P dogs thread had me thinking. I've been trying to account for the books I've read after school years, say after 18 years old.

I won't include tech manuals, like reloading and repair books. I started the list a few times and got serious in the last year. I'd forgot the non-fiction like the travel books of Bryson, Duncan, Horwitz and Churchill's books and biography's like Yeager, Iacocca, Ruttan.

I'm up to 180 books, mostly pulp like Connelly, Deighton, Cussler, Childs, Hillerman, Braun, Block, Burke, Jance, Andrews, Hiaasen, Sanders, Evanovich, Larsen to a lesser degree, Lustbader, Flynn, Wood, Johansen, Kellerman, Crichton, Grisham, Sandford.

I didn't include comic stuff Dilbert, Trudeau, Larson, Breathed

I'm sure this is only half. I figure I read a book on average every 15 days ( I use public transport to/from work). How about you.

quote:

Originally posted by richj:
P dogs thread had me thinking. I've been trying to account for the books I've read after school years, say after 18 years old.

I won't include tech manuals, like reloading and repair books. I started the list a few times and got serious in the last year. I'd forgot the non-fiction like the travel books of Bryson, Duncan, Horwitz and Churchill's books and biography's like Yeager, Iacocca, Ruttan.

I'm up to 180 books, mostly pulp like Connelly, Deighton, Cussler, Childs, Hillerman, Braun, Block, Burke, Jance, Andrews, Hiaasen, Sanders, Evanovich, Larsen to a lesser degree, Lustbader, Flynn, Wood, Johansen, Kellerman, Crichton, Grisham, Sandford.

I didn't include comic stuff Dilbert, Trudeau, Larson, Breathed

I'm sure this is only half. I figure I read a book on average every 15 days ( I use public transport to/from work). How about you.

How I miss NYC train commutes - I read a lot on the trains.

I have 8 bookshelves full - I have books for a lifetime.

I don't read fiction unless it is very good - salman Rushdie satanic verse quality.

I read a lot of non fiction - world and American and military history, finance, economics, evolutionary biology, uncertainty/probability.

I hate reading hunting books - I have bought a few but only read one - ruark.

I go thru reading spurts - not been reading much lately.

I don't do electronic books.

Mike

In high school it was my quest to read a book a day. Sometimes I'd have to stay up most of the night to do so.

I've always been a reader.

These days with the "innnanet". I'd say I spend at least 3 to 5 hours a day reading.

I don't read print books as much these days as I'm in my vehicle quite a bit. For the last 20 years or so I've listend first to "books on tape", then books on CD. Now I have an Audible subscription and download books to my I-phone. I have an audio out/bluetooth connection and do quite a bit. I may listen to 3 or 4 books a month. Just finished G-Man by Stephen Hunter last night and Burning Bright by Nick Petrie in last two weeks.

Starting Gunmetal Gray by Mark Greaney later this eve, to be followed by Hillbilly Elegy!

ya!


GWB

There is no way to even hazard a guess.Most likely 100s of thousands as I read all the time.I will add that no one ever says "I used to like to read". Once you are a reader you are hooked for life.

I'm not sure how many books I have read all together but I've read three just since I stopped posting in the Political Forum.

I know for a fact that I have read several thousand books, if we count paper backs too.

And now with Kindle books, it makes it even easier to read many more.

I have a library of old African hunting and exploration books, several hundreds, and have read most of them.

I rest my case. Once a reader,always a reader.

quote:

Most likely 100s of thousands

Well, if you are about 60 that means you have read about 5 books a days since the day you were born.

I'd put my number in the high thousands. My reading goes in spurts, right now I'm finishing "The Politcally Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers". From that book, I am going to read the definitive recent bio on Hamilton. I didn't realize how amazing a man he was. Most nights I read myself to sleep. Harry Bosch series, IMO the finest 20th century detective series, only very slightly behind Sherlock Holmes, recommended by someone in here, was a real sleep stealer.

Of course I'm also a heavy reader of magazines, trying to cut back but still subscribe to at least 9 or 10. Among them, both NRA, Dwell, Arch. Digest, Southern Living, Soundings, Texas Sport Fishing,etc.

This thread is interesting cause it shows you the power of the internet and ability to integrate knowledge.

Wikipedia is just that - an aggregation of public/collective knowledge.

Asking a gun or hunting question on ar.

No one can read anywhere near the books out there or process all the information out there. But google gives one fast access to a lot of info as does Wikipedia.

Polymaths always fascinate me.

But a thinking man always reads.

Charlie Munger on reading.

https://25iq.com/2015/07/26/a-...-said-about-reading/

Mike

Lets see,


Virgil, Homer, Greek and Norse Mythology, Sabatini, Verne, Dumas, Goethe, Nietsche, Kafka, Casteneda, Hesse,Phillip K. Dick, Heinlein, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Zane Grey (all), Burroughs (including the Pellucidar series), Bunyan, Watchman Nee, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Spurgeon, CS Lewis, F.E Peretti, LaHaye, JW Sire, Ken Kesey, Tom Wolf, Michner, Wouk, L'AMOUR, JF Cooper, Ludlum, Melville, R.W Service, Jack London, Kipling, Huxley, Hemingway, Stephen Hunter(all novels), Clancy, Deuterman, Conneley (all) Crais (all), Silva, Sanford, Kellerman, James Lee Burke, Jack Whyte, Flynn, Thor, Child, Coes, Robert B. Parker, Ace Adkins, Grisham, Lawrence Block, Thomas Perry, Baldacci, Coben, Lescroat, RW White, J Patterson, Olen Stienhauer, Mark Sullivan, Mark Greaney David Stone, Brad Taylor, Ridley Pearson, Ayn Rand, Greg Isles to name a few off the top of my head.

ya!


GWB

Kindle & Amazon are a vacuum on my credit card acct.
240 books in 13 months ( wife + me , in about equal amounts )
we average a book every 3 days .......EACH.

Read myself to sleep every night.

In addition I purchase printed books to read in my cabin ( another 20 or so books per year )

I have the reading gene. Read the newspaper at 5, WW2 was interesting. Read a book every day or two untill I got married. Wife, kids and business curtailed my reading. Now retired, wife died, back to a book every couple of days. Like the feel of a real book even though my old fingers struggle to turn the pages. Kindles are reluctantly used on airplanes. With the electronics ban on airlines, I'll go back to a bunch of paperbacks for my African trip.

Dave

Way over 1000.

And if anyone needs some book recomendtions, I wholeheartedly recommend Leon Uris, who wrote historical fiction. I would think his writing would appeal to this crowd.

Exodus- about the creation of Israel.
The Haj- about the Palestineans between 1920-1950.
Trinity- Ireland and the independence from 1860-1921
Redemption- Irish, Australia and WWI.
Battle Cry- the creation of the marines during the civil war.
Mila 18- Warsaw ghetto uprising during nazi occupation.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:

quote:

Most likely 100s of thousands

Well, if you are about 60 that means you have read about 5 books a days since the day you were born.

I'd put my number in the high thousands. My reading goes in spurts, right now I'm finishing "The Politcally Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers". From that book, I am going to read the definitive recent bio on Hamilton. I didn't realize how amazing a man he was. Most nights I read myself to sleep. Harry Bosch series, IMO the finest 20th century detective series, only very slightly behind Sherlock Holmes, recommended by someone in here, was a real sleep stealer.

Of course I'm also a heavy reader of magazines, trying to cut back but still subscribe to at least 9 or 10. Among them, both NRA, Dwell, Arch. Digest, Southern Living, Soundings, Texas Sport Fishing,etc.

In the middle of a Harry Bosch book at this time. I read 2-2.5 hours a day. My interest is wide. fiction, HISTORY, non fiction and biography. I have read a lot of early Alaska books and journals recently. I usually read certain authors, subject, and so forth. My Kindle has 180 books reading the last 3 years.

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:
Lets see,


Virgil, Homer, Greek and Norse Mythology, Sabatini, Verne, Dumas, Goethe, Nietsche, Kafka, Casteneda, Hesse,Phillip K. Dick, Heinlein, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Zane Grey (all), Burroughs (including the Pellucidar series), Bunyan, Watchman Nee, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Spurgeon, CS Lewis, F.E Peretti, LaHaye, JW Sire, Ken Kesey, Tom Wolf, Michner, Wouk, L'AMOUR, JF Cooper, Ludlum, Melville, R.W Service, Jack London, Kipling, Huxley, Hemingway, Stephen Hunter(all novels), Clancy, Deuterman, Conneley (all) Crais (all), Silva, Sanford, Kellerman, James Lee Burke, Jack Whyte, Flynn, Thor, Child, Coes, Robert B. Parker, Ace Adkins, Grisham, Lawrence Block, Thomas Perry, Baldacci, Coben, Lescroat, RW White, J Patterson, Olen Stienhauer, Mark Sullivan, Mark Greaney David Stone, Brad Taylor, Ridley Pearson, Ayn Rand, Greg Isles to name a few off the top of my head.

ya!


GWB

It is always interesting to me to find out what people are reading. Geedubya, I wouldn't have figured many people here would be into Burroughs and Kesey. Kesey in particular is one of my favorites, and I got to talk with him several times.

My mother had me going to the library with her at five years of age and checking out books. Since then, I have read untold thousands of books. With TV being a vast wasteland, I cannot imagine life without the printed word. While my wife watches tv shows, I generally sit with my laptop and look up whatever comes to mind on the internet. I have not graduated to a Kindle, I am too much a dinosaur, and enjoy the feel of a good book in my hands, almost as good as holding a favorite firearm!

When we moved the last time, in September 2000, we brought along about a ton of books. This was after we thinned them out by about one-third, and didn't include anything like encyclopedias. The prospect of paying 70 cents per pound to the movers made us a little more selective about what to bring (and dissuaded me from buying an attractively priced ST1100 that summer).

Don't read much. Don't have time. Stopped my last magazine subscription last month. Fiction doesn't do much for me. I check Wikipedia often.

Cutting way back on my TV watching as well.

I spend most of my time shooting, golfing, bowling, partying, working-out in the gym, exercising, working in the yard.

I have a Nook. It's the greatest thing since bottled beer. My town library is on WiFi as am I so I can check out a book(s) right from home. I would imagine I have read a book a week (or more) since I was a grade school kid.

GWB

This kickstarted my memory a bit. Clancy & Ludlum.

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:
Lets see,


Virgil, Homer, Greek and Norse Mythology, Sabatini, Verne, Dumas, Goethe, Nietsche, Kafka, Casteneda, Hesse,Phillip K. Dick, Heinlein, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Zane Grey (all), Burroughs (including the Pellucidar series), Bunyan, Watchman Nee, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Spurgeon, CS Lewis, F.E Peretti, LaHaye, JW Sire, Ken Kesey, Tom Wolf, Michner, Wouk, L'AMOUR, JF Cooper, Ludlum, Melville, R.W Service, Jack London, Kipling, Huxley, Hemingway, Stephen Hunter(all novels), Clancy, Deuterman, Conneley (all) Crais (all), Silva, Sanford, Kellerman, James Lee Burke, Jack Whyte, Flynn, Thor, Child, Coes, Robert B. Parker, Ace Adkins, Grisham, Lawrence Block, Thomas Perry, Baldacci, Coben, Lescroat, RW White, J Patterson, Olen Stienhauer, Mark Sullivan, Mark Greaney David Stone, Brad Taylor, Ridley Pearson, Ayn Rand, Greg Isles to name a few off the top of my head.

ya!


GWB

I have no idea, but not a lot. I read maybe one a month, 100% non fiction. I do read 2-3 news papers daily.

Oh yeah ...... I have half a dozen books on Sudoku.

Some books I've enjoyed in the past are:

The Emperor of All Maladies
Elk of North America
The Prize
The Smartest Guys In The Room
And The Band Played On
The Perfect Shot
The Perfect Shot, North America
The Greatest Game Ever Played
Isaac's Storm
The Dark Side of Camelot
Band of Brothers
Flags of our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima
Black Hawk Down
The Terrible Hours
The Killer Angels
I, Claudius
Krakatoa
Killing Pablo
anything Dilbert

Authors I like, and their books I've read are:

Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air, Into The Wild, Where Men Win Glory)

Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo)

My past travels got me reading:

To The Bitter End
The Zulu Wars

Buffalo! by Boddington

The Last Mughal
The Shadow of the Great Game
India - A History
The Indian Mutiny

The Oxford History of the British Monarchy

Gallipoli

The Rape of Nanking

Now, I revert to Sudoku when I have any downtime.

quote:

Originally posted by richj:
GWB

This kickstarted my memory a bit. Clancy & Ludlum.

"Without Remorse" is probably one of my favorite Clancy novels.


The Osterman Weekend, Holcroft Covenant, Matarese Circle, Matarese Countdown were early Ludlum. I also liked the Bourne trilogy. Have not read Ludlum much since then.


Forgot to mention WEB Griffin. Read the first four or so of the Presidential series, but that's about all of Griffin.


As an aside, I don't know how many of you guys read James Lee Burke, but talk about an author in whose "prose" one can wallow. The first I happened to listen to was the unabridged version of "The Tin Roof Blowdown" shortly after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. After reading that one I was on a quest. I've now listened to most all. Have not finished "the Jealous Kind" nor House of the Rising Sun". Had to stop and did not have the motivation as yet to do so.

Lay Down My Sword and Sheild, Rain Gods and Feast of Fools are killer also!

ya!



GWB

I've read the first 2 Dave Robicheaux - Burke books.

The Neon Rain
Heaven's Prisoners

I went on a reading hiatus during and for a bit after law school, but I love to read.

WEB Griffin and Wilbur Smith are great for historical fiction. James Lee Burke is good and just finished one of his. I was recently turned into Chris Ryan, a former SAS guy, and really like his stuff.

quote:

Now I have an Audible subscription and download books to my I-phone. I have an audio out/bluetooth connection and do quite a bit. I may listen to 3 or 4 books a month.

Lora and I both listen to audio books we get thru our subscription to audible. Some of my favorite authors are Tom Clancy, Jeffery Deaver, Tony and Anne Hillerman, anything by or about TR, any books about George Custer, stuff like Lone Star Rising, Empire of the Summer Moon, historical books about the Old West, the Mountain Men, Lewis & Clark Expedition, Wilbur Smith's books about Africa, fairly eclectic on what I like listening too, I also enjoy Robert Heinlein, Orson Scott Card and Frank Herbert.

quote:

I went on a reading hiatus during and for a bit after law school, but I love to read.

Same here.

Beginning in the 4th grade I became an avid reader...Jim Kjelgaard being my first favorite author. I read non-stop until vet-school in the 80's...vet school consumed my time.

After vet school...medical journals consumed my reading.

Starting October 1, 1998 to Feb 1, 1999 (in the year after my residency) I read a 4-drawer filing cabinet literally totally full of scientific journal publication and about 30 textbooks getting ready for surgery boards which back then were 3 full days of testing.

After that exam and study period...I could not even read the newspaper without getting nauseous. Somewhere around 2003 or 4...I began to read again.

I try to spend a lot of my time now studying the Bible. I did read the Koran after 911. Now...if I am not studying the Gospel I try to read history.

My job still requires a lot of scientific reading to stay on the cutting edge of medicine.

My mother taught me to speed read when I was maybe 10 or 11 and since then I have read 10 or more books a month, every month. I think she knew what was coming from experience with my older siblings(I'm 8 years younger than the closest to me) and set me to reading to keep me quiet at night. Ever since I hit puberty I only sleep about 4- 5 hours a night(my sibling are the same way). That leaves a lot of time to be awake when others are trying to sleep, so reading.

We don't have cable or dish in our house so unless one of us turns Netflix on or puts a movie in I read in the evenings and night time when my wife is sleeping.

When I worked industrial construction and lived in my camper I didn't have any real distractions and I didn't usually know anybody but work people so I just stayed in and read most of the time...during that time I was probably reading more like 20 books a month.

I like everything, fiction, non-fiction, mysteries, fantasy, hunting, history, religion, politics,philosophy...I've even been known to read textbooks when I find a subject that interests me and I want to learn about it. About the only books I could never get into was sports stories, baseball, football etc. just never held my attention.

Some Authors(one in particular Terry Brooks) I've been reading everything he has ever written since I was 10 years old. I've re-read his books probably 3 or 4 times each. Most definitely my favorite fantasy author.

So it's a little hard to say how many separate books I've read exactly but conservatively I'd say over 4000 since I was 10 or 11 years old.

Of course some books stand out for me, like in the historical fiction category I've read "Pillar of the Earth" by Ken Follett maybe 5 or 6 times and could re-read it tomorrow and enjoy it again just as much. But that is really the only one of his books I've enjoyed like that, read several others of different time periods and they were okay but not interesting enough to ever read again.

I've got a tablet with pdf reader and kindle app on it and I've downloaded and read a lot of books on it but I just can't get into it as much as a real book. There is just something about the smell and feel and sound of a real book that a digital format just lacks.

If you do like digital format and you want to download free books that are in the public domain I highly recommend www.gutenburg.org and www.archive.org. For free audio books librivox.org is pretty good if you don't mind your books being read by multiple volunteers per book sometimes.

What a great topic.

I forgot to add that in high school, I got started reading for pleasure with Louis L'Amour books. I could read those in no time. Cheesy at times, but very entertaining.

If you read any Zane Grey.............


Stentorian

Soliloquy



Pan, who arrived at a vantage point ahead of Blinky, let out a stentorian yell.
"Valley of Wild Horses" by Zane Grey


Now Dan was a big man and he had a stentorian voice, deep like booming thunder.
"Tales of Fishes" by Zane Grey


In that moment of bitter soliloquy there had flashed through Adam Larey's mind memories and pictures of the past--the old homestead back East, vivid and unforgettable--the sad face of his mother, who had loved him as she had never loved his brother Guerd.

Wanderer of the Wasteland


Utes, I reckon," he said, answering to the habit of soliloquy that loneliness had fostered in him. "Like the Kiowas they shore die hard. Doggone me if I don't feel sorry for them! The beaver an' the buffalo aboot gone! The white man rangin' with his cattle wherever grass grows! Wal, Reddies, if yu air wise, yu'll go way back in some mountain valley an' stay there.

Twin Sombreros


ya!


GWB

The only books I got rid of were my law school books.

When I read I underline, highlight and mark. My books, especially the ones I re-read, tend to get pretty battered up.

Some books I reread pretty often.

I think when I got progressive glasses - last 4 years - my quantity of reading has declined but I may just be going thru a low reading spurt.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
The only books I got rid of were my law school books.

Some books I reread pretty often.

Yes, it was terrible when the authors would come out with a new edition each year, but with only minor changes. That killed the resale value in the bookstore, but I used some just as decoration in my office. However, Half Price Books paid a penance to buy them, as I would hate to just toss them.

I often buy a book and don't recognize the title, but realize I've read it before. It's still great and I catch more things I might have missed on the first read.

To those that say they fall asleep reading, I want to know the best way to find the last page read when you fall asleep and the book is closed without a mark.

Thousands

We have a 'Friends of the Library' group in town that run a used book store. They get x-library books, donated books, estate books, and books from who knows where. They have book by the bag sales, hard back sales, books by the box sales, and they just sell books. The wife and I buy boxes and bags full of books each year. When we finish them we donate them back to the store. For a reading 'addict' it is a truly great place. The commercial books stores must hate them but they do raise money for a good cause. Every town should have a place like this.
C.G.B.

quote:

Every town should have a place like this.

Most towns do they are called thrift shops a lot of them run by so called non-profits.

Several in my area have bag or 10 for a buck sales.

Like you I read them the donate them back

I used to read two or three a week. My record was five in one day, although they were what I'd consider pulp westerns (Louis LAmour). For most of the last 20+ years, I've had to look at a computer monitor for 10+ hours a day, so the eyestrain simply became too much, and in 2008 I was diagnosed with kerato conus in both eyes. I can read for a couple hours first thing in the morning, but that's usually reserved for work / technical reading. Most of my serious "reading" these days, is usually done via audio book. It's the only thing that makes commuting bearable, as the radio stations have played the same stuff for 35 years, and listening to disk jockeys is like listening to dogs bark. Anyway, it's a good way to catch up on the classics.

I buy used books to keep the cost down. Goodwill offers senior discounts on Wednesday, paperbacks for 70 cents.

Dave

Thousands. Reading is my way of relaxing, as well as part of my occupation/profession.

There was a mystery book store right near the Bull on Broadway south of the NYSE. It closed up after Borders went out of business 2 blocks away.

I miss the street vendors. We had a few that were good cabinet makers. One guy built a 5ft high cabinet with bifold door shelves, on wheels. Books were by author. They've been gone for years now.

I was surprised that there were more used book stores in Las Vegas than in NYC. A lot of them went out of business after 2008.