This isn’t meant to be a competition or stage for bragging. I have just gotten into reading the past 4-5 years, and there’s so many books I don’t even recognize on this page. I’m just getting into the classics, and meanwhile everybody seems to be talking about what’s hot on the shelf at their local bookstore. I feel I have a lot of ground to cover before I read much of anything new.
So I’m wondering, have you guys just read every single book worth a darn since the dawn of man? How many have you read that you have time for all of 2023’s greatest hits?
by Clay-Rose
9 Comments
So many books, so little time!
I couldn’t begin to guess.
I started by trying to read all of the ‘classic’ books, but I found I lost interest quickly when reading books with old, outdated viewpoints (racist, sexist, etc). Now I go off of people’s recommendations (if I trust them) and recipients of book award (Man Booker, Giller, Lane Anderson, etc)
I keep all my books. It’s been an issue, especially when moving. Last move was in August and I packed and unpacked over 4000 books. Almost 40 years of reading.
For the sake of explaining the numbers, I use totes. Each tote holds about 45 books before moving out is an issue (some variance for size, 45 is normal mass produced paperback) and with 10 totes, it took 10 trips to move my books. If those books, maybe a dozen haven’t been read at least once.
I am not counting my nice hardcover books, as those get moved separately.
No idea where that falls into the average, but that’s what I’ve got.
Read what appeals to you, don’t feel like you *have* to read certain books.
No idea. I started seriously reading when I was about 7 years old and haven’t stopped. I’m 44 now.
My personal physical library currently has ~400 books in it and I’ve read almost all of them multiple times (in some cases more than a dozen times.) I have 135 books in my Kindle library and I’ve read almost all of them (and a few of them I’ve read more than once.)
I don’t have any reliable way to even guess at how many books I read from the public library, school library, or had to read for school.
I don’t read as much as I did when I was younger because I just don’t have the time, but over my lifetime it’s an accurate estimate to say that I’ve averaged over 100 books/year.
So counting re-reading books probably anywhere from 3700-5000 books? Possibly more, but probably not much more.
Try a mini reading challenge, pick 3 books from genres you’ve been interested in but haven’t tried yet because you feel you’re “behind”
A good way to motivate yourself to try new stuff! And starting to read at any time is great, as long as you’re just enjoying it.
The real question should be – how have they changed your life?
You don’t have to read the classics if you don’t want to, and you don’t have to read books in order of publication year. You can literally just read whatever you want.
>have you guys just read every single book worth a darn since the dawn of man?
No, of course not. I read some classics in school, and outside of school I read whatever I feel like. I’ve also learned more about my own taste over time, so I won’t necessarily read a popular or acclaimed book if it sounds like something I wouldn’t like.
Not quite since the dawn of man, but I am going to be fifty soon. I started reading young enough that I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. And having, as my bff likes to put it, a touch of the auts, meant that growing up, it was preferable for me to have my face pointed at a page than at a person.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess somewhere in the four digit realm.