A Question (well, two actually…)

[sleigh]

How many novels do you read a year? Has that number gone up or down in the last five years?

Comments

Varies wildly

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I'm not entires sure I can answer the first question with consistency. I read a lot, but much of what I read is in web-page sized tidbits. I read a newspaper (well, some sections of a newspaper) most every day. But novels? In the last few months I've read maybe a dozen actual hard copy books, two of which were short story collections.

That's up from a long (comparatively) dry spell. Until a couple of years ago, I hadn't read many books published in the 2000s except Harry Potter. Hey, I was trying to catch up, and read thick classics like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Gone With The Wind.

So the answer to the second question is probably "yes" but that's skewed.

Hope this helps anyway.

This has been another episode of TMI LiveJournal. Sit, Ubu, sit.

how many?

[jdonat.livejournal.com]

probably 50 or 60 a year.. I have time every day (about 40 mins/day) on the commuter train that I take a book with me to read. So, I read a bunch, in short chunks. I've been doing more short story/anthology books in the last few years. Now, if you ask how many I've bought... probably 10 or so of the 50 I read in a year. The Oak Park Library is very good and carries a good selection of SF/F and what people call techno-thrillers (Clancy, Clive Cussler,... that genre). Also good for the train. The last few books I've read on the train were'nt novels, but short story/article collections (Cory Doctorow, Bill Fawcett, etc) some fiction, some not.

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

Well, Since I discovered I was done with school and able to read for fun around August, I have read probably 50 books of types? I went back to devouring everything I can when the kids are in bed.:) I love not having homework and a little free money to splurge with.:):) I read at least a couple books every week depending on work load and such.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

About 35.

Up, because of the Kindle.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

More non-fiction than fiction.

B

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

I don't actually know how many novels I read in a year, but I know it is fewer than I used to read in a year,

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I read about 300-475 books a year, I keep track because of our local reading contest.

I also read the newspaper, magazines, cereal boxes, whatever has words on it.

I find my ability to read is more based on how I am feeling... there are times when I cant focus to read, so my reading is like a barometer of how my life is going. The better things are, the more books get read.

[haniaw.livejournal.com]

I used to read at least 100 books a year but it's way down lately. I read more non-fiction than novels these days.

[controuble.livejournal.com]

I actually kept track a few years ago and read 147 books. At least 97% were novels - I don't care for short fiction much. My current count is probably down a little bit, but still over 100/yr.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I read 52 novels a year, an average of one per week, though it doesn't always end up that way. But, I do get my 52 in and have for several years. It's the only way I can manage reading with my hectic schedule. I must have a goal.

[jennlk]

An average of one a week, more if you count re-reads. There are weeks when I don't read anything other than the newspaper/blogs/mailing lists, and then there are weeks when I read a novel every day.

I think the number has stayed about the same, although the ratio of new to rereads has changed a bit -- we've been weeding the bookshelves, and I keep seeing books I want to re-read, and others that I skim in order to determine whether they stay on the shelf or go into a box.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

To answer your specific questions ...

Novels: In recent years it's been 10-15 per year. I read at least that many short story collections (antho, single author). This does not include re-reads.

Up/down: Your five year cut-off hit it pretty accurately for me because it has been down from a novel a week or so. I attribute the decline fairly directly to the passing of my dad and then several years later, my mom. My attention for pleasure reading isn't back to what it was.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm probably reading about 30-40 books a year, 2/3 of which are novels (not counting kids books)

This is more than in the past three years, but less than in the two years before that.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I once had a fan write me that he'd just read my latest book (which had come out the week before) on an overseas flight, and asking me when the next one coming out. I had to reply that I was still writing the next one.

He'd devoured in a few hours what had taken me about a year to write.

It put things in perspective to realize that some of you could consume my entire 30+ years of writing output in something less than a month... :-)

[guppiecat]

Novels specifically? Probably about 20 per year for the last two years. Prior to that, it was on the order of 80-100.

It's way down because my reading has shifted to non-fiction during the day (lots of blogs, PDF reports and business/science books) and graphic novels at night. I usually read one graphic novel before bed each night as it's something I can read that doesn't make my brain start spinning in ways that interfere with sleep.

Dunno if you want to count that or not.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Depends how you define it. Back when I worked for a trade house, I "read" dozens because I was working on them. I wasn't reading in a sit-there-and-read way, but I couldn't avoid following along on the plot and story as I went through the mss for design and/or typesetting.

I also am an inveterate re-reader. I often re-read from cover to cover (or perhaps from exciting middle scene to end). There are a couple dozen books that I go back to every few years in a kind of cycle.

But let's assume for the moment that you mean "sit down and read novels of your choosing, for the first time."

By that standard, I don't read a lot. Probably fewer than 15 books per year, these days, and that's an increase. (Like many people who work in trade publishing, I didn't read much for fun after the first year or two. Now that I've been in academic publishing for four years, I'm returning to reading fiction.)

I really need to get rid of my television.

[almsthvn.livejournal.com]

For the past 2 years I've probably read 2-4 novels a month. That's up from previous years. When my child required most of my time and attention, most of my "adult" reading was put on the shelf. Now that she's older, we sit and read together for hours at a time. I have really enjoyed getting back to my books - they are my friends. *hugs them.

We are eagerly awaiting the next books in several series! But anticipation isn't a bad thing ... As long as it doesn't take too long ;)

[tcastleb.livejournal.com]

For actually *reading* novels, it's gone way down. I think I've read, um, two this year. I have an iPod I can read e-books on but don't read much that way. I've read maybe ten non-fic books. Though, since I often spend an hour or two in the car a day, I listen to audiobooks. Selection is limited as they all come from the library, but I can usually find something worth listening to (anything from mystery to catergory romance to SF/F) and have found some really good ones. Though I'm very out of the SF/F loop at the moment. :>/

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I read 55-60 fictional "books" a year. That number does include a few anthologies and single short stories. (I think that most of the stories I read never make it onto my list or what I've read because I rarely remember to add things I read online.) I know that number has been roughly the same for the last three years and it probably hasn't changed much over five years either.