How Many Books Will You Read in a Lifetime? Around 4600, If You Read Fast (ft.com)

I once sneered at lifetime reading plans. Two decades later, I'm more aware that reading time, like all time, is precious, writes journalist Nilanjana Roy. From her column on the Financial Times (might be paywalled), shared by a reader: As the new year approaches, I sort my bookshelves and reboot my lifetime reading plan. Like a good road map, the plan makes the difference between dreaming of visiting 50 places before you die, and actually getting to 10 or 11 of those in the year ahead. In my twenties, arrogant with the faith of a speed-reader who had plunged recklessly into reading the classics of Bengali and Hindi literature alongside English, I sneered at lifetime reading plans. So earnest. So stuffy. Who wanted a map when you could freewheel down the highway, veering from JM Coetzee to Ursula K Le Guin, reading Stephen King alongside Beowulf or The Mahabharata, reading Tamil pulp fiction in translation one week, Japanese crime thrillers the next? Two decades later, I'm more aware that the years pass swiftly, that reading time, like all time, is precious. In a thoughtfully planned survey for Literary Hub, writer Emily Temple plotted the number of books an average reader in the US might finish in a lifetime. She analysed trends for women and men across different age groups, and broke down the results into three categories: the average reader (about 12 books a year), the voracious reader (50 books a year) and the super reader (80 books a year). At the age of 25, even a super reader with a long life expectancy will finish a mere 4,560-4,880 books before they die.

Comments

"Average Reader?"

[rock_climbing_guy]

I'd like to know what they were smoking when they said the average reader reads 12 books a year. How many people read even one?

Re:"Average Reader?"

[Space cowboy]

*Looks at iPad*

In the last 3 years I've bought over 500 books, most of them in the 600-1200 (thanks Brandon) page length. That's not taking into account the thousands of books I've read prior to realizing I could carry around a library instead of a book or two by going digital. I could stock a good-sized bookshop with the books in the attic...

4600 seems pitifully small to me - I'm only about halfway (hopefully) through life and I'm already well past that.

Re:"Average Reader?"

[mykepredko]

If you read, you read 12 books on average a year.

If you don't read, you're not a "reader".

Re:"Average Reader?"

[thomst]

rock_climbing_guy mused:

I'd like to know what they were smoking when they said the average reader reads 12 books a year. How many people read even one?

I believe she says "the average reader" as distinct from "the average person". The average person - at least, the average person in the USA - barely reads at all. (Hardly surprising, given the American education establishment's devotion to the "whole word" approach to teaching new readers.) The average reader, by contrast, probably does read a book a month. They're the folks the Kindle store was created for.

Of course, half of those books are romance novels - the most popular fiction genre by a long margin. Mysteries are next, then science fiction and fantasy. (And there's not a lot of science in most of what gets categorized as science fiction nowadays, either, so lumping it in with fantasy is not necessarily inappropriate.)

Full disclosure: I'm a writer by trade and these details matter to me, so I pay attention to them. Most people couldn't care less.

FWIW - when I was a kid, I'd consume up to 10 novels a day. I was determinedly unathletic in those days - and still am - so I did little else until I reached puberty. Then my reading consumption dropped pretty steeply ...

Re:"Average Reader?"

[mikael]

As a teenager I used to go round all the second hand bookstores and pick up dozens of old sci-fi books, collections and anthologies. I could read a handful of short stories for a hour or two while in bed, or a novel over a week. Having to go to bed at 10pm because that's when my parents went to bed and turned off the heating to the rest of the house. One shelf on my wall was crammed full of sci-fi books.

Re:"Average Reader?"

[arth1]

I'd like to know what they were smoking when they said the average reader reads 12 books a year. How many people read even one?

Speak for yourself. I read at least two books a week, so around 120 books a year. That means an average of 12 books a year for the group if I'm counted with nine non-readers.

Half my Slashdot time got me a college degree

[raymorris]

I used to read Slashdot a LOT. I cut my Slashdot time in half and used that time to read for school (WGU). I got my degree mostly in the time I used to be on Slashdot. Soon I'll start my masters from Georgia Tech online.

Re:yep

[rock_climbing_guy]

I do know some folks who, according to them, "don't read books." They do speak of it as if it's some kind of chore. I don't understand why, but honestly... I don't think I want to understand why.

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out why. For the first two decades of life in this country, reading *is* a chore. Remember, "It's a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."