How is it possible that it’s been 14 years since I began my crazy goal of reading every book in my local library?
In that time, I moved from Lincoln to Columbus Nebraska (and kept on using my Lincoln library) and then from Columbus to Wichita (and switched from my Lincoln library to Wichita’s Central Library). We moved from downtown-ish Wichita to just outside of Wichita (and kept on using the Central Library) – and then the Central Library moved to the new “Advanced Learning Library”. Now that coronavirus means just picking up books we’ve requested (rather than browsing the stacks), I’m picking up my books at a closer location (but I’m keeping on using the Advanced Learning Library as my library of record, in hopes that someday we’ll be able to return!)
TOTALS as of September 5, 2020 (14 years or 5114 days)
| Category | Items in 2019-2020 | Total Items since 2006 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juvenile Picture | 528 | 2508 | We were racing through these at the beginning of the year, but pandemic really slowed us down – and then we started really liking chapter books… |
| Juvenile, Board Books | 15 | 558 | We closed these in 2018, so this is just “fun reading” that the kids picked up during visits to the library (back when we could still visit the library.) |
| Juvenile, First Readers | 3 | 80 | I’m going to vote on this one for greatest growth over the next year. |
| Juvenile Fiction | 2 | 410 | The “two finished” is quite deceptive, since re-reads don’t count – and I’ve been reading quite a few of my favorites out loud to the kids. Also, these numbers won’t jibe with previous reports since I reorganized the “chapter books” from my old library into their place here as juvenile fiction. |
| Juvenile Nonfiction | 55 | 468 | |
| Teen Fiction | 0 | 52 | Just not doing a lot of this sort of reading these days. |
| Teen Nonfiction | 0 | 5 | |
| Adult Fiction | 13 | 503 | My statistics tell me my average for adult fiction is 37 books a year – obviously VERY skewed from my pre-kids days. |
| Adult Nonfiction | 29 | 3 | I knew my reading was down, but this is shocking. My overall average is 76 per year. |
| Audio CD | 357 | 1778 | Music, which takes an hour (for shorter CDs) to ten hours (for the big multidisc sets) and can be listened to while carrying out ordinary tasks, is a lot easier to get through these days. |
| Juvenile DVD | 7 | 68 | Harry Potter and kids yoga videos. The children watched the latter with me; Daniel and I did not let them see the former – because, witchcraft ;-) |
| Adult Fiction DVD | 7 | 119 | We’re currently watching the Marvel movies in chronological order (per this list. It’s fun. |
| Adult Nonfiction DVD | 7 | 74 | Do I like documentaries? Yes. Did my children and I watch a college course on child development? Yes, that too. |
| Periodicals | 4 | 131 | |
| Total | 1018 items | 7786 items | |
| 2.78 items/day | 1.21 items/day | While I have vastly decreased my “me” reading over the past 14 years, picture books and audio CDs inflate my item count these days. |
What with not being able to access our library’s physical collection AT ALL for almost 2 months, it’s been a weird year of reading – but I’m soldiering on with my goal. I’m going to keep trying until I die (no doubt.)