If you had to estimate, roughly how many books do you read a year/month?

[astrum]

Right now, I'm aiming to read 70 to 80 books per year, which amounts to roughly 6 to 7 books a month.

I choose books from a variety of genres--biographies, history books, self-help books, literature, science books, etc. I read way more non-fiction than fiction. My motivation is to better understand the world, improve my socio-economic station, gain more skill sets, and stimulate my imagination, among others.

I don't really have people around me whom I ask questions or who can advise me--so I know that I have to teach myself a lot of things. Hence, my love of books and the Internet.

What about you?

[YesNo]

I don't know how many books I read in a year, but I suspect I read a lot, say 50?. I rarely finish a book the way one would expect to finish a movie one has started. I could easily finish 300 movies a year. What happens is I just get tired of it or I read a post that gets me interested in something else. There are also some books that I'll read multiple times, at least sections of them usually over periods of months.

[Scheherazade]

Between 40 and 50. Even though it has been my ambition to read a book / a week since childhood, I can rarely achieve that. Sometimes I read 2-3 books a week and then suddenly find myself restless, unable to concentrate on anything for long.

[The Comedian]

I'd say that I read probably 25-35 books a year -- really depends on the length of the various books that I read and their difficulty.

[papayahed]

I keep a spreadsheet:

Year Books Read
2004 10
2005 18
2006 13
2007 24
2008 18
2009 20
2010 22
2011 6
2012 7
2013 7
2014 4


I can also break it down by month

[free]

Papaya, there has been a sudden decline of the book numbers in the last four years. You've got tired or you've found something better to do? :)

I think that I read cca 50 per year. Some books I read longer than a month because they need more concentration and time to understand and they are thick, too. If a book is like this, I don't read it instantly. I put it aside, read somethin else, like novels, and then I return to it again. I like, beside literature, to read history, philosophy and science.

[L.M. The Third]

You people are comforting. Sometimes I feel like I'm such a slow, un-dedicated reader. Last year I read 53 books, and fulfilled my goal to read a book a week. (A few of them I finished off as audiobooks though, so I almost feel guilty about that.) This year I'm trying for about 70, or one every five days. However, I'm trying to concentrate more on the number of pages read than the number of books completed so that if I don't want to finish a book I won't feel so "behind" on my great reading plan. Reading is, of course, my chief hobby, but another reason I try to read a lot regularly is so that as a relatively slow reader I won't be overwhelmed by reading requirement as an English major or (eventually) grad student.

[papayahed]

Papaya, there has been a sudden decline of the book numbers in the last four years. You've got tired or you've found something better to do? :)



I think I was a little tired of reading, I am however on an upswing. I've read just as many books in 5 months than I did in all of last year. (I'm currently at 7 for 2014)

[RobbyA]

I too have always aimed to read a book a week, and have never achieved that. That's okay though, it's better just to read when you feel in the right frame of mind rather than forcing it. That way you enjoy everything a lot more! On average I probably read 3 books a month, depending on how busy/tired I am.

[mal4mac]

You people are comforting. Sometimes I feel like I'm such a slow, un-dedicated reader...

Don't get too complacent, maybe everyone in this thread is a slow, un-dedicated reader! A *really* dedicated reader wouldn't be messing about in forums :)

A.S. Byatt claims to read a novel day when she's not writing. I've seen other "really dedicated" readers claim that kind of rate. I aspire to it myself, but I'm easily misled.

Since the start of the year I've read 44 books from the library. I gave up on a handful, and read a handful of others I actually bought. So that's about 2 a week.

Must do better!

P.S. I read for pleasure, and read a lot more fiction than non-fiction. Also, I avoid the large & difficult books (Joyce, Proust, Kant, the Bible, ...) So I've no excuse for not reading one a day :(

[mal4mac]

I too have always aimed to read a book a week, and have never achieved that. That's okay though, it's better just to read when you feel in the right frame of mind rather than forcing it. That way you enjoy everything a lot more! On average I probably read 3 books a month, depending on how busy/tired I am.

I think it's worth forcing it a bit. You may think "I'll just watch TV, or play a game, it's easier...". If you just force yourself to read instead you might find yourself enjoying it more than the mindless activity - after a few minutes of concentrated effort.

Some book I read suggested that it's reasonable to watch TV for half an hour - we all need a few minutes of mindless activity, at the end of the day, to wind down and relax. But don't continue the mindless activity for hours! Force yourself to pick up that book instead!

I sometime manage to overcome my lazy self and actually do this, and it's usually resulted in a better time... reading is usually more fun than anything else, but it's quite a difficult thing & requires some pushing to get started.

[RobbyA]

I think it's worth forcing it a bit. You may think "I'll just watch TV, or play a game, it's easier...". If you just force yourself to read instead you might find yourself enjoying it more than the mindless activity - after a few minutes of concentrated effort.

Some book I read suggested that it's reasonable to watch TV for half an hour - we all need a few minutes of mindless activity, at the end of the day, to wind down and relax. But don't continue the mindless activity for hours! Force yourself to pick up that book instead!

I sometime manage to overcome my lazy self and actually do this, and it's usually resulted in a better time... reading is usually more fun than anything else, but it's quite a difficult thing & requires some pushing to get started.

Well, that's very true. I guess it's like anything, you get out what you put in and if you make the effort it usually pays off in some way. However, I'm not sure I'd necessarily call TV/Gaming a mindless activity. It definitely has the potential to be, but I feel wary of privileging reading over other forms of media/entertainment. A Mills & Boon is by far more 'mindless' than an episode of Ashes to Ashes for example!

[mal4mac]

A Mills & Boon is by far more 'mindless' than an episode of Ashes to Ashes for example!

This is debatable. Maybe the content of the Mills & Boon is more 'mindless', but you still have to work at bringing the characters to life and visualising the situations without any of the visual aids that TV gives you. I saw some episodes of Ashes to Ashes, and quite liked it, but as with almost all TV*, I used it as a break from reading because it's mindless entertainment. Not that I'm saying it's rubbish, just that it makes no intellectual demands, and is something to do during periods of low blood sugar, after three hours solid reading, when Dostoevsky might be a bit of a strain...

*Mozart's Don Giovanni was on last week, I needed to concentrate hard on that...

[Buckthorn]

Between 50 and 70 a year, but it depends on the books

[Clopin]

Anywhere from 50 to 80. I'm a student now though so I plan to get it up to 100-150 while I'm in school.

[mona amon]

These days it's only about 12 to 13 a year, I'm afraid.

[johntho]

I used to read almost double of what I manage nowadays. With work and, admittedly, so many great TV series out there I get around to about 15 a year, whereas that number used to be around 30 just a few years ago.

[stephofthenight]

At least 15 a day, generally the same 15 Every...Single...Day.... I can recite most of them from memory now. Between being a Teacher and reading to my Son there is very little time for actual adult books but I tend to get 2-3 of those in a week.

[jashleigh]

80 books would be a lot, but I could read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" everyday.

[Lykren]

In the summer of 2012 I read about thirty books, a list which included Ulysses, War and Peace, Moby-Dick, and so on, but since then I've read about 10 books. Two of those have been over 2,000 pages however, so I don't feel too bad. I'm looking forward to finishing the book I'm reading now, the Jin Ping Mei at 2,600 pages, but next on the list is In Search of Lost Time, so I'll be stuck on that for a while too!

[qimissung]

I read a book or two a month.