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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Volumes

23:22 / 13.03.06

One of my co-workers said: "I read a lot. Over a dozen books in a year."

I didn't want to be rude, but in my family and circle of friends, twelve books in a month would be considered large, but not remarkably so. I've been challenged to keep track of every book I read for a year. Even with a more-than-full-time job and a demanding sex life, I'm on track for ~100. Am I weird for this?

What's typical? How many do you read?

00:49 / 14.03.06

I keep track of the books I read in the summer normally, just to see if I can beat the previous year. But this year, I did the opposite and counted how many books I can read during a school year. So since September, I've read 32 books. That's one book every 6.5625 days. This does not count the books I have read for school. I hope to finish another four by school's end in April.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:41 / 14.03.06

What _kind_ of books, however? It's perfectly acceptable for people to read a romance novel a day (Janice Radway, I believe, researched this out). If the dozen books, on the other hand, are Whaite's Cabbalah, the Bible, War and Peace and then some heavy reading for afters, then a dozen is probably not a terrible batting average if one is taking each book seriously.

08:23 / 14.03.06

You should also take into account the amount of time people spend reading other things, which I know stops me from reading as many books as I'd like: things like newspapers, magazines, websites and RSS feeds, or forums like, er, *ahem*.

08:29 / 14.03.06

Agreed. I tend to read about 1 book a week but as Haus points out this does vary wildly depending on how popcorn/scholarly it is. On top of this there's the loo books, the study books, the bath book the bed time book, which are all read over time, a page / chapter at a time.

09:03 / 14.03.06

I guess I tend to finish a book per every 10 days / two weeks on average, very roughly speaking and baring in mind I tend to read 2-3 books at once.

So... even more roughly speaking, I guess I'm looking at maybe 30-ish books a year?

And that's assuming none of them are going to be long, dense Moby Dick type motherfuckers that'll tie me down for months.

I'm humbled by other posters somewhat higher figures..

14:07 / 14.03.06

Am I really the only one to look at the opening post and wonder about logos's 'demanding sex life'?

Sex and books do mix shock!

14:53 / 14.03.06

No, you're not alone, Sleaze.

Visons of Logos balancing a book on the back of hir partner's head while banging away like jackhammer do, unfortunately, keep recurring.

15:26 / 14.03.06

Perhaps Logos also frequently sees real live tigers?

I used to read a lot - perhaps not over a hundred books a year, but probably at least one a week. Then I discovered KNITTING and now I only read the back of the cereal packet (and craft weblogs).

Actually I don't read for pleasure very much any more because I am always smitten by guilt over not doing academic reading instead. You can't really do academic knitting, so it is easier to avoid the issue... I probably gop through about twenty to thirty books a year at the moment, but a lot of those are rereads or easy genre books (not that there's anything wrong with them! But they are quicker than Gravity's Rainbow or Quicksilver).

20:19 / 14.03.06

You namby pamby illiterates! I read at least a book per day. In a dead language. With one eye closed. And two on Sundays.

23:11 / 14.03.06

But do you also have a 'demanding' sex life?

00:11 / 15.03.06

I don't read for pleasure very much any more because I am always smitten by guilt over not doing academic reading instead.

Hee hee. If you're like me, however, this means you're not reading much at all....

I confess. For the same reason, I listen to books on tape, while driving, doing dishes, going to bed at night, which has a very middle-brow feel to it, but: I never got over being read bedtime stories to, ok? OK?

And now, I find that very few of my dozen or so demanding lovers at any given moment are willing to read to me before we, well, you know, make demands of each other....

16:06 / 15.03.06

(I think we should make Demanding Lover the new accepted term for Significant Other.)

My Demanding Lover does actually read to me all the time, especially in the car. That doesn't count as having read the book myself though, does it? Is reading the point or the knowledge that's gleaned?

00:54 / 16.03.06

alas should get a few more demanding lovers of whom it is demanded that they read aloud before, well, other demands!

i counted the books i'd read - for study and pleasure - in about my second year of uni and was up to high eighties by september. these included some short books like a hitchhikers book or something light, as well as plato, nietzsche and other philosophy, and english lit, texts... was in a phase tyrying to read the nobel list in no particular order. something like this is always a fillip to amassing a sizeable list!

but then, as now, i eschew tv, more or less, and so have a lot more time than associates i meet out at the pub! where are we? march. let's see: have read about sixteen [?] or something similar, and am well into the next - be starting a new one next week. this is on top of a bit of me own writing and reading about a novel's worth all up of a writing group's offerings for feedback sessions... and countless papers and articles for work.

phew, my eyes hurt now...

ps i also second the 'demanding lover' epithet as mandatory!