# Poll: How many books have you read so far in your life? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747 "2005-11-19T01:24:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/21 "2005-11-19T02:48:30Z")
Thousands as well. People who say “I don’t read” with pride frighten me. :eek: ☹ ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/22 "2005-11-19T02:50:03Z")
I’ve wondered before how many books I’ve read. I know I’d be E, but I wonder how many on top of that. We have a few thousand books in the house. Eep. It sounds bad when I write it like that, like an excessive number of books. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/23 "2005-11-19T02:53:03Z")
Age might be relevant here. I’m E to the E 😃 – but I’m 50 years old, learned to read when I was 4, and have been reading busily ever since. Plus, of course, this board skews the results big time. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/24 "2005-11-19T02:53:09Z")
Now I feel like I hardly read at all, compared to you folks. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/25 "2005-11-19T02:53:15Z")
If anyone wants to kill a huge amount of time, go to [www.iblist.com](http://www.iblist.com) and rate all the books you can remember. They won’t have everything, especially if, like me, you read mysteries. I’m only up to 113. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/26 "2005-11-19T02:55:02Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > … an excessive number of books. These are all English words, but put together like that? They just don’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/27 "2005-11-19T03:00:14Z")
> [@This Year's Model](#): > > These are all English words, but put together like that? They just don’t make sense. Well, yeah. I just felt like a big nerd in a room full of big nerds. I do have a life! Really! It’s around here somewhere, probably under a pile of books. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/28 "2005-11-19T03:06:58Z")
You can have too many books? I think my answer is E, too. We own at least four hundred books (in a small apartment!), and I’ve been an avid library-goer since I was six. That’s twenty-one years. A while back I tried to list everything I could remember reading, and I got about five hundred. Those were the ones that stuck out in my memory. I re-read constantly, so I’m always reading _something_, but I probably only read one or two new books a week. I work in a bookstore, too, which is an endless source of temptation and delight. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/29 "2005-11-19T03:20:27Z")
Definitely E. Hell, I may be way past Z and heading into the Greek alphabet by now. I love to read. I must read. Telling me I can’t read is like telling me to stop breathing. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/30 "2005-11-19T03:30:00Z")
I think I hit 1,000 in the third grade. I can’t imagine how many books I’ve read, total, in my life. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/31 "2005-11-19T03:30:14Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Many, many years ago I was watching “Family Feud” and the question was, “How many books does the average American home have?” > > The number one answer of 100 people surveyed was: twenty-five. > > 25! > > In an entire home. Isn’t that just awful? That makes the Baby Barnes & Noble cry. As for the OP: I’d have to say somewhere between D & E. I own a couple of hundred books. I have a bunch in boxes, waiting for shelving. Gotta think about this one. Have I read 1,000 books? I bet it’s pretty close. I always have at least one book going, usually two. As **Zabali\_Clawbane** said, people who are proud of the fact that they never read are just downright scary. It’s scary to go into someone’s home and not see any books _anywhere_ - or to see great built-in bookshelves - covered with knickknacks and photos and junk, but no books. I scout out the thrift stores and used books stores for a lot of my book purchases - I buy some new, but I’ve gotten a lot secondhand. The library has some great sales, too. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/32 "2005-11-19T03:33:55Z")
E. Thousands. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/33 "2005-11-19T03:35:32Z")
It feels like I’ve read E) in the current school year alone. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/34 "2005-11-19T03:38:17Z")
Over my whole life? E, surely. I can’t give an exact number, I’ve never kept track. As to the total book count side topic that’s sprung up, you’re in luck: I’ve been renovating my library (doing the whole purpose-built room with the built-in shelves and stuff) and started a catalogue of its contents (before I worked under the “that sounds familiar–I think the book is somewhere in this area–it was green, right?” system). There are precisely 1885. Not all of them are novels or over a hundred pages, but a good 80% are both. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/35 "2005-11-19T03:40:44Z")
E. 3000 - 4000. At a guess. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/36 "2005-11-19T03:41:37Z")
I know I’ve read several hundred books, possibly over a thousand, but I haven’t been keeping count. I have over a hundred books on my shelves and in boxes, but I may have to thin out the herd when I move, because they’re a pain to lug around. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/37 "2005-11-19T03:49:19Z")
E++. I’d probably read more than 700 before I hit double digits. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/38 "2005-11-19T03:51:58Z")
> [@cazzle](#): > > At a minimum, I’ve read over a thousand books. That’s assuming 1 book a week since I was five. Okay, I’ll go with this formula. I know some times it was more than one book a week, but sometimes it was less. Anyway, one book a week, since I was… say, seven (that’s about when I remember starting to really read a lot - _Pippi Longstocking, Nancy Drews_), my count is **1,768.** :eek: Holy cow! (I’ll be 41 next week, so going with 34 years, 52 weeks in a year, 1,768 books.) ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/39 "2005-11-19T03:53:13Z")
I probably only read a book a week. Probably somewhere between 1000 and 1500. Sometimes I read 2 or 3 books in a week but some weeks I don’t even read if I’m too busy. I’ve probably started about 3000 though. I’ve also probably listened to about 200 unabridged audiobooks in my life too. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747/40 "2005-11-19T03:58:19Z")
Is anyone else having a ‘number of gay sex partners in San Francisco’ moment? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-many-books-have-you-read-so-far-in-your-life/331747.md?page=3)