I consider myself an avid reader. I’ve always read a lot, but when I first started blogging, my reading life exploded – I read over 200 books per year for those first couple of years. I thought this was A LOT. Then I saw some other bloggers who read over 300 books a year and I was astounded. I can often read a book in a day, but I certainly don’t do it every day.
Then there are those book bloggers who I see struggle to 20 books a year, and I was equally shocked. I just assumed that everyone who writes a book blog reads tons of books. I thought you had to because, otherwise, what would you write about, right? But that’s not true. I’ve since realized that there’s PLENTY to discuss about books, even if you only read one or two a month. It made me take a step back from some of my assumptions.
Right now, I’ve settled in at about 150 books a year. With my homeschooling and editing (and blogging, of course!) that’s about all I can do, and I’m happy with that. But it made me curious about how much other people read and how happy you are with that number. I decided to do a quick survey!
So, how many books do you read? Are you happy with that number?
For the past few years, I’ve increased the number of books I read a lot, and it hasn’t been as difficult as I expected it to be. I went from struggling to read 100 books in 2013 to fairly easily reading 170 books last year. (Then again, I also started reading comics last year, so that’s an easy way for me to read more books quickly – but that doesn’t account for ALL of the difference.) I’m happy with the number of books I read, except that I always seem to add books to my TBR/to-read list at least twice as quickly as I read books.
Yes, the TBR that grows way faster than you can read is a real problem – I think most of us bookworms have it.
On average I read about 30-40 books a year and that suits me just fine. I’m not the fastest reader and I like to savour the journey as much as I can. Plus I usually find that when I finish a book I need a few days to let everything sink in before I can even think of moving on to the next book.
I think when I started the blog I was conscious of the fact that I don’t read as much as other bloggers do but at the end of the day I have my own pace and everyone’s reading styles are different. The best thing I can do is focus on what I enjoy and not worry about how much everyone else is reading.
That’s great! For some reason I just thought everyone who wrote a book blog must read tons of books. I think that I thought this because when I first started blogging, I didn’t really know what blogging was – I thought it was just writing reviews. It took me a little while before I realized how much more there was to it!
Great quiz! I read less now that I have a baby but still quite a bit so can’t complain too much I suppose.
Yes, babies definitely limit reading time!
The odd thing is, I really don’t know how many books I read a year. I never count! My pace has definitely picked up recently though, what with having no Wi Fi at home!
Ha! See, that’s why I added in that “Who the heck knows?” option in the quiz. I figured there’d be some people like you out there!
Last year, I read around 150. My Goodreads goal for this year is 250. The counter on Goodreads says I am 12 books behind schedule, but it’s not really that bad because I know there are a few I haven’t reviewed yet.
With over 200 review copies to read across Netgalley, Edelweiss, etc., I have to keep up a steady pace or I’ll never make a dent. I’ve been slacking a little lately.
Yes – review schedules definitely push us to read more. That was the main reason I read over 200 books for a couple years in a row. I’ve been trying to cut back on review books lately, though, just for my own piece of mind.
I always read a lot but after joining Goodreads it got crazy lol. One yr I read 358 books. This yr I’m not longer a stay at home mom so I set a goal of 200 books and I’m 6 behind schedule it tells me.
Wow! 358!! That’s amazing! I am officially impressed.
My question is does that include books that you DNF? I read over 500 books last year but that included those.
I almost never DNF, but when I do I don’t mark them as Read on Goodreads for just this reason. I don’t like that it messes up my read count! Since this is a VERY informal quiz, you can choose to count them however you want!
I didn’t track my reading until I joined Goodreads in 2009. It tells me I’ve gone from about 50 books that year to about 200 last year. It was the first time I’d been pushing myself to read more, as my school was doing a reading challenge, and I was determined to beat EVERYONE. (Which I did. Ahem.) I decided to not worry about it this year, but I read quickly, and I read a lot, so I’ve read about 40 books this year (counting graphic novels, which are super fast).
I’ve always been a voracious reader. In middle school, I was known for bringing a new book to school every day, and I’ve always been willing and able to read 2-3 books a day if nobody forces me to do anything else. I look at people who “don’t have time to read” the same way other people look at me for “not having time to exercise.” It’s about priorities, but to be fair, it’s also about what’s easy and enjoyable for most of us.
Blogging hasn’t affected the amount I read, but it has affected what I read (lots more current works, for example), and how long my to-read list is!
If I could just sit and read all day, I could easily read 2-3 books a day too. Too bad I don’t have that luxury!
As a writer, I not only love to read, but I choose books and articles strategically to help with research and to stimulate my imagination. It’s the 4-year-old and the 1-year-old in my home that dictate how much time I get for reading. I also have a habit of acquiring books faster than I can read them. It’s kind of a problem – a fun problem though 🙂
Yes, as far as problems go, that one’s not so very horrible. 🙂 And I totally understand how the kids end up dictating your reading time. Fact of life.
When I was a kid I could read about a book a day, now it’s 3-4 per week. But I read longer books so I think it evens out. I don’t think there’s any right or wrong number; everyone’s pace and reading style is different.
Yeah, you definitely have to take the length of the books into account. I think I read about as much now as I did as a kid – I was a voracious reader back then. I had some periods in between where I barely read for some reason, though.
I took your quiz but I’m pretty sure I skewed the results. Once I became an author and I had to read my own books multiple times, my for-fun reading fell off. So while, I read the same amount as before if you count my own books and re-reading of those books, my leisure reading has really slacked off. But I can say that when I was pregnant and sick all the time, I didn’t read for almost a whole year. That kinda killed me inside. I couldn’t concentrate on reading because the nausea was so bad. That’s the only time in my life the reading slacked off and it had nothing to do with being an author. 🙂
I read tons when I was a kid and then slowed way down in college – and then practically stopped reading completely once I had kids. I can’t exactly pinpoint why. I think maybe I was getting tired of the fantasy genre but had no idea what else to read because nothing appealed to me. I actually started reading again with the whole Twilight craze – yep, those are the books that got me reading again. And I haven’t stopped. 🙂
In the better days I used to read a lot. I never kept track of them, though so I don’t have a really good number. But now with work and school, I hardly have enough time to read a lot. I’m also in a slump where there will be a couple of things I’m really excited about but everything else is meh. Right now my yearly goal is 30. I tried to read 100 last year but I didn’t even get past 10 lol.
I went through periods in my life where I barely read at all (college was one of them), but the times where I’ve been reading, I read a lot! Hopefully life will calm down in the future and you’ll be able to pick up more books!
I usually read well over 300 but last year I barely made 300 and this year will be even less. I’ve barely broken 30 and usually I’m 60 or 70 books in. I’m not sure if I’m just more busy with family things or if my interest has waned a little but either way I do still consider myself an avid reader.
Yes – I remembered that you were one of those who reads voraciously. The fact that you “barely made 300” and consider that a low number inspires awe. 🙂
I definitely think I’ve been reading quite a huge number of books more than I did in my previous years ever since I started blogging. Before, I only read as fast as I wanted to. But these days I’ve been trying to finish at least one book per week, especially since I want to read a lot more books I’ve discovered lately! It’s a really huge struggle for me. IF ONLY I HAD THE POWER OF EXTREME BINGE-READING. >.<
Yes, that’s one thing with blogging – now you suddenly know about ALL these books that you want to read and you feel the need to get to them ALL!!
Hey, I wanted to tell you that I’ve tried commenting on your blog, but every time I go to it anything I click on brings up crazy pop-up SPAM things. I don’t know if this is just me? I wanted to email you about it, but I couldn’t even get to your email address – it just brought up another SPAM page! Shoot me an email if you want me to give you details! Just click on the email button under Contact Me at the top of my right sidebar.
Fun quiz! I’ve always loved to read and read a lot when I was younger, but I think blogging opened me up to a lot of other books and I feel like I read way more than I used too. Granted, I’ve been blogging since 2007 so that does make up a significant portion of my life too. haha
-Lauren
Yes, my reading has gone WAY up since I started blogging for sure!
I read 144 last year. It was better than 2014, but still, I wish I could be one of those 300+ people. But really, even then I wouldn’t be satisfied. It’s like some messed up self-competition. It IS hard because if I didn’t spend so much time with blog stuff, I WOULD have time to read more. But then would I? Who knows! Fun discussion!
I have to confess that this week I did a lot less blogging and commenting so that I could just READ (I wanted to finish The Others series – and there’s four books that are each over 400 pages). I also had editing to do, so my time was limited and I wanted to spend the time reading!!! 🙂
The thing about my reading habits is that they’ve gone through phases. In middle and high school I would guess I read between 50 and 100 books a year because there were times when I’d read a book in a day and other times when it might take me two weeks to finish one. But I was definitely known as a bookworm. But then in college I went numerous years in which I read like two books a year! *gasp* But then in 2014 I started again and read like 30, and then last year I read… I think over 150. And considering I’m already at 30 something, I imagine I’ll do close to the same this year. I wouldn’t mind having time to read more, but I’m happy with at least 100 a year.
This mirrors my reading life almost exactly. Except maybe it took me longer to get back to it. But now that I’m reading again, I’m reading a lot!!
I have noticed that I am reading way more than I used to. Part of it can be attributed to blogging, but I am also unemployed. Not having a job leaves a lot of time for reading.
Yes, I would imagine that it would be a lot easier to read if you didn’t have a job. I technically just work part-time (with my editing), but I also homeschool my kids, so … it works out to at LEAST a full-time job.
I’m one of those people who read less than 30 books a year! I don’t mind it at all, especially in the last few years I’ve had to devote more of my time to reading books and papers for uni. I’ve only had my blog in the last year, so I can’t tell just yet how it’s affected my reading in terms of numbers, though my TBR has certainly doubled!
See, I always just assumed that anyone who loved books enough to create a book blog would read a ton of books – but I think that’s because when I started blogging, I thought book blogs were just book review blogs. Now I understand that there’s so much more to talk about!!
Last year I made it a priority to read more. I stopped watching a lot of TV shows and spent less time screwing around on the internet. I was trying to read 100 books in 2015, but I only got to 96. I guess 96 is better than the 74 I read in 2014. I’m trying again to get to 100 this year.
Watching less TV is a big factor for me. I used to watch A LOT of TV. Now I only watch a few shows – I watch one show a day while I do the elliptical and then there’s a couple of shows I binge watch with my hubby.
I read between 50 and 60 books every year. That really hasn’t changed much since I started blogging. I’m happy with whatever number gets me to the 20,000 pages read per year goal I have.
A page goal is much smarter than a book goal. I think sometimes a book goal discourages reading longer books (even if we try not to let it affect us).
I used to be able to read a lot more when I was a kid, especially with the two months off you’d get every Summer. Then I went to Uni and completely stopped reading for fun because I was studying Linguistics and Psychology and reading enough for my classes that there simply was no time (or desire unfortunately) to read for fun. Since I got back into reading as an adult, I could read around 100 books a year but with real life obligations AND blogging, I can only ever manage to read around 50 books a year now. It makes me sad in a way but I love blogging so it’s a fair trade I suppose. Now that I’ve integrated audiobooks in my routine, I hope I can get that number up again but with writing reviews, blog posts and actively commenting on other blogs, there’s just not always enough time to do all the reading I wish I could! 100 books per year would be perfect for me…I’m blown away by how people find the time to read 200-300 books. And I don’t even have kids! Just a boyfriend and two cats LOL!
Yes – I agree that blogging makes it a lot harder to get in reading time. This week, I gave myself a break from doing much blog-hopping/commenting so that I could plow through the whole The Others series – I just wanted to read!!
I read a lot for school, but as I rarely read complete books, I can’t exactly count them. For pleasure, I’ve read about 40-something books the past 2 years, which is a decent number. I would like to read more, but really I would like to read more consistently. I read in spurts, and I don’t like it.
Yes, when I was in school, I read a lot less – you already have so much you HAVE to read!
Exactly! But I also know I’m not using the time that I do have to read, though I sometimes want to, so I think I would like to be better about that. Maybe it’ll even shore up my numbers~
I usually read between 25-30, but I tend to have long breaks between books (at least a week or so). I need a break between the different worlds and writing styles, otherwise the “culture shock” gets in the way of my enjoyment of the book. I also tend to compare books way more when I read them super close together, and I want to let each book be its own thing.
That’s a common thing, I think – where people need to “let go” of one book before moving on to another. Sometimes I literally put one book down and pick another up. It is a bit of a crazy transition sometimes.
I am surprised to see I scored the way almost everyone else did on this quiz. I read 166 books last year, but only 94 the year before. I am happy with the amount that I read mostly. I know it would be awesome to read faster and therefore get like 200+ reads. There are just so many great reads out there and so many awesome new books every week.
I am always shocked to see how many books some book bloggers read. It seems weird to me that some people only read 1-2 books a month and books is all the blog about. What do they do with the rest of their time? I have stopped reading blogs that don’t do enough reviews (at least 6 a month) and/or just try to give “book blogging” advice. I just like to see bloggers who are really excited about books. No reviewing books on a book blog just seems silly to me.
Great topic, Nicole!
I found it interesting that some bloggers only read a couple of books a month too, but I have realized that there are other things to talk about when it comes to books. I follow one blog who ONLY does discussions, and I find it kind of refreshing. So, I guess there’s a place for everyone. Of course, you have to decide what you want to read – we all have our own tastes. 🙂
I’ve always been a reader since I was a child. but I do know that book blogging has enabled me to find more books, and receive more books, and in turn that means I have increased my reading habits a little bit more. But I still read a little over 100 books a year which is the same as always I guess 😀
When I wasn’t working for the last couple of years I was able to read a lot more. Then when I got a job I read less, but then went back to more when my commute got longer. It’s usually around the same number of books but I’ve been reading quite slower this year–I just have less time.
Ooh this was a marvellously interesting post! AND YES. I read so many books..omg. Before blogging, I used to read…oh I don’t even know? Probably not even 50 a year. And I thought I was an avid bookworm. xD Now I read up to 300…EXCEPT I’M TRYING TO CUT BACK BECAUSE READING IS STRESSING ME. XD It feels so weird to be like congratulating myself for reading less, but I honestly am. I’m only “allowed” to read 20 books a month…so I can try and not stress about fitting in a book-per-day. And also my blog is high maintenance and I need time to work/write. hehe. I need 39839 more hours in the day though because my TBR is growing faster than I can eat it!
I read 167 books last year according to GoodReads. Prior to last year, I never kept track! I know I’m reading a lot more now that I have a book blog. But I think I probably read about this much as a kid and during high school. I always had at least 1-2 books with me in my bag that weren’t school related, and I’d read them during lunch or free periods. During class after I finished my work as well. But then after I graduated school I had less time and would occasionally go for a few months without reading a book. (Crazy I know!)
So blogging has actually made me get back to reading as much as I did when I was younger. And I love that since I read middle grade as well as adult, I can pick books for my niece and nephew that they end up loving.
I can usually read about 1-1.5 books a week. So by the end of the year, I’ve read around 55-60 books. I wish I had more time to read, but life with two boys, their activities, play dates and family and friend constantly visiting (since we live where a lot of people love to vacation) I’ve learned to accept the number I can read. 150 is impressive! =D
Such a fun survey Nicole! It was interesting seeing the stats too, it seems I’m not alone on a lot of subjects.
The number of books I read has increased since I started book blogging; recently, however, blogging seems to be taking the back seat. I’m kinda over feeling obligated to share a post every day if you know what I mean 😉
Still, I find it incredibly amazing that you are able to read 150 books in one year considering you homeschool, edit and blog! Wow! I’m overwhelmed as it is, and I don’t even know if I am going to manage to reach my goal of 60 🙁
Last year was the most I’ve ever read (recorded). I did read A LOT of children’s books, so that also factored in, but I think 100 is going to be about the average (ish). I’m OK with that even if I secretly am jealous of those who can read 150+ books.
I didn’t set a Goodreads challenge so I’m not sure about the number, but I’d say I read about 100 books in 2015? I’m pretty happy with that number – but I always value the quality over quantity, so if I could read 30 5-star books in one year instead of reading a mixed bag of everything, I’d probably go for it.
I’ve always been a reader, it’s such a big part of my life. I hope I can raise my kid(s) to be readers, too, but I’m afraid of forcing too many books on them. 😀 We’ll go slow and see how it goes (we now have storybook time every evening with kiddo, we read him a couple of picture books and I know he really enjoys that).
I sued to read so much more before I became a mom! Now I only read about 5 hrs a week which means it takes me about a week to finish a book. I also listen to audio books so between books and audiobooks I could “read” a maximum of 100 a year. But you are right! you can find so many ways to talk about books! the fact I DNF many books gives me a lot of material! 🙂 Great post Nicole!
I read a lot! Before blogging, I felt like I read similar numbers, BUT. I reread a lot because my library and book store were SO FAR AWAY! This post actually inspired me to write another post so thanks!
Interesting survey. I think more than anything, my TBR has grown 10x faster with blogging than it used to, but my reading hasn’t changed too much. Sometimes I do get overwhelmed on where to put my time though. Blog or read? I typically want to read but if I don’t share about it, what is the point of the blog. This year I want to try and start to balance and change that up a bit so that I still read a lot, but maybe not blog/review every single title I ever read. Bit exhausting!
I did used to read more as a kid/teen than an adult. My time is often needed elsewhere or I just don’t have the mental energy to give to reading.
[…] Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction has a discussion and quiz about how much you read. […]