My BIL asked me this the other day, and it has been on my mind since. If I were to try and estimate starting when I began reading on my own, it seems like I could get into the tens of thousands or higher, but that seems crazy.
I have always been a voracious reader, and it started early. From grades K-6, I would say I read ten books a week at least. They weren’t long books, obviously, which ups the numbers. When I started reading longer books and short chapter books, I probably read at least 5 a week, conservatively. That would have slowed to maybe 3-5 a week by high school and then stayed there until I was in my early 30s with some spikes where I read more. I don’t think I have ever read less than one book a week. I think it has continued to slow since then, and for the past 5 years I read about one book a week.
That would make the math something like this, which is highly speculative and includes reading the same book multiple times, as well as audiobooks, but not counting like the baby and children’s books I have read to the kids in my life as an adult.
Grades K-6: 4,004 books
Grades 7-Age 33: 4,368 books
Age 34-38: 2,808 books
I studied English literature and am a high school English teacher, so I think that skews me fairly high. Still, this seems wild even though I feel like this seems like a decent representation of my reading habits.
by dryerfresh