How many books do you read per year?

[rhadin]

Your poll didn't differentiate between reading for pleasure and reading for work. For work, I read 40-50 books, sometimes more, every year. These books range in size from 150 printed pages to 2,500 printed pages, with most coming in between 200 and 300 printed pages. (It's a tough job being an editor and having to do so much reading .)

[EDIT: I missed your sentence that said excluding work -- sorry about that .]

For pleasure, I read between 100 and 150 books a year. Again the number of pages varies. I am not sure how to count the pages for you for the books I read on my Sony 505, but the books I read on it are generally read in 2 to 3 days. The other books I read for pleasure are hardcover books, which take longer, primarily because they are what I read beore going to sleep. They vary in length from 350 to 2,000 pages, with most (95%) falling in the 400- to 500-page range.

However, this can be a bit misleading. Of my pleasure reading, probably 75% is done on the Sony 505 and consists of pure entertainment books, that is books that are pleasurable to read but then can be forgotten. Over the years, I have found that pure entertainment books can be read fairly quickly whereas books from which I wish to retain knowledge require a slower and more analytical reading style.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by krisk

hmmmm I guess I could go to amazon and count my purchases. . . .

Unfortunately, counting the books I purchased would skew my numbers considerably. I was asked a few weeks ago by a friend how many books I had purchased last year, so I checked -- I purchased 435 books in 2008, e and p combined, to which needs to be added 72 free books that I downloaded. Needless to say, I have a huge stack of yet-to-be-read books, again both e and p.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Unfortunately, counting the books I purchased would skew my numbers considerably. I was asked a few weeks ago by a friend how many books I had purchased last year, so I checked -- I purchased 435 books in 2008, e and p combined, to which needs to be added 72 free books that I downloaded. Needless to say, I have a huge stack of yet-to-be-read books, again both e and p.

i don't even want to check how many books i've bought / downloaded.


ravenne, something tells me the results of a poll about reading on a forum called "mobileread" will be somewhat skewed towards the higher numbers.

[mtravellerh]

I read about 100 books per year, mostly fiction, philosophy, psychology and travel, at about average size. And no, my reading habits have not been disturbed by MR. But then again I have lots of time on my hands and apart from one or two movies a week I don't watch TV. So that may explain a lot!

[Catire]

I used to read about 25-26 books a year when i lived in the states but now that i moved back home i read like maybe 12-15 since i have to be more selective or what i read because i cant buy any book that i might like.

[pdurrant]

I voted for over 50, but it's probably over 100. And yes, full-size novels, or full magazines (Analog, F&SF, Asimov's).

Of course, I didn't read so many before I got into ebooks.

Hmm.. I should be able to check. I currently have 1488 ebooks in my ebook library, (excluding the large number of public domain classics I've downloaded from here). Now 293 of those are in my "to be read" folder, so that leaves 1195. And again, some of those I've bought because I've read the book in paper. Not more than fifty I'd say, but let's call it 95 to make it round numbers.

OK, so that's 1100 books since I started buying ebooks at the start of 2002. Umm.. 7.5 years, so say 140 books a year. Goodness.

Of course, that means my "to be read" list is going to last me until mid 2011. I must resist the latest fictionwise sale!

[columbus]

Seems my average is a book every 10 days or so, more since I got the Sony.

Need to read faster to make any impression on my 'to read' list.

[Moejoe]

I just realised that no matter how many books I read, there'll still be some I never get to read! *shudder* That's a horrible, spine-tingling thought right there.

[kelly1010]

Last Year I read 73 books, all of which were around 300-500 pages. This year my goal is to exceed that and so far I have FINISHED 32 books (reading #33 and 34 right now)

[Verencat]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I just realised that no matter how many books I read, there'll still be some I never get to read! *shudder* That's a horrible, spine-tingling thought right there.

Not aloud to say such a thing!

[Amalthia]

I read a lot of fan fiction and many of them are novel length...and I do read a few books as well.

[Moejoe]

I haven't counted this year, and I really should keep it updated on Goodreads, but I think I read more now with the 505 than I did before that. I'm averaging about 3-4 a week (novel-length) plus a smattering of short stories and lots more poetry

[pdurrant]

Yes, it's a terrible thought. Given current medical treatments, I might reach ninety if I'm lucky. At my current rate, that's about 6,000 books.

And that's an upper bound..... sigh.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I just realised that no matter how many books I read, there'll still be some I never get to read! *shudder* That's a horrible, spine-tingling thought right there.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes, it's a terrible thought. Given current medical treatments, I might reach ninety if I'm lucky. At my current rate, that's about 6,000 books.

And that's an upper bound..... sigh.

And what's even more worrying is... how many of those 6,000 will actually be worthy of the time devoted to them? I really should stop thinking about these kind of things.

[pdurrant]

I did recently actually stop reading a book half way through because I wasn't enjoying it. Astonishing behaviour.

The other thing that occurred to me is that a lifetime supply of books (150 books per year * 100 years = 15,000 books) can be easily fitted on the larger SDHC cards that are now available. They'd almost certainly fit in the 16GB ones, but if not, there are now 32GB ones....

Originally Posted by Moejoe

And what's even more worrying is... how many of those 6,000 will actually be worthy of the time devoted to them? I really should stop thinking about these kind of things.