How many books do you read?

[joepag3]

i try to read 2-3 books a week....

[msundman]

None, I just fight with e-book conversion software that keeps showing me the finger!

[Colt]

Like some of you, I go through bursts of reading voraciously fast and then slower periods where I just enjoy a good (or not so good book currently) before my interest peaks in something again and... Bam! I'm off like a road runner.

Question: Is there some online way to test your reading speed? I've always been curious how fast I actually read. I was stunned when I went in for an application and they put me on a professional typing speed program: 135 words per minute with 95% accuracy. I wasn't sure if that was good enough for the job and told the woman so when she came back, she just stared at me. Now I feel annoyed since most people think I'm joking when I give those numbers. - Colt

[Andanzas]

So far I've read 58 books this year, most of them in English (my reading speed in English is considerably slower than in Spanish). I probably wouldn't read this many books if I lived in a place where I had friends.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Colt

Question: Is there some online way to test your reading speed? I've always been curious how fast I actually read.

Good question. I haven't seen one. (But then, I haven't looked.)

The last time I was checked, many years back, I read 750-800 words/minute with good comprehension.

I suspect my speed is actually higher for some fiction, and slower for non-fiction and reference stuff where I have to slow down to be sure I've caught the meaning.

My S.O. reads about twice as fast as I do, and never took a speed reading class. Then again, language comes naturally to here: she was once somewhat fluent in a dozen languages. These days, she's fluent in conversational Spanish and reads French well if it contains cooking terms.

I was stunned when I went in for an application and they put me on a professional typing speed program: 135 words per minute with 95% accuracy. I wasn't sure if that was good enough for the job and told the woman so when she came back, she just stared at me. Now I feel annoyed since most people think I'm joking when I give those numbers. - Colt

That's very fast. The last I knew, a good professional typist speed was 80WPM.

The late Isaac Asimov was a 120WPM typist, and was capable of turning out submission copy first draft. That might have something to do with the number of books he published...
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

A simple question: On average, how many books do you read in a year?

I've never tried to count it. I'd have to say over 40, but beyond that can't estimate. I try to do a couple a week.

Of course, I long ago came to the conclusion that buying books and reading them were seperate and distinct pleasures, so I neededn't feel guilty about buying six and having time to read two...

(Yes, it's a sophistry, but it works for me.)

Those who see my library tend to say "Wow! How many of those books have you read?", and the answer is "About half of them." Of course, a lot are reference works you don't exactly sit and read cover to cover.
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Dennis

[Patricia]

I read at least two books a week, sometimes three or four.

[cherdman]

10-15 books a year. I tend to read big books and, like a nice porterhouse, savor my reading.

[CommanderROR]

I'd estimate ma throughput at about 20-30 a year. Most of those have a lot of pages so it takes me about 2 weeks of "spare-time-reading" to get through them. I I read paper or STAReBOOK I'm a lot faster than when I read Iliad, but I've come to love the ease-of-use of the mobipocket format on the Iliad so I tend to go with the Iliad again now most of the time and take the disadvantages as acceptable if annoying side-effects.
If it' a really good year with lots of good new books, then my book consumption goes up of course...

[mandochild]

I am also a very slow reader because I love to immerse myself and take my time. I'd average between 30 - 60 books per year (the number has gone down since I started getting addicted to TRYING to learn to play a couple of instruments as well...). As for ebooks, I'd say the average is currently under 5 per year. I'll see what happens when e-ink hits Australia properly!!

Colt - your typing speeds are Hansard/court room levels - I am SO jealous!

[Azayzel]

I'll be lucky to clear 5 a month, so that's about 60. There for a while I was keeping tabs on how long it took me to read a book, what the book was about, the writing style, my thoughts, etc., though the main point was to gauge how long it took me to read them and why. I put it down about 8 months into it, but I've picked up the practice again.

One thing that's kinda killing my reading time lately is I've been playing too much PSP in my spare time, I had to put a limit that I wouldn't play it after 10:00pm so i could get back into reading (not to mention it was making my brain too active and I wouldn't want to go to sleep). Chalk one up to game systems for decreasing the amount of reading I've been doing, yikes!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Azayzel

One thing that's kinda killing my reading time lately is I've been playing too much PSP in my spare time, I had to put a limit that I wouldn't play it after 10:00pm so i could get back into reading (not to mention it was making my brain too active and I wouldn't want to go to sleep). Chalk one up to game systems for decreasing the amount of reading I've been doing, yikes!

Reading competes for the user's discretionary time as well as their money. It's a "foreground" activity. You can read a book, or play a game, or watch TV, or...
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Dennis

[BuddyBoy]

Two or Three a week, usually. Sometimes only one if it's a huge honker.

[bruceathome]

2 or 3 books a week for me too.

[kusmi]

I mostly read technical magazines or just sections out of tech-books, but I have to admit, I hardly read "real" books :-) It's a pitty...

But I guess with electronic reading, just the definition, what a book is, becomes blurred! Suddenly even a blog I continually read, becomes a book, does it?