How Much Can You Read in a Lifetime?

If you are like me, your to-read pile keeps growing higher no matter how much you actually read.  Of course I know I’m not immortal and my reading time is finite.  For this reason I find I have less and less patience with books that do not interest me; I am much more likely to not finish a book now than when I was younger and my mild OCD compelled me to plod to the very end of whatever book I started. 

Literary Hub had an interesting article recently about estimating how many books you will be able to read before you die.  Two factors are taken into account:  how long you will live and how fast you will read.  According to their chart, if I reach my expected life expectancy, I, as a voracious reader, should be able to read about 1,200 more books.  See the chart and explanation of it at http://lithub.com/how-many-books-will-you-read-before-you-die/.

That got me thinking to how many books I’ve already read.  I’ve been tracking my reading on both LibraryThing and Goodreads for about a decade now, and the statistics show that I’ve read 745 books in those years.  That number is more of an estimate because I didn’t keep meticulous records until I retired in 2009. 

If you like to track your reading, you might be interested in a new app called Bookout.  It gives you stats and infographics about the time you invest in reading, as well as your reading speed.  According to the app website, the app has several features:

·         Track your books:  Easily track and organise all your books. Quickly add them by scanning or searching for them online.

·         Thoughts & Quotes:  Thoughts and quotes can be easily added for each book. You can add both text and image quotes.

·         Reading statistics:  Gather reading stats that will show your progress and help you understand how you evolve over time.

·         Real time tracking:  You can track your reading in real time as a daily workout. Just start a new reading session and we’ll do the rest.

·         Goals:  You can set up monthly and yearly goals, both help you keep your focus and make a habit out of reading.               

·         Achievements:  Bookout has tons of achievements that you can unlock to keep things interesting and fun.

See http://bookoutapp.com/ for details.  Unfortunately, at the moment, Bookout is only available for iOS.  For a review of the app, go to http://bookriot.com/2017/01/04/meet-my-new-book-tracking-addiction-bookout/.