book” book, including things like D&D rulebooks (there is a lot of “flavor” text in those books, not just rules), but not comic books. The only “book” books I don’t count are things like textbooks or manuals. For example, I picked up a book on HTML & CSS last year, but it was mainly for use as a reference (since I already know HTML & CSS) and I only skimmed it or used it to look things up and refresh my memory. I would say that I’d read more books if it weren’t for this darned Internet, but it looks like my average _since_ discovering the Internet (26.4 books/year) is higher than the preceding ten years (16.1 books/year). And in any case, I’d say the Internet counts for a whole lot of reading, especially considering time spent on the SDMB. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-do-you-read-per-year/413489.md?page=2)