BorisP Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 I was kinda curious how many books people read in their whole life? Lately I been realizing that I have an open mind compared to most people. I been trying to teach strangers various ideas. I like to make a game out of it because transferring facts is boring. I may as well be a computer. If I make people guess things or figure things out, besides getting the information, I am teaching them how to think for themselves. How to make educated guesses based on the information at hand. These people hate me! Really! They want the answer and they want it now! They don't want to work, they don't want to guess, they don't want to extrapolate, they don't want to have fun. They want what they want NOW and if I don't give it to them they throw a tantrum and refuse to talk anymore. I could not figure out why. In all my classes at school, we all talked to each other. We talked about homework, we talked about principles from the various classes, we talked about how classes were related to each other. We sat around and talked about "stupid" stuff like how real were the science principles in various sci fi movies or books. I started wondering if I have an exceptionally open mind from reading science fiction. Sci Fi is all about being open to new ideas. I been doing it since I was a kid. I will listen to just about anything for awhile because you never know where you will learn something new. The only way I could think of to prove my theory was to ask some other sci fi people how many books they read in their life and did it open up their mind more than others, and whether or not it seems to them that strangers they run into are willing to think or is it just sci fi type people who are willing to think and talk about possiblities that may turn out to be absurd? I think I probably read 1000 or maybe 2000 books. Does that sound like too many? I never counted so I am guessing. I read every sci fi book that was interesting in the school library when I was a kid. I read every interesting book in a small town library when I was a small kid. I read all the interesting books I could find in the big city library when I moved there and all the books the high schools had. Then I read all the interesting books the college had and bought the ones at the bookstore that looked interesting. I been reading so much science fiction for so long that when I went to the book store the other day, I could not find anything to read. That was kinda scary. I have read every worthwhile or interesting science fiction story there is from 1940 until today, 2005. That means I have probably read 100 or 200 of the most imaginative and thinking people in the USA and what their ideas of the future and science fiction were like. Does that make me more openminded than most people you think? What is your experience with people? Are sci fi types more willing to be curious and talk about new and/or weird ideas? Or are all people similarly curious and my experiences with these people getting mad at me for being mysterious and talking new ideas just a short run of bad luck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psheldrake1 Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 Close to a thousand. I try to read a book every 2-3 days. Time/ schedule permitting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendo001 Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 i wouldnt know how many sci-fi books i read, but its a lot. I think my earliest book about sci-fi, was an X-files book, but i love to read so i could be wrong ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
circeseye Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 im good for about 1 book a week. been doing that oh i say since i was a kid and im 36 now. :) and if its a good book series i can read 2 to 3 in a week. :p hell you should see the library i have. :D close to about 5000 books :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZaphodiLe Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 Not many, about 4 i think. Mainly because I recently "discovered" sci-fi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oma Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 Probably over .. 150 ... but only 20 in the past 5 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stranger Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 You are open minded? :stare: Now that's funny! I read a lot of books when I was a kid, though not many of them were sci-fi. These days I find there are a lot of things I'd rather do than read books, so I only read a few a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolcat13 Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 Id say about 40 or 50 sci fi books alot more in the mystery books and adventure books especially as a kid . also I read alot of political based material and veterinary material as it relates to my profession I think that reading period helps open you up to new ideas not just sci fi .IMO for example I read all of Arthur Conan Doyle as a young teenager and I thought that many of the princables of bieng analytical were taught to me by reading that all told I would say that i have read a few thousand books and several thousand articles or essays as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcant Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 4,000+ I suppose, that might sound massive, but it's only 2 or 3 a week for 35 years plus most old pulp novels can be read in a few hours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BorisP Posted April 7, 2005 Author Share Posted April 7, 2005 Wow! 4 or 5000! Maybe I should up my guesstimate of how many I read? "You are open minded? Now that's funny! " Oh come on Stranger. You can do better than that. Say what is on your mind. Don't hold anything back, it is bad for you. Holding back your thoughts is like trying not to sneeze or holding a fart in. It will hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vystral Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 Oh, maybe 4. Sorry, I hate to read... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engineer101 Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 well the most i read were all the Dune Books. Theres were some other sci fi books i read. about 50+. but mostly ww2 books but that doesnt count. im starting on writing this Storyline involving Cloning, a Neo Fascist Empire, A growing Terran Republic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderbear Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 Our current family library is about 5000 books ... I don't know how many we've given away to libraries or traded in at the used book store. I do know that books are slowly crowding people out of our house! I don't read as much Sci-Fi as I used to. But, this year I've already read 11 SF books, a couple other novels, half-a-dozen books on software development, and probably another half-dozen on science. And this has been a slow year, dominated by a lot of driving and DVD watching so far. Oh yeah, I'm a book addict, in case nobody had noticed. Unfortunately, I end up reading only about 30 or 40 % of the books I buy, and the rest pile up waiting to be read. Please, HELP ME before I read again!!!! :o :o :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engineer101 Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 how fast did you read when you were younger? somewhere when i was in elementary, this teacher kept telling certain people i read at a college level. Fast reading then all that words comes to my head so i actually think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 Our current family library is about 5000 books ... I don't know how many we've given away to libraries or traded in at the used book store. I do know that books are slowly crowding people out of our house! I don't read as much Sci-Fi as I used to. But, this year I've already read 11 SF books, a couple other novels, half-a-dozen books on software development, and probably another half-dozen on science. And this has been a slow year, dominated by a lot of driving and DVD watching so far. Oh yeah, I'm a book addict, in case nobody had noticed. Unfortunately, I end up reading only about 30 or 40 % of the books I buy, and the rest pile up waiting to be read. Please, HELP ME before I read again!!!! :o :o :o My diagnosis... You are a bibliophile. It's OK. I'm one too. I read anything that isn't in the same realm as Harry Potter (meaning that Harry Potter is little more than the trash novels or soap operas my mother reads/watches). I tend to read meta-physics/meta-ethics/contemporary anylitical philosophy/sentential & modal logic and the like. I'm a big fan of Quine and Wittgenstein. SF serves the entertainment/relaxation portion of my reading life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeymind Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 I'd say around 1,500-2,000 for SF in the last 22 years or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assaua Posted April 9, 2005 Share Posted April 9, 2005 Um probably around 10,000 or more over the past 40 years. Not all Scifi though I like Fantasy, and D&D novels as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thanatos355 Posted April 9, 2005 Share Posted April 9, 2005 i read alot. i read every night for at least 2 hrs. it helps me relax and get to sleep. i couldnt even begin to guess how many books i've read. just way too many and yet, not near enough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yamayee Posted April 10, 2005 Share Posted April 10, 2005 Um probably around 10' date='000 or more over the past 40 years. Not all Scifi though I like Fantasy, and D&D novels as well.[/quote'] :cyclops: counts the books read in whole life. 50...51...52...53...54...... damn the digital age. Does the internet count as reading? :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyran Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 thousands i read a lot still but not as much as i used to i could easily read 4 or 5 a week . my problem was getting enough to read Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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