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How many books have you read?
Submitted by Capt. Xerox on January 23, 2007 - 4:37pm.
I have no idea how many books I've read in my lifetime, but I'm sure the total number is huge. Someone who's been keeping track of his own reads has created a poster that displays the covers of each book in sequence. Obsessive, but cool.
Speaking of obsessive, someone's written a piece about the world's most dangerous bookstore. It sounds like a scary place. I think every city has at least one fire hazard of a bookstore operated by a packrat who could have been the inspiration for the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons. In Montreal, the store is Mars. I've been there many times, but have never been able to actually find anything worth reading in the rubble.
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My nerdy list
Having a poster of everything he's read is a new high in the nerdiness scale but I also try to keep track of my reads. My simple database started sometime late in 1987 (hey almost 20 years!). It was a simple list that basically contained all the books on my book shelf at the time it started but since I keep most of my books it was quite accurate. When it started, it was about 100-150 books. Since then I've given away (and deleted) the non genre titles. It did not contain other books I read that were from libraries, friends, relatives etc that I borrowed, but there weren't too many of those.
The database has undergone some changes over the years (fields added, fields dropped), changes in categories, etc. But remains pretty much as I originally had it.
The best use I've made of it is to have a web page with a select number of fields that I've put online and can view anytime I need a quick lookup. I originally designed a much fancier PHP script driven interface with a bunch of buttons for sorting by different fields, but unfortunately my ISP and the current host does not support PHP and I've been too lazy to move it elsewhere. Here the 'thin' version:
http://web.ncf.ca/ev001/mysf/
Other fields not shown are read, pages, awards, signed, series title, series number, sub category. I update the master db whenever I get a book, or finish reading one (that's when I add the number of pages).
Nice article on how to make a poster (especially like the use of XML and XSL) but I'm not gonna do that.
~ Lazarus ~
?
There are many sites that allow you to keep record of the books you've read or own. I use www.shelfari.com because of its intuitive interface and nice-looking shelf. When such websites are available, the trouble you take to record the books you've read seems superfluous.
In 1988 I read an article in
In 1988 I read an article in my local newspaper that stated that the average U.S. citizen read 1000 books in their lifetimes. I sat a thought, "I've read 1000 books. I've read 120 Perry rhodan books alone, so I have to have read 1000."
I then started a database to keep track of all the books I've read. I've been tracking every book since then. I have included in the database all the books I know I've read before I read this article (Perry Rhodan, Clement, Asimov, Bradbury and many many more).
Currently I'm just shy of 4000 books. My goal is to read 10,000 books in my life time.
I average about 2-4 books a week. I figure I need about 40 more years, or a target age of 89.
Cheers,
Mooncrest
Quite a pace
Currently I'm just shy of 4000 books. My goal is to read 10,000 books in my life time.
I average about 2-4 books a week. I figure I need about 40 more years, or a target age of 89.
That's quite a number and a slick pace.
Nah. I could never keep up a pace like that even at the peak of my reading lifetime. I think I hit 2 maybe 3 books a week when I was young during summers without a job (some summers it was just impossible to find work). But nowadays I'm happy to read a book in 2 weeks and even then it has to be a really good book. I'm into so many other distractions that if a book isn't particularly good I can easily stretch it into a month. I know that I'll never even get to read the books I already have unless I can retire tomorrow. Still, it doesn't stop me from getting new ones.
For those who remember Rincewind from the old BBS days, I recently exchanged some emails with him (thanks for hooking us up Cos) and he's still as frenetic a reader as always. What I can't figure out is how he does it with 2 kids and I've only got the one.
If only I could take a bus to work.
Re: Quite a pace
I take the train to work and I still don't read at that pace, but it's just about the only place I get to read these days. I'm lucky to read two or three books per month so it will take me a long time to read everything that's waiting for me on my bookshelves. I hate to actually estimate how many years it would take, but I suspect it's more than I have left in this lifetime. There's always retirement, but who knows if that will ever happen.
I remember reading a newspaper article recently about an artist who had reached a certain age and decided it was time to rid herself of the many books she had amassed over the years. She had a huge quantity and was using the raised funds for some sort of charity. Her argument was there were books she was never going to read and there were books that she had read, but represented a period of her youth that was past and there was no sense hanging on to them since she'd never read them again. Sounds logical to me.
C.X.
Mars... whenever we
Mars... whenever we COMICOPIAns have members visit Montreal for the first time, they tend to visit this store... it's a scary right of passage.
----
I'll sleep when my writing muse wants to.
Even Art Garfunkel has a nerdy book list
Art's been keeping a list of every book he's read since the 60s and you can read that list online. Not a lot of science fiction, though.
C.X.
Artsy Funky lists
While he does not have a lot of SF on his read list, I must admit that I was very curious to see what he has been reading over the years. I confess that it was the star appeal. He's also done something that I've considered doing but never took the plunge on: recording WHEN he finished reading a book. (Does that make him a bigger geek than myself?)Putting the dates along with the titles reveals that Art was (and is) very much atuned to the current best sellers of the time, while still alternating with classic titles.
Was surprised to see that he read Childhoods End as I always considered that a purely SF favorite and not mainstream. He's also read a few Anthony Burgess books along the way, so I assume he was a favorite author of sorts, but I did not see A Clockwork Orange on the list. (unless I missed it).
I guess it's nice to know that the more literate people in society do occasionally read SF.
Thanks for the link!
~ Lazarus ~
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