Split book records

[ownedbycats]

45% of my collection (over half, if you exclude the physical books) is fanfiction, which is free and often higher-quality than the published stuff.

[DNSB]

Due to a PM I received, I decided to post this message with what @Rellwood stated in her message quoted below and what shows in her public profile:

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Also, I am on Social Security for disablity and live off of $1000 a month. Reading is my only hobby and yeah, glass houses. Do you have pirated tv, movies or music? I don't. The only thing I have is books. I pretty much dont' even read them, I just keep them in my library like a dragon hoards gold. I MAY read them, but mostly they take up space. My previous habits were if I read a single book by a new author and really loved it, I used to go and get EVERY book by them or EVERY book in the series, but what ends up happening is I would get the books and end up not reading them because I ended up not likeing the next book. This is the bulk of my collection.

About Rellwood

Biography
I am a full time college student at California State University, Fullerton. I have been reading an average of 300 books a year for the past 4 years. I treat my library like a hobby that takes all my time.
Location
Fullerton, California
Interests
Reading, cooking, organizing and managing my library, watching Roku, Stalking authors on Goodreads and Amazon.
Occupation
Student, BS in The Human Services, Substance Abuse track. Graduate May 2017
E-Book Device
Kobo Aura HD (1) PW3 (4) PW3 2019 new edition (1)
Gender
Female

Graduation in 2017 would suggest an likely age in 2017 of 21-22 (depend if any gap years were taken) I vaguely seem to remember that in the USA, Social Security for Disability requires that you have worked long enough and paid into Social Security. Otherwise, you might qualify for Supplemental Security income payments. Nit-picking, I know. Given that graduation was supposed to be in 2017, and the $783 SSI payment plus a California supplement of $160.72 per month (2020 numbers) which I suspect is the source for the $1000 per month Social Security for disability mentioned is stated to be the only income three years after that date, it would appear that a bachelor's degree still suffers from the same issue it's had for years—it's only purpose was keeping someone out of the job market for 4 years. Well, it does have another use but the parchment is really too stiff to do a good job.

I suppose I could have replied to the PM I received complaining about my "elder abuse" in a PM but it is fairly evident to me that the only elder abuse was in the message I received.

[BetterRed]

@DNSB - dunno about there, but here we have mature age students. I often see reports of 70+ year OAP freshers in the magazine for oldies that 'they' insist on stuffing into my PO Box. I'm wondering if any of them ever earn an income sufficient to pay back their HECS debt.

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@DNSB - dunno about there, but here we have mature age students. I often see reports of 70+ year OAP freshers in the magazine for oldies that 'they' insist on stuffing into my PO Box. I'm wondering if any of them ever earn an income sufficient to pay back their HECS debt.

BR

Some of the items in the profile such as reading 300 books per year for the last 4 years don't fit the the idea of a mature student. Going by my record, it would have been 300 books per year for the last 5 decades.

As for mature students, I have one friend who graduated from UBC with a degree in microbiology at the age of 64. She had spent 1.5 years at university in the 70's and one of her lifelong regrets was that she had not finished her degree. Not that she's going to put it to much use but her family enjoyed see her and one of her grandchildren graduating in the same ceremony.

Oddly she claimed that hardest part of the process was convincing the university that she was one of the people who deserved a spot. The mature student program is very competitive.

[Quoth]

You might read 200 to 300 novellas a year if a fast reader and not doing much else. Not 120K word novels.

[ownedbycats]

I'm a pretty quick reader. If a novel catches my interest enough I can get through it in a matter of hours. Most of them are spread out over a few days though, especially if it's a physical book (hand tremours sometimes make it difficult to hold books steady ).

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You might read 200 to 300 novellas a year if a fast reader and not doing much else. Not 120K word novels.

Hmmm... reading for 5 hours per day, I could plow through 2 120K word novels plus time for a few short stories. Going by one of my Kobo Reading Life numbers (see non-animated image), I could have read ~94 120K word novels in that month (just over 3 per day). Keep that up for a full year and I would hit ~1127 120K word novels in a year. Admittedly that month was over my average for the last year of ~160 hours per month.

I have generally seen words counts on novels clocking in between 50,000 and 110,000 words with the average in the 82,000 word range so a 120K word novel is getting on the longer side. Here I have to except my science fiction/fantasy collection where the average length for newer books seems to be hitting 90,000-120,000 words. SF&F readers like epic stories that take more words to tell? We've been conditioned by stories such as Lord of the Rings to expect longer books?

I will admit that when it comes to reading speed, I am an outlier.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I will admit that when it comes to reading speed, I am an outlier.

So your forum avatar is an accurate portrait of you?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

So your forum avatar is an accurate portrait of you?

Snicker. The stack of books is now on my ereaders though I still have a few thousand pbooks. I used to take 2 suitcases on trips, a small one for clothes and other non-essentials and a large one for the books.

[paulfiera]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I used to take 2 suitcases on trips, a small one for clothes and other non-essentials and a large one for the books.

Ah, those days. I used to do almost the same when going on vacation but somehow I always ended up buying more books at the destination. Long warm nights, excellent wine and a lot of reading.

I remember also going to the local bars in the Greek islands, where they usually had a shelf - or a couple - where you could pick up a book others had left and drop one of your own. Did that a lot. The books I dropped were usually light summer reading, Dan Brown and stuff (some people like them). But I must admit I never left an Ellroy or a Lehane behind. These came back with me

Nowadays, I couldn't travel without my two Kobos

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I have generally seen words counts on novels clocking in between 50,000 and 110,000 words with the average in the 82,000 word range so a 120K word novel is getting on the longer side. Here I have to except my science fiction/fantasy collection where the average length for newer books seems to be hitting 90,000-120,000 words. SF&F readers like epic stories that take more words to tell? We've been conditioned by stories such as Lord of the Rings to expect longer books?

I will admit that when it comes to reading speed, I am an outlier.

Yes, 45K to 100K is fine really.

Obviously you only eat, sleep, read and post here.
Sounds good.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Obviously you only eat, sleep, read and post here.

Maybe if he's using one of those brain-machine interfaces they were talking about on the news, he could stop wasting time with the first two.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, 45K to 100K is fine really.

Obviously you only eat, sleep, read and post here.
Sounds good.

Not quite right. I have more time now since hockey and CFL football are not available for viewing though I will admit to getting a few pages in during the commercial breaks when they were on the air. Add in the time saved by working from home 3-4 days per week and that I don't seem to need as much sleep as when I was younger so that makes a couple of extra hours per day available for reading.