How Many Books Will You Read Before You Die?

Greetings from yet another children's author

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Paul Whybrow

Full Member
Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
This article contains some rather speculative statistics, but is still thought-provoking:

How Many Books Will You Read Before You Die?

I agree with what British novelist Hari Kunzru is quoted as saying in the article: “I used to force myself to finish everything I started, which I think is quite good discipline when you’re young, but once you’ve established your taste, and the penny drops that there are only a certain number of books you’ll get to read before you die, reading bad ones becomes almost nauseating.”

Thankfully, of the 350 books that I borrowed from my local library in 2017, there were only five novels that I didn't finish. I also read about 20 novels and non-fiction books acquired from charity shops and eBay. My voracious reading habit qualifies me as a Super Reader, by the criteria used in the article (hardly the most impressive name for a superhero, and which probably involves wearing comfy slippers as part of the outfit!).

When I returned to creative writing in 2013, I stopped borrowing library books for two years, afraid of being distracted and influenced by other authors' writing styles. Although I derived joy from my creativity, I also felt a part of my soul desiccate from a lack of stimulation that reading gives me, so I returned to scouring the shelves and requesting books.

I'll be 64 in a month, which means that, if I live to the quoted 84 in the article, I'll get through about 1,520 more books. This figure seems low to me, as I estimate I'll read 6,000—which isn't enough! :confused:

It's vital that we exercise our minds by reading, to become better writers, in the same way that athletes exercise their bodies. As William Faulkner advised:

Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out.

How many books do you read a year?

How many books will you read before you die?

I've sometimes thought that dying while I was reading a favourite book, gently drifting away, would be a nice way to depart this life. Damn, I've lost my place!

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Another Super Reader here. Right now I'm busy with Robert Harris' Conclave (ideal for Vatican conspiracy theorists!), Alice Munro's Dance of the Happy Shades (re-read), M R Hall's crime fiction Coroner, Han Kang's Human Acts; and two heavy scientific doomsday tomes on water resources engineering along with a manual on constructing a dry compost toilet. Day Zero is now 12 April 2018, when Cape Town becomes the first major global city to run out of water, a terrifying prospect. We are all becoming experts on drought, boreholes, potable spring water, and the horrors of sewage.

If I'm reading as an escapist, I don't ask much of my fiction. It needs to be slick, pacy and entertaining. If I am reading more serious fiction, I rarely give up on it. The problem is often to do with me misreading something or getting too impatient. I re-read a great deal and I read widely for research. Each year I go back to books I may have misjudged and give them second and third chances. I'm 19th-century that way!
 
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Greetings from yet another children's author

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