Average Books Read Over Lifetime

[Joybells]

How are you at the maths of this? In 13 years I gathered a library that measured 240ft of shelving. How many books to a foot? I've been reading for 60 years. Does that make 1,110 feet of books that I've read?

[jehane]

LOL, only if the following assumptions are true:
1. In the 13 years of collecting, you read *all* and *only* the books you collected; *and*
2. Your reading rate across the 13 years of collecting was the same as the reading rate across the total 60 years of reading.

I have no idea how many books to a foot - I am post-imperial!

[orlok]

...and how thick the covers are...

[BoiseShan]

Shouldn't that be "fewer" than 100 books?

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by Joybells

How are you at the maths of this? In 13 years I gathered a library that measured 240ft of shelving. How many books to a foot? I've been reading for 60 years. Does that make 1,110 feet of books that I've read?

Reminds me of a catalogue I got last year for an antiques sale in Germany - one of the star lots was a complete "decorative library, comprising mainly 18th and 19th century editions " ! Estimates were certainly in the very high euros.......
I can't remember the dimensions given, but it looked around 20-30 feet long and 6-8 shelves high - with a few loose volumes artfully piled on the floor.

I presume the shelving came with it...............

[ A friend in the "old book trade", as he calls it, has sold quite a few feet of "decorative leather" to big up a few wannabe "stately houses"... ]

Rough math for the above comes to around 160-200 feet of books [8 x 20'ish].
So if joybells is talking 240 feet bookcase width, then he has 5-shelf bookcases.
And a big room......

I think....
and if they're the ones he's kept, how many did he chuck !?

[Pinecone]

For interest, I just look at the US literacy rates.

One issue is determining what you mean by literacy.

One study showed the 21 - 24% of Americans were not "able to locate information in text."

Another study showed that 40% were at basic or below basic skills in Prose, Document, and Quantitative skills.

Another reports that only about 15% are fully literate (reading at the college undergraduate level). The "average" American reads at the th or 8th grade level.

Another says that 1 in 7 (14) cannot read anything more challenging than a child's picture book.

Kind of a sorry state. And makes me wonder even more about our education system.

[ProfCrash]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...-reading_N.htm

The article is from 2007 but I have had heard similar numbers every year. 25% of the population did not read one book in 2007.

"The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven."

When you include the 25% who did not read anything, that average is going to fall. Half the respondents read fewer then 4 books in 2007.

So I can see where it is possible that many people will not read 100 books in their life time.

My husband is likely to be one of them, he has not picked up a book this year.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

My husband is likely to be one of them, he has not picked up a book this year.

Grounds for divorce...?

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

For interest, I just look at the US literacy rates.

One issue is determining what you mean by literacy.

One study showed the 21 - 24% of Americans were not "able to locate information in text."

Another study showed that 40% were at basic or below basic skills in Prose, Document, and Quantitative skills.

Another reports that only about 15% are fully literate (reading at the college undergraduate level). The "average" American reads at the th or 8th grade level.

Another says that 1 in 7 (14) cannot read anything more challenging than a child's picture book.

Kind of a sorry state. And makes me wonder even more about our education system.

that just made me nauseas. i can't fathom how one can get through life being illiterate or borderline illiterate.

you'd figure with the internet and all that it would be somewhat better.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by orlok

Grounds for divorce...?

I knew this about him before we got married. He has other redeeming qualities.

[speakingtohe]

Kind of a sorry state. And makes me wonder even more about our education system

A lot of other factors besides the education system. I doubt very much if the school system has played a big role in encouraging people who like to read.

It has AfAIK been overall concerned with preparing people for the workforce.

Reading for enjoyment or self edification does not prepare one to work as a sales clerk or a truck driver, although of course many truck drivers and sales clerks do read for enjoyment and self edification.

Many people become functional readers through pursuing another goal, such as deciphering the TV guide or reading about their favorite celebrities in the tabloids. Blogs and facebook/twitter are also having an effect in this area.

Still many people don't seem to want to read books or even newspapers.

They sit in a restaurant, or on a bus (for days sometimes) without a book or a paper or an ipod/smartphone/laptop or any outside stimulous except their inner thoughts. In general they seem just fine with that.

To each his own I guess

Helen

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by jehane

I have no idea how many books to a foot - I am post-imperial!

I dunno either, but I remember a bookstore at the mall that used to have "books by the inch" sales, where books were something like 98 cents per inch of thickness, and I found some really good deals there! Though, this was something like 20 years ago.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

They sit in a restaurant, or on a bus (for days sometimes) without a book or a paper or an ipod/smartphone/laptop or any outside stimulous except their inner thoughts. In general they seem just fine with that.

Working late today... rode my bike over to get some dinner, got off and looked in my bag... "Oh man, I forgot my Kindle at work!!!" Oh well, I'll read on my phone... reach for my waist and feel an empty case... that was the LONGEST wait I've ever experienced. :-)

[Joybells]

LOL at the replies to my answer about feet of books.

I had a set of six shelf bookcases down the length of a long hall - a lovely use for a usually wasted space.

I read every one of those books during the 13 years I had them, and others, of course, so that would skew the total, wouldn't it? But I've been a pretty steady reader all my life - reading posters, bus tickets, cereal packets, anything that was within line of sight. How many books would that equal?

My eyesight is going now, so I'm looking forward to the bigger fonts in my Kobo Touch, if it ever arrives from Borders in USA. I would have thought it would arrive last week.

[afa]

Originally Posted by BoiseShan

Shouldn't that be "fewer" than 100 books?

An interesting point. I'm not sure whether it should be. From what I understand, fewer is used when referring to an indeterminate amount of objects. So if we remove the '100' from the sentence, then it fits, i.e. "People in 2011 read fewer books than in 2001," or something like that.

Since we are mentioning a specific count, however, I think using less is acceptable.

Of course, I could be wrong. I am by no means an expert on grammar. I would be interested, though, for someone to chime in on this.