How many books have you read in your whole lifetime?

Question

If you're extremely patient (and well read), then you can list them for me, as well.

What I mean by books that you have read is books that you have read in their entirety- from cover to cover (not including superfluous information, like publish dates, copyrights, and tables of contents). I just mean the whole book- the story itself, or the text itself.

If you don't know the number, please just estimate the number of books you've read before.

Also, if you don't mind my asking, please include your age.

Thanks!

Do you people really think I am that thick? 546,000 books????????

Even if you are 50 years of age, and you have read one ENTIRE book per week for the whole span of your life, that adds up to 2500 books total. Needless to point out that this is impossible to begin with, being that you cannot have started reading until the age of four or five to begin with.

Please, be HONEST. Stop jerkin' me around. Tell me the truth- and provide at LEAST a PLAUSIBLE estimate or number. There are not even 500,000 books in existence! Come on, people.

Let's be honest. Thank you so very much.

Answer 1

Oh wow, it's gotta be in the thousands by now. I couldn't possibly list them all. Mostly science fiction anthologies and novels. And that doesn't count the books I was assigned to read in high school and college.

I'm 38, and the greatest gift my parents ever gave me was the love of and respect for literature.

Answer 2

To be truth full I'd have to say around a thousand... To some that may be a lot considering I'm only 20 but I have always loved books. I tend to read anything that looks interesting from sci-fi to romance to mystery and even some teen books like the Uglies-Pretties-Specials series.. I can usually read a book in 2 or 3 hours and when I find one I like I don't want to put it down. I remember once I went to a book store (can't remember the name) and I asked about new vampire/paranormal books and all that they said I already had read. As for listing them well here's some all of Laurell K Hamilton Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kim Harrison, every Goosebumps I can find, Mary Janice Davidson, Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne James Patterson ( though i haven't read the women's mystery club.. yet) and way too many others to name.

Answer 3

When I was younger, I had a bookshelf that contained about 1000 books. The rows were doubled up on the shelves with a row behind the visible row, and books stacked on those and shoved anywhere they'd fit. I'd read every single book on that bookshelf by the time I was 13. Since then, I've remained an avid reader. My guess would be around 5,000 books in my lifetime. It may be more, but that's a fair estimate. I'm 23 now.

Answer 4

Mmmm... I don't remember the exact number, cuz I don't remember of those that I have read a long time ago!!! well, here it goes:

1-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (JK Rowling)
2-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (JK Rowling)
3-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (JK Rowling)
4-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (JK Rowling)
5-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (JK Rowling)
6-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (JK Rowling)
7-Something Upstairs (Avi)
8-Midnight Magic (Avi)
9-Beyond the Western Sea 1: The Escape From Home (Avi)
10-Beyond the Western Sea 2: Lord Kirkle's Money (Avi)
11-Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew (CS Lewis)
12-Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (CS Lewis)
13-Go ask Alice (Anonymous)
14-Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
15-Cujo (Stephen King)
16-Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie)
17-Sleeping Murder (Agatha Christie)
18-The Clocks (Agatha Christie)

Anyway... those that I remember are 18!!, but I've read like... 50 in my whole lifetime (I'm 17 years old).
By the way, all those on my list are GREAT recommendations to read, probably except from the "Cronichles of Narnia" ones, but the rest are GREAT!!!! (I specially recommend Go Ask Alice. You should check it out!!!)

Answer 5

Let's see...
I've read over a book a day since I was about 8, sometimes reading more than one, sometimes up to four. If I plug in the minimum one a day for a year, that's 365 books a year multiplied by 36 years (I'm 44) so I've at the very least read 13,340 books. It's more than that but I'll stick with that number just to average things out.

Answer 6

It is almost impossible to estimate. I started reading at a young age, books we owned & some borrowed from the library. I am in my mid-thirties now. My current library consists of approxiamately 3,500 books, most of which have been read cover to cover. Maybe 4,000 - 5,500 (?), maybe more.

I read mostly history or literature. I cannot go through the entire list but the most recent books include "Miracle in the Andes" [currently reading], "A Little Girl is Dead" (about the hanging of Leo Frank), "The Lazarus Syndrome" by Louis Gossett Jr. (about apparent death/premature burial), " Curses! Broiled Again!: The Hottest Urban Legends Going) by Jan Harold Brunvand, "Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear " by Jan Bondeson, "Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America " by Cynthia Carr, " Cotton" by Christopher Wilson...the list goes on.

Answer 7

Well, I read 4 books last weekend.... I'm 30 and have been reading very heavily since 5th-6th grade so... I'd say around 3500+. Some were shorter than others. And some I read 2-3 in a day, but skip a few days inbetween. I'd say average 3-5 books a week.

Answer 8

I don't remember, but I can tell you the books I've read in the last year. I'm 33 yrs old, studying to be a literature teacher at a secondary school level.

"Wings of a Dove"--Henry James, "Age of Innocence" Edith Wharton, "The Sun Also Rises"--Ernest Hemmingway, "The City of Ember"--Jeanne DuPrau, "The People of Sparks"--DuPrau, "The Crying of Lot 49"--Thomas Pynchon, "Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas"--James Patterson, "Sam's Letters to Jennifer"--Patterson, "Monster"-- Walter Dean Myers, "Maniac Magee"--Jerry Spinelli, "Izzy Willy Nilly"--Cynthia Voight, "Cut"--Patricia McCormick, "Night"--Elie Wiesel, "The Chocolate War"--Robert Cormier, "I Am The Cheese"--Cormier, "The Giver"--Lois Lowry, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (all three books)--Ann Brashares, "The F**k Up"--Arthur Nersesian, "Thwonk"--Joan Bauer, "A School for Sorcery"--E. Rose Sabin, "A Perilous Power"--Sabin, "The Bone Setters Daughter"--Amy Tan, "Touching Spirit Bear"--Ben Mikaelsen, "Slaughterhouse Five"--Kurt Vonnegut, The Sweep Series by Cate Tiernan (14 books), "Seeing Emily"--Joyce Lee Wong. and various short short stories from the book "Sudden Fiction International" Editors Robert Shapard and James Thomas.

Answer 9

I am 25. I have read upwards of 900 books. I do not have an exact number. I wish I could name them all I can name the books I have read this year:
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rande
Night by Elie Wiesel
Clinical Kinesiology and Anatomy by Lynn S Lippert
Prenatal Diagnosis by Mark Evans
Gross Anatomy by Kyung WonChung
An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
Organic Chemistry by Paula Bruice
Molecular Biology of the Cell by Bruce Alberts ( I think)

Ok I think thats enough. It is not complete but I dont have time to type everything out. Sorry!

Answer 10

I'm 35, and I would guess that I've averaged 2 books a month for the past 30 years. That makes 720. Seems rather low, I'll have to think about it. If you include picture books I've read as an adult (to my kids) the number must go way up.