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Mini: How Many Books Can You Read in Your Life? · Why We Do What We Do

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we Do what we Do? Welcome
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Speaker 1: to Why we Do what we do many I am
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Speaker 1: your host Abraham and I'm Shane. We are a psychology
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Speaker 1: podcast and on Mondays we release these short form discussions
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Speaker 1: where we just take a little topic or question and
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Speaker 1: we answer it in like fifteen minutes. Then get out
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Speaker 1: of there and you can go about the rest of
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Speaker 1: your day. But it's a nice, small, consumable way to
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Speaker 1: understand a thing. I hope, Yeah, that's the goal at least. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: And today we're talking about books. Are you a book reader?
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Speaker 1: It feels like a sort of nonsense question to us.
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Speaker 1: Who isn't a book reader? A lot of people, it
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Speaker 1: turns out like a probably distressing number, and I mean
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Speaker 1: of people who were like at the.
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Speaker 2: Age where they could be reading books.
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Speaker 1: But let's pretend for the sake of argument that listener,
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Speaker 1: you are a book reader. You made it to this podcast,
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Speaker 1: and that suggests to me at least that you probably
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Speaker 1: are a book reader, because I imagine that people who
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Speaker 1: are not really book readers are not seeking out a
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Speaker 1: podcast that's only goal is to teach you things.
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Speaker 3: Right exactly, So this is obviously a difficult question. To
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Speaker 3: ask about how many books you can read because some
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Speaker 3: books are very long, some are very short, some have
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Speaker 3: large fonts, some have small fonts, some of pictures, and
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Speaker 3: some don't. So it can be really challenging to quantify this.
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Speaker 2: And actually, did we even say that the question we're answering.
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Speaker 3: Today, Maybe we didn't. We were answering the question of
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Speaker 3: how many books can you read in your life?
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Speaker 2: Bury the lead, Sorry about that.
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Speaker 1: Yes, I got to wondering if I wanted to read
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Speaker 1: as many books as I could, how many could I
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Speaker 1: reasonably get through in my lifetime? And as you said,
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Speaker 1: there are some complex variables that would contribute to what
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Speaker 1: that number might be, I guess. And so the question becomes,
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Speaker 1: how would we even go about figuring out how many
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Speaker 1: books you could read in your lifetime? And the answer
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Speaker 1: is with truly gross averages and oversimplifications, which is what
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Speaker 1: we're going to do right now.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, isn't that fun? So let's start with how many
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Speaker 3: books there are? Well, at this time, as far as
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Speaker 3: we can tell, there are over one hundred million books,
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Speaker 3: and not even most of those are from Stephen King,
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Speaker 3: which is wild to me. But can you read all
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Speaker 3: those books in your lifetime even if you wanted to. No,
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Speaker 3: absolutely not, that's too many because there's so many still
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Speaker 3: coming out every single day.
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Speaker 2: Very true.
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Speaker 1: And the next consideration, so we need to know how
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Speaker 1: many books there are. And then also there's some amount
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Speaker 1: of how long will you live? Fun fact, if you
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Speaker 1: live in the United States, you can actually go to
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Speaker 1: the Social Security Life Expectancy Calculator and that will ask
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Speaker 1: you to put in some information that will then tell.
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Speaker 2: You the when you're going to die.
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Speaker 1: It'll ask you to put your sex and your birth
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Speaker 1: date and that's it. And so then from there, statistically
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Speaker 1: how much longer you have to live. Apparently, according to this,
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Speaker 1: I won't make it to ninety years old, but who knows.
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Speaker 1: They didn't ask for very much information, So maybe that's wrong.
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Speaker 1: Maybe I'll die much sooner, maybe i'll die much later.
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Speaker 1: But that's statistically where they expect me to go based
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Speaker 1: on my birth date and the thing that is between
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Speaker 1: my legs.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, let's see if I can get a little bit
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Speaker 3: longer than you, because I am a little bit younger. Apparently,
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Speaker 3: I am also not going to live till ninety So
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Speaker 3: that's a fun. That's a fun that's going to give
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Speaker 3: me some existential dread, so now I have to read
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Speaker 3: even faster. So another measure is is how fast you read.
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Speaker 3: So the average adult can read two hundred and thirty
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Speaker 3: eight words per minute silently one hundred and eighty three
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Speaker 3: words reading out loud. Assuming you generally read silently and
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Speaker 3: generally read around the average, we can start to piece
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Speaker 3: together our math or maths for our British folks.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and then of course there is the length and
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Speaker 1: the complexity of the literature to consider as well. But
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Speaker 1: an interesting note is that the actual the average length
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Speaker 1: of books has been increasing over time and is now
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Speaker 1: up to an average of four hundred pages, which is
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Speaker 1: more than it used to be.
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Speaker 3: Well, and look at that, people saying, attention spans are
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Speaker 3: getting smaller. So how many books can you read in
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Speaker 3: your lifetime? Well, if you're in Florida, only one, and
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Speaker 3: even that's a stretch, and that book is not very good.
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Speaker 3: But the rest of the country may also dwindle into
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Speaker 3: bookless future, depending on where we're going and the direction
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Speaker 3: of this next administration. I guess we'll see if we
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Speaker 3: live long enough to even find out to begin with.
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Speaker 1: Indeed, well, one way to figure this out could be
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Speaker 1: to simply survey people about how many books they read
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Speaker 1: every year, and so Pew Research Polls did exactly that.
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Speaker 1: So they surveyed Americans between twenty eleven and twenty fifteen,
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Speaker 1: and they came away with some analysis of about how
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Speaker 1: much people are reading. The average American reads about twelve
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Speaker 1: books per year. It it is worth noting that the
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Speaker 1: median is four. The median is four. That's actually three
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Speaker 1: books per year for men and five books per year
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Speaker 1: for women.
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Speaker 3: That doesn't seem like a lot of books.
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Speaker 1: It does not, and it's actually crazy like if the
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Speaker 1: average is twelve, but the median is four, that means
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Speaker 1: that there is a very small number of people.
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Speaker 2: Reading a lot of books. And Shane is, I think.
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Speaker 3: We're skewing that number. Yeah, I was gonna say we're
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Speaker 3: skewing that number up, baby, all right. So the trend
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Speaker 3: decreased over that timeframe as well, and people with higher
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Speaker 3: education read an average of seventeen books a year with
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Speaker 3: a median of seven, which, again that doesn't seem like
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Speaker 3: a lot of books.
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Speaker 2: It doesn't.
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Speaker 1: No. Interestingly, there was actually no difference between whether people
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Speaker 1: lived in urban, suburban, or rural areas. They all were
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Speaker 1: about the same statistically. Yeah, but then voracious readers of
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Speaker 1: what they call voracious readers were reading up to fifty
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Speaker 1: books per year.
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Speaker 2: That's it, And that actually does.
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Speaker 1: Like say, that feels that's definitely higher than where I'm at.
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Speaker 3: I read one hundred books last year, so I'm like,
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Speaker 3: I'm always like really fascinated with like that number. But
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Speaker 3: I also read really rapidly, and I also read everything.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, you are you put the voracious readers to shame.
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Speaker 1: They look lazy compared to you.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, tighten up, folks, tighten up.
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Speaker 1: So now we're actually at the point where we can
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Speaker 1: do some calculations to figure out what we can more
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Speaker 1: or less expect on what someone might be able to
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Speaker 1: read over the course of their lifetime, assuming that they're
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Speaker 1: not interrupted by ads.
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Speaker 3: So we're back from something that you weren't reading to
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Speaker 3: talk about something that you're listening to, and also not
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Speaker 3: reading about a thing that you're going to read. So
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Speaker 3: extrapolating these numbers, the average person will read approximately six
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Speaker 3: hundred and eighty four to seven hundred and thirty two
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Speaker 3: books in their lifetime. A voracious reader, hello, we'll read
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Speaker 3: four thousand, five hundred and sixty to four eight hundred
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Speaker 3: and eighty in their life. That's it. It doesn't seem
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Speaker 3: like a lot of books.
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Speaker 1: That's all. How many books are you going to read
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Speaker 1: in your lifetime?
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Speaker 3: I read anywhere between seventy five and eighty books a year.
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Speaker 3: I'm sorry, seventy five and one hundred books a year
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Speaker 3: for the last couple of years. I would probably fall
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Speaker 3: in the higher end of the four thousands. I would
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Speaker 3: imagine I would probably get to the four like four thousand,
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Speaker 3: five hundred range.
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Speaker 1: Well, I'm actually guessing that because you are doubling the
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Speaker 1: for voracious reader averages, I think you might be well
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Speaker 1: over five or six thousand books in your lifetime if
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Speaker 1: you keep it.
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Speaker 3: Up, that'd be cool. And then you know, I have
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Speaker 3: not myself even I've never listened to an audiobook, so
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Speaker 3: I could add that to my repertoire and double up
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Speaker 3: my numbers that way too.
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Speaker 2: I love audiobooks.
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Speaker 1: It's actually one of the ways I'm able to get
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Speaker 1: through as many as I can because I'm usually actively
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Speaker 1: reading a couple of actual books and then listening to
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Speaker 1: an audio book or two as well.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I used to read like ten or twelve
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Speaker 3: books at the same time, and I stopped doing that
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Speaker 3: because I was realizing that I was splitting my attention
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Speaker 3: too much. So now I only read one book at
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Speaker 3: a time, all the way through in a couple of days,
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Speaker 3: and then I'll do it next another one.
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Speaker 2: That's you know, and honestly, you heard it from the expert. Folks,
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Speaker 2: listen to Shane's advice.
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Speaker 3: That just works for me and my lifestyle. That's all
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Speaker 3: I'm saying. But the problem. The problem is when I travel,
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Speaker 3: I have to bring like seven books with me to
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Speaker 3: make sure that I have enough reading material, which is
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Speaker 3: why I ended up reading The Art Thief because I
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Speaker 3: did not have an extra book with me.
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Speaker 1: There you go, all right, Well, this survey, as we
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Speaker 1: talked about, was done with an American audience, so I
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Speaker 1: was curious about other countries and they're reading habits. Interestingly,
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Speaker 1: India actually reports the most amount of time spent reading
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Speaker 1: on average, which is ten hours and forty two minutes
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Speaker 1: per week. Thailand is next at nine hours and twenty
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Speaker 1: four minutes per week, then China eight hours per week,
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Speaker 1: the Philippines at seven hours per week, seven hours thirty
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Speaker 1: six minutes per week, and then finally Egypt at seven
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Speaker 1: hours and thirty minutes per week.
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Speaker 3: The US didn't even make this list, which I'm actually
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Speaker 3: not surprised by that, which is unfortunate. However, interestingly, America
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Speaker 3: makes up thirty percent of the book market as the
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Speaker 3: number one purchaser of books. We even read more books,
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Speaker 3: just don't spend as much time doing so. I guess
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Speaker 3: it's weird. Indias right behind America and books purchased and
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Speaker 3: read though, so America purchases the most but spends the lot,
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Speaker 3: like very little time reading them.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems apparently.
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Speaker 1: I guess what we do is we decorate our shelves
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Speaker 1: with books but don't actually read them, and India they're
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Speaker 1: actually buying and reading them.
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Speaker 3: Sure, well, yeah, that's yeah, it's functional there.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, we just like them as decorations here, I guess, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 2: A lot, because we buy a ton of.
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Speaker 3: Them, so many.
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Speaker 1: But then the question becomes, but why though, why even
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Speaker 1: ask this question?
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Speaker 2: Why do I care?
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Speaker 1: Presumably we think that reading is inherently a good thing,
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Speaker 1: and not even presumably we do believe that here on
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Speaker 1: this show. Yes, I mean yes, reading often allows I mean,
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Speaker 1: there's so many benefits. Reading often allows you to exercise
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Speaker 1: your mind in a very particular way. It is deriving
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Speaker 1: complex relations from a set of abstracts stimuli and having
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Speaker 1: that affect your behavior. That is wild. No other animal
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Speaker 1: does this. Yeah, they can, Like they can learn from
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Speaker 1: something some other organism's behavior at a time totally distant
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Speaker 1: in the past by arbitrary symbolic communication that was like
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Speaker 1: recorded somewhere.
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Speaker 2: That is wild. Yes, So it.
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Speaker 1: Is a really cool thing that we do as humans.
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Speaker 1: We see a lot of benefit and pushing that envelope
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Speaker 1: and exercising that skill that we are uniquely.
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Speaker 2: So good at doing.
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Speaker 1: It is a remarkable extension of our language capabilities that
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Speaker 1: we can gain so much from arbitrary symbolic communication spread across.
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Speaker 1: Like if you open up and if you find the
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Speaker 1: right book and open and read it, you could gain
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Speaker 1: a skill that you did not have just by like
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Speaker 1: looking at contrasted colors on paper.
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Speaker 2: That's wild.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, you can sit still and stare at a former
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Speaker 3: tree and hallucinate vividly and learn something new.
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Speaker 2: Reading is wild.
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Speaker 1: Beautiful. That is such a beautiful description of reading. Stare
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Speaker 1: at a dead tree and hallucinate wildly and learn a
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Speaker 1: new skill. That is that should be I love it.
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Speaker 1: That should be a T shirt right there.
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Speaker 3: Maybe one day it will be. So reading also creates
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Speaker 3: at another medium in which the creator can speak uninterrupted
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Speaker 3: in a long form narrative to an audience that can't
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Speaker 3: speak back, but that must entirely volunteer to hear that
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Speaker 3: message and of course consume it at their own pace.
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Speaker 3: So it's a really fascinating place that a speaker can go.
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Speaker 3: I'm going to share my thoughts and I'm going to
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Speaker 3: share my thoughts in a way that you can't stop me.
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Speaker 3: And I'm going to write so much. And then you
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Speaker 3: can choose to participate, or you can choose not to participate.
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Speaker 3: Either way, you are here, You've got my book, I've
12:07
Speaker 3: written my thoughts.
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Speaker 1: We move on, yes, exactly. And this can provide a
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Speaker 1: useful challenge to hear ideas that differ from your own.
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Speaker 1: If you're seeking out those kinds of books, it can
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Speaker 1: strengthen beliefs you already have, which most of us are
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Speaker 1: probably doing that, and you can learn something you didn't know,
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Speaker 1: or it can just be to entertain you. Honestly, one
12:27
Speaker 1: of my favorite things about books is seeing an author
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Speaker 1: create this world out of nothing and bring me into it.
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Speaker 1: It's so amazing to me that they think through and
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Speaker 1: plan and create and they build this world and then
12:43
Speaker 1: like I just buy it, like I'm there with it
12:45
Speaker 1: if they do a really good job, you know, and
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Speaker 1: I think that that's a real it's really cool. And
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Speaker 1: of course I learn a ton of things from books.
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Speaker 1: I have shifted the way I think about things by
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Speaker 1: reading a lot of books, like just reading, just I
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Speaker 1: just love reading.
12:57
Speaker 2: I'm just a big fan of it.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, me too. So I I think the endpoint that
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Speaker 3: we would make here is that learning means change, and
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Speaker 3: the only thing that is connittant is change, and in
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Speaker 3: books themselves give us an opportunity to learn things that
13:09
Speaker 3: we would never have access to learning otherwise. And so
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Speaker 3: I think the ultimate thesis of this episode is can
13:15
Speaker 3: you read a lot of books? Yeah? But doesn't matter
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Speaker 3: read one book, read a million books. All that matters
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Speaker 3: is we love books. We encourage you to read more books.
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Speaker 3: We support books and authors and bookstores and all the
13:26
Speaker 3: things that go along with it. So please please please
13:28
Speaker 3: go read books.
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Speaker 2: Perfect way to end this.
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Speaker 1: If you'd like to tell us about books, you can
13:34
Speaker 1: reach us at info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com or on
13:39
Speaker 1: the social media platforms. Thank you so much for listening.
13:42
Speaker 1: If you like to support us, go join us on Patreon,
13:44
Speaker 1: leave us a rating, interview, pick up some.
13:45
Speaker 2: Merch, etc. And as we said, go pick up some books.
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Speaker 1: We will be back on Wednesday with the full length
13:51
Speaker 1: episode and next Monday with another mini. But unless I'm
13:54
Speaker 1: missing anything, Shane, do you have anything to add or
13:56
Speaker 1: is there anything that I forgot before we wrap up?
13:59
Speaker 3: I wrote some books.
14:00
Speaker 2: You can buy those two. That is right, Shane wrote
14:02
Speaker 2: some books.
14:02
Speaker 1: You can go check out WND Press for some of
14:04
Speaker 1: the books that Shane has written or brought into the world.
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Speaker 3: It's now sixth and Center Publishing. We had to change
14:10
Speaker 3: the title because WND is an alt right publishing company
14:14
Speaker 3: that we want to avoid.
14:15
Speaker 1: Good lord, okay, sixth and Center public change.
14:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, sixth and Center Publishing dot com. If you want
14:21
Speaker 3: to check that out, Yeah.
14:22
Speaker 1: Okay, wow oof, all right, go check that out. We
14:25
Speaker 1: are not all's right, folks, and anyway, go check those out.
14:30
Speaker 1: But I think that's all that I have to say.
14:31
Speaker 1: This is Abraham and this is Shane.
14:33
Speaker 2: We're out.
14:34
Speaker 3: Bye. You've been listening to why we do what we do.
14:38
Speaker 3: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
14:41
Speaker 3: going to WWD WWD podcast dot com. Thanks for listening,
14:46
Speaker 3: and we hope you have an awesome day.