My Book Spreadsheet

Part of my Fiction bookcase

All my life I've loved to read. I used to think that everybody loved to read and that it was just a normal human activity, like eating or sleeping. This is probably because my whole family inhales books. 

About eight years ago, I read an article on American reading habits. It listed statistics on how many books the average American reads per year. I can't remember the number, but I know it was small. A similar article in 2007 in the Washington Post reported that 25% of Americans had not read a single book in the last year. The median number of books read was 4 (or, if you discounted the 25% who didn't read at all, the median number was 7). I think the article I read eight years ago reported a similar number. I remember thinking, "I know I've read a lot more books than that this year." Granted, I was a college student at the time and had assigned reading. But aside from required books, I was sure I'd read more. 

So I did the only thing that seemed logical - I started "A Very Complete List Of Books I Have Read" spreadsheet. I started with everything I'd read recently. Then I went through my bookshelves and my memory to try and fill in as many others as possible. I dove into the project enthusiastically - still do, in fact. It gets me excited to work on my list. 

In addition to the obvious Title and Author columns, I also include:

• Date Last Read
• Times Read
• Whether I Own a Copy
• Publication Date
• # of Pages
• Series Title
• # in Series
• Language 

I only include books I've read completely cover-to-cover. A future project I'm considering is a separate list of books I've only read partially (or stopped reading on purpose). 

I get full of nerdy excitement when I look at my list. Here are some interesting things I've learned from it:

• Not including repeats (and there are a lot of those - I've read Anne of Green Gables at least 6 times, for example) and books I've forgotten about, I have read 958 books. 
• The shortest books were Philemon and 2 and 3 John (yes, I count the individual books of the Bible separately, because most of them are much longer, and they all have different "publication dates"). 
• The longest books I've read  (over 1000 pages) were three books from the Wheel of Time series and Gone With The Wind. 
• The oldest books I've read were from the Bible, followed by the plays of Sophocles. 
• 65% of the books were written within my lifetime, another 25% were written in the remaining part of the 20th century, 10% were written before 1900. 

In 2005 (the year after I read the statistics on American reading habits), I read 43 books. Only 7 of them were for school. 

So yes, I like reading more than the average person.