Books In A Lifetime
May 8, 2007 | Filed under Media
So I’ve dug up my long-dead (since high school!) mathematics skills in order to present you with a report.
Primary School
- Number of books read in the average school week in term time: 4
- Average number of school weeks in a year: 40
- Number of books read in the average week in holiday time: 6
- Average number of holiday weeks in a year: 12
- Total number of books read in a year: 232
- Total number of books read in seven years at primary school: 1624
High School
- Number of books read in the average school week in term time: 3
- Average number of school weeks in a year: 40
- Number of books read in the average week in holiday time: 7
- Average number of holiday weeks in a year: 12
- Total number of books read in a year: 204
- Total number of books read in six years at high school: 1224
University
- Number of books read in the average university week in semester time: 4
- Average number of university weeks in a year: 26
- Number of books read in the average week in holiday time: 8
- Average number of holiday weeks in a year: 26
- Total number of books read in a year: 312
- Total number of books read in two and a half years at university: 780
TOTAL BOOKS READ IN MY LIFETIME SO FAR: 3628
Taking into account that I re-read a small percentage of my favourites at least once a year, I think we can assume that I’ve read approximately 3500 different books in my life.
Assuming that the average length of each book is 300 pages (taking into account the 150 page Babysitters Club offerings of my primary school days, and the 2000+ pages of the Dostoevsky’s I’ve read), I’ve read 1088400 pages. Assuming there’s about 350 words on a page (depending on the print), I’ve read 380940000 words in my life. That’s about a million “a”, a million “the”, a million “and”.
And this isn’t taking into account magazines, newspapers, foreign publications, textbooks, things I’ve read on the Internet…the mind boggles.
13 Responses to Books In A Lifetime
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WOW – you certainly have read a lot of books so far. I’m sure if I calculated the number of books I’ve read, that it would be a pretty high number. Kudos to you for reading so much! ^^
Irene on May 8, 2007 #
LOL, you were bored, weren’t you Amanda?
If I told you how many books I’ve read, I’d just be guessing. It’s not like my reading follows a schedule or anything.
Jordie on May 8, 2007 #
None of these calculations involved squaring something did it?? :-P
Kat on May 8, 2007 #
Weirdo
Doran on May 9, 2007 #
Omg. amanda ftw! =p
Susie on May 9, 2007 #
We’re one of a kind! Add fanfiction on top of that and you get round about mine. :P
Amber on May 9, 2007 #
blimey!
Anastasia on May 9, 2007 #
So if you were counting all the newspapers, text books, signs, magazines, commercials with text, and cereal boxes too, do you think you’d be around double that?
Reply: Probably double and a half! I’ve read numerous novel-length fanfiction stories, and of course, we’re surrounded by writing and text every day.
Jack on May 9, 2007 #
A woman after my own heart!
Skye on May 9, 2007 #
A bookworm ;) I’m one too but now I rarely even pick a book up
Chien Yee on May 9, 2007 #
Mine’s probably around there somewhere, but I can bet Harry Potter takes up about 10% of all that.
Ramsha on May 9, 2007 #
whaaa? that’s a lot! how did you keep track!
haha. I just know that in the 7th grade we had this thing where after we read a book, we would take a computer test and it had the number of words of the book in it’s database, so I know for sure that I have read more than 1 million words (since that was how much I read that year). but that was the only year we did that. I think I’ve started reading less and less books and more….textbooks (wtf, reading chemistry is near impossible).
marilyn on May 9, 2007 #
You’re a number crunching nerd :P
Tracey on May 9, 2007 #