E many times over. Figuring 4 books a week since I was 5 (I learned to read at 4, but didn’t really start reading books that meet the poll criteria until I was in the first grade), I came up with 8,320. That’s a low estimate – there have been vast periods in my life when I read a book a day or more. And, other than 2 months in Boot Camp, there has never been a period when I’ve read fewer than 3 books a week. However, I’m a huge re-reader, so not all of those weekly books were first-reads. In my house right now, I have 1500 books (rough count). But I clean out my bookshelves every 2 or 3 years – I’ve probably owned twice that many or more if you count every single book I’ve ever owned ever.
My husband, on the other hand, of his own volition (not books for school or work) read maybe 25 books. And most of those were how-to books for some project or other. But I still like him.
Obviously, we wouldn’t be reading if we had anything better to do. They’re just trying to help us out. On the bright side, people who do that are self-identifying as the first ones up against the wall.
I couldn’t tell you the last week in my life when I didn’t buy at least one book. Salvation Army, Goodwill, Library Book Sales and NYC’s Great Strand Bookstore–I hit them all.
I’ve read at least 3 books a week since I was four years old. That comes to over 7,000 books. And it’s probably closer to 10,000.
I’d have to say several thousand, hard to get a handle on. There have been periods when I devoured books and other times when I probably only read one every month or so. I own 3-4 hundred hardcovers, about 80% novels, then I’ve probably got 5-6 hundred paperbacks plus 3-4 hundred audio books. I love to escape into a book and finishing one is sweet sorrow.
Sometimes I keep track of every book I read, and for two years running I was right around 200 books per year. And I’m 39. Lately I probably only read half as many books per year as I did at that time.
I don’t like having them hanging around, cluttering up my house, though. I try to divest myself of books periodically. Nowadays I only have four bookcases, and there is even some extra room leftover in them for knickknacks. I have a library card and a subscription to booksfree.com,* and I’m sure I save oodles of money.
*Despite its name, booksfree.com is not a free service.
I have had days where I read a couple of books. My all time high was a icy weekend where I read all of the Narnia books and had them back to the library on Sunday in addition to the book I finished on Friday and the one I started Sunday night. So seven books in 2 days. Children’s books so they went faster than a regular book but still.
I figure based on 4 books a year since I was 8 (I remember reading at tthat age and checking out books fromt he school library a huge stack at a time) I have read over 8000 books.
Askia, what is a substantive book? If you come to my house and see a bunch of romance novels am I out of the running? How about Murder mysteries? Children’s books? ( I quite disliked the Lemony Snicket book I read though). I read other stuff but mostly mysteries, novels, romances, mysteries, a little SF and Fantasy. I have a family member who does not consider those types of books to be worth reading. For Christmas I am thinking of giving him the book " The Man Who Knows Everything" so he will know he has company.
Silver Fire. This is probrably more my father’s influence than anything, but… yeah. To paraphrase him: “Don’t you give me idiot grandchildren.”
adhemar. If I came over to your house and saw Harlequin romances and practically nothing else, it’d raise a red flag, definitely. If I came over and saw nothing but mass market paperbacks by the likes of Stephen King or or religious books, it’d raise a red flag. The same reaction I’d expect if a woman came over and saw nothing but my superhero comics collection and didn’t see my reference library, my books on black and African history, fine art books, mystery series, omnibuses by fiction authors, journalism books, poetry collections, plays collections, children’s books and essays, etc. Or my Cecil Adams or Charles Panati.
I will broadly and slipperily define a substantive book as something in the broad territory of the award-winning, the genre-defining and genre-expanding-- sometimes difficult works by writers with a flair for language, dialogue or truly insightful voices or perspectives. Yeah, that includes the unfairly disparaged category of illustrated children’s books. I used to teach kindergarten. What’s wrong with picture books? Theodore Geisel was a damned genius.
In the past two weeks I have read six books - That’s pretty standard for the course. There have been times when I have read more and a few time I have read less.
Reading is important to me. I write for a living, and as Hemingway said, a person can’t expect to be a writer if he doesn’t read.
When I was in Vietnam, I would seldom go out (on patrol or whatever) without two or three books in my pockets. In a “hurry up and wait” existance like the military was at that time it was the only way to survive mentally (at least for me). It garnered me the nickname of “The Professor.”
Later, when I was in the Peace Corps, it gave me a chance to exercise my brain in a very primitive society. I was going through over a book a day in those days.
Oh, I have also made a quick judgement on a guy with what books he owns. Come on, people make lighter judgements, don’t they? Reading is one of my most important activities. I don’t wanna hear:
“I don’t like to read.”
“I don’t like to read…fiction.”
“Sci-fi & fantasy are escapist fantasies. I prefer to live in the real world.”
My SO reads much less than me, but he goes for quality, while I go for quantity first, and then quality.
I was a decently voracious reader as a child, but tragically I got sidetracked by television and computer games and other sinister things during the teenage years, and only returned to serious reading at age nineteen. Since then I’ve gone through between fifty and a hundred books per year, which puts me at somehwere around five hundred during my lifetime.
But ask me again in ten years, and then I’ll give you a number I can be proud of.
