Reading by the Numbers

As of yesterday, April 25, 2012, I have been working on my epic library reading project for 2058 days.

In those 2058 days, I consumed 3487 library products (not counting the half-read ones that I intend to go back to sometime). That’s 1.69 library products per day.

Library products? What’s that supposed to mean?

That’s everything…
…Picture books (1203 titles read)
…First Readers (62 titles read)
…Beginning Chapter Books (91 titles read)
…Children’s Fiction (306 titles read)
…YA books (23 titles read)
…Juvenile nonfiction (140 titles read)
…Children’s CDs (42 discs listened to)
…Children’s DVDs (47 discs watched)
…Children’s VHSs (1 video watched)
…Adult Fiction (377 titles read)
…Adult Nonfiction (589 titles read)
…Adult Cassette Tapes (2 tape sets listened to)
…Adult CDs (432 discs listened to)
…Adult DVDs (106 discs watched)
…Periodicals (66 issues read)

Do you think that’s cheating?

I totally do. Which is why I also separate my reading out into books and into adult books.

I’ve read 2857 books since starting this project–a rate of 1.39 books per day.

I’ve read 1032 adult books and periodicals since beginning the project–a rate of .5 books per day.

It’s been 311 days since I last tabulated my reading, and in that time, I’ve read/listened to/watched…
…312 Picture books (one per day)
…9 First readers (just under 1 per month)
…9 Beginning chapter books (just under 1 per month)
…57 Children’s fiction books (about 5.5 per month)
…16 YA books (about 1.5 per month)
…52 Children’s nonfiction books (about 5 per month)
…9 Children’s CDs (about 1 per month)
…1 Children’s DVD
…29 Fiction books (just under 3 per month)
…49 Nonfiction books (just under 5 per month)
…166 Adult CDs (16 per month)
…9 Adult DVDs (just under 1 per month)
…6 Periodicals (about 1 every two months)

Since I check out my materials in 6 week intervals, let’s look at what I typical consume per library trip (vs. what I typically check out per library trip):
…42 Picture books (vs. 50 checked out)
…1.2 First Readers (this is probably the average checked out too)
…1.2 Beginning Chapter Books (ditto above)
…7.7 Children’s fiction (vs. 6-8 checked out)
…2.2 YA books (vs. 2-3 checked out)
…7 Children’s nonfiction (vs. 8 checked out)
…2.8 Adult fiction (vs. 4-5 checked out)
…4.7 Adult nonfiction (vs. 6-8 checked out)
…23.6 CDs (vs. 25 checked out)
…1.3 DVDs (vs. 1 checked out–this is because I sometimes get the DVDs via Netflix or whatever and then count them because the library does own a copy)

Yes, that’s right. I typically check out 100-110 items from the library each visit–and have consumed an average of 98 items per 6 week visit. Not bad if you ask me.

According to my brother-out-law (who is a library aide) and his coworker (a librarian), there are approximately 30,000 books at the library I’m attempting to read through. Which means that (if I’ve got my math right: 30,000 books x 6 weeks/98 books x 1 year/52 weeks) it will take me around 35 years to complete this project.

Yes, it’ll take me forever to read my library-but I’ll say I’m making halfway decent progress :-)