I put down 13-30, but it’s a wild-ass guess, and invites the question, “What’s a book?” I read a lot of 1000+ page books, and I also tend to get ebooks with all the public-domain works by a classic author. Is each of those 1 book or 30?
About 1/4 of my reading is fast-read fun novels; if that was all I read, it’d be well over 40 books per year. I read Cryptonomicon last week. I count that as a fast-read fun novel, though it’s about 1100 pages, plus I read the appendices and learned how to cypher using solitaire.
I can carry my whole library with me.
I can quickly look up any word or subject that appears (and I do that a lot, both dictionary words and wikipedia chain-lookups!)
I can buy them quickly and conveniently.
They’re even less expensive than paperbacks, especially for classics.
But I admit I miss the benefit of seeing all my books lined up on the bookshelves. When visiting people I don’t yet know very well, one of my favorite things is to loiter by their bookshelves, seeing what kinds of things they read and asking questions about the books I see there. I learn a lot about the people as well as tips on interesting books I hadn’t heard of.
I prefer paperback to hard-cover, since they’re more comfortable to hold (especially in bed, where I do a lot of reading). IMHO, books are to be read, not worshiped, and only a few books are really worthy of hard-cover treatment. It’s the contents I revere, not the vessel.
Well over 50. Though I got an iPad maybe 6 months ago, now a lot of my reading-before-bed time is taken up by looking-at-dog-pictures on Buzzfeed time. Oops.
I prefer paper, but that might be because I’m just not used to eBooks yet, and I have a lot of books I got used to work through. I don’t like paying full price for books.
My mom has a spreadsheet of everything she’s read since the 1980s!
She started writing everything down because she loves English mysteries, and could never remember which ones she’d already read when she’s at the library. Now she has her spreadsheet accessible any time via smartphone. She’s on vaca, or else I’d ask her for her per-year number.
She now reads ebooks almost exclusively. The Kindle is very light and easy to hold, which she appreciates at age 72. Because she can sync it with her phone, she always has her book on her without carrying any extra weight. She syncs with her iPad too but prefers the Kindle at home because it’s lighter.
I tried to lend her a book recently, and she looked at me like I was crazy and said “a PAPER book???” Kids today, I’m tellin’ ya.
The 1000+ page book is one book. Each of the classic author’s books are one book, even if they’re collected in one “volume.”
That’s exactly why I use Goodreads. I can’t remember which of the books in various series I have or haven’t read. “Did I read this one or just see it on the shelf and remember the title?”
So now I keep track on Goodreads, download from the library, and read on my kindle. Technology is the best.
I think I’ve done five books in the last five weeks, but that includes audiobooks I listen to while walking the dog. The dog and I go out for an hour and a quarter a day, so I can get thru about a reasonably-sized book every week. I also read myself to sleep most nights, so I got thru three books on paper as well. I don’t own a Kindle.
I used to say that I’d like to do nothing but read, but actually I find that I enjoy reading more when I’m sneaking time to do it. To quote Jerome K. Jerome, “I like idling when I ought not to be idling; not when it is the only thing I have to do.” On a lazy Sunday afternoon I get restless trying to read, but on a weeknight I will stay up reading way past my bedtime.
I read about two books a week. I’ve been tracking and cataloging on Goodreads since 2007; it’s a strangely satisfying activity. Mostly paper books still, but I do like my kindle.
Marriage and grad school didn’t slow down my reading, but parenthood did - other than reading to my son, of course. Does that count? Right now, at bedtime, we’re working our way through the Magic Treehouse series.
I devour books. I have a library with over a thousand dead tree books. SWMBO was overjoyed when we got Kindles, because I rarely buy a dead tree book any more. And that Kindle is with me everywhere; if I’ve got 5 minutes, I’m reading.
About 50, although based on my Goodreads stats for this year I’m on track for over 70. I’m 43, and I will read whatever format is handy (Kindle or paper). I rely heavily on the library for books, so it largely depends on the most available format for any given book. If the book is heavily in demand, I will try and check out the Kindle format since e-book holds are free, but paper book holds are $1.
I’ve been dwelling on this thread throughout the day. First of all, I breezed past the additional questions in the OP.
I didn’t realize until right this minute that I’m a Gen Xer. I feel as if all the “how to market to Generation X or Y” information I’ve listened to at business seminars was geared towards people ten or so years younger than I am. (I turn 46 later this year.)
It’s always been remarked in our family that my mom was born in the first “official” year of the Baby Boom, and my sister in the last. I just asked the internet if there’s a generation between Boomers and GenX and learned of “Generation Jones” which actually seems to be a subset of Boomers, as the years given intersect.
But I digress. I’m 45, and have only embraced electronic and audio books over the last 18 months or so. Our county library system is top notch. I can obtain vast amounts of literature any time of the day or night wirelessly on my phone. And no fines! I haven’t built up my own collection of eBooks, other than some public domain items.
How many books I read per week/month/year varies quite a bit depending on what I’m reading. I’ll burn through YA novels, or series mysteries, or hacky Jane Austen fanfic books (don’t judge me!) at a mighty clip, but dense literary prose slows my roll. So some weeks it’s 3 books, and others it’s .04. And some, like last week when season 2 of Orange is the New Black became available it is, to my shame, zero. That is what I want to change. No more zero weeks.
And Dung Beetle, I meant for you to have all the credit.
I clicked 0-5 not because I don’t read but because I don’t do it for entertainment. I am currently reading my old Encyclopedia Britannica cover to cover. I get about five vol. a year and read about 10 other books a year. All nonfiction. I liken it to going to the gym don’t like doing it but like the results. I don’t like reading(as an act) but like to learn things.
The internet has replaced the majority of my need to read books but even when I did read on a regular basis I suspect I rarely got through 20 at most, probably more like one a month, in any given year.
She’s on vaca, or else I’d ask her for her per-year number.