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most books read in a life time
Posted by Daniel Macione on 3/9/2001, 0:36:54
This is a play on the earlier question...the most books written in a life time: What do you think the largest
possible ammount of books for a reader to read in a life time?
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Posted by Lale on 3/9/2001, 3:17:29, in reply to "most books read in a life time"
It must be about the same number as the maximum points you can score in a game of Scrabble ;-)
There are people who read 2-3 novels a day.
I have always meant to count the number of books I have read so far, in my adult life. It must be an afternoon's
task; a rainy afternoon. Then I could add each book I read to the count and, in my death bed, know exactly
how many books I have read. I am a slow reader, so probably the number would be dissappointing.
Maybe we can all try to estimate how many books we have read so far, not counting the children's books, and
then divide that number by our adult years and come up with a book/year quotient.
A more interesting thing to do would be to compile a list of famous/infamous people and the number of books
they owned (we can never know for sure if they actually read them) when they died. For instance, once on
television I have seen Marilyn Monroe's library. It was impressive. She was attracted to Arthur Miller for a
reason. She liked intellectual people and she read a lot.
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Posted by Daniel Macione on 3/9/2001, 15:46:29, in reply to "most books read in a life time"
>compile a list of >famous/infamous people and >the number of books they >owned (we can never know for
>sure if they actually read >them)
There are those who collect books and never intend to read them...those who collect and intend to read them
one day often because they are allegedly classics or important or simply because it looks like a good read
and it is a cheap enough deal or "steal"...those who collect one by one as they read them...I am a little of all
And the incentive for those who collect the books but never actually get around reading them...(example taken
from non-fiction)...Charles Darwin had Gregor Mendels work on plant genetics in his library but he never read
it...and if he had...people speculate.
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Posted by Lale on 4/9/2001, 14:41:56, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
"...Mendel's interest had been aroused by experience in his father's orchard and farm. That Mendel himself
bought new books in these fields as they appeared is shown by his marginal notes in the works of Charles
Darwin that appeared in the 1860s and 1870s. But it is also certain that he had begun his experiments before
Darwin's first book was published and before the essential role assigned to heredity as the basis of
evolutionary change had been widely recognized."
So Mendel (1822 - 1884) read Darwin (1809 - 1882). I guess by the time Mendel published his works, Darwin
was almost done or at an advanced stage in his life and studies.
So, what are the speculations? What would have changed?
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 4/9/2001, 16:15:44, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
Depends how intensively we read - there are books you read over and again. I doubt the number really counts -
if everyone of us could find and study the 200 books that really matter, this world would be paradise. (Flaubert
Somebody calculated 3 to 5 days for the average reading time of a good book. The average life span is 25,000
to 30,000 days including childhood illiteracy and late age decrepitude - some 8,000 days without reading. That
leaves us with some 5 to 7 thousand books we actually read.
My first divorce had cost me a handpicked library of 5,000 volumes including rare and sought for items. I
started collecting again but many books donÕt travel well. So I learned to ration my bookshelf. I try to keep it
at somewhere between 150 and 180 items, including dictionaries.
The book I wouldnÕt want to live without: VirgilÕs Georgics.
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Posted by Lale on 4/9/2001, 22:45:06, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
1. I noted "first divorce" which implies that there were multiple of them ;-)
2. Was the other party deserving of the collection, in other words, had your ex-wife contributed to the procuring
and financing of at least some of those books?
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 4/9/2001, 23:11:20, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
2! And no - was all my aquisition.
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Posted by Daniel Macione on 5/9/2001, 0:21:13, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
NOTE: I could be wrong here but let me try.
First, I did not know Mendel had read Darwin...
Second, Mendel it can be argued is the founder of modern genetics. Darwin the founder of modern evolution.
The fact that Mendel had read Darwin and not made the leap to combine genetic and evolutionar theory speaks
on his not recognizing the implications...but to the best of my knowledge Mendel was not a prolific writer and
thus I wouldn't expect much of him...as far as leaps in thought are considered. Mendel "disoved" or better had
genetics discover him because he was in the right time and the right place...his fathers garden, with the right
Darwin on the other hand was a prolific writer...the Beagle voyage, Origin of Species, Emotions in Man, and a
book on Ants I believe. Thus when I say speculation...people wonder if Darwin had read mendel, there is a
speculatory "above average chance", where Mendel did not recognize the full importance of Darwin,or did not
recognize how is own work was directly relevant to Darwin, that Darwin would have indeed recognized the
relevant significance of Mendels work in relation to his own and produced another leap in thoght.
I believe, and I could definitly be wrong here, that Mendel's work sat around some time, possibly till the early
1900's before the importance of what it contained became recognized.
I could be way off here but this is the general understanding I have from my poor recollection of a professors
lecture many years ago...and he very well could have simply have been delusonal and planted this delusion in
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Posted by Lale on 5/9/2001, 2:03:08, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
It is interesting. Thank you. Now the delusion is planted in my head. Until and unless someone sets us all
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Posted by Lale on 5/9/2001, 2:06:52, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
Hmm. That's a shame. I hope your negotiation skills improved since then. I also hope, sincerely, that the lady
in question refers to them / reads them for pleasure or for professional use.
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Posted by Dave Cymbalisty on 6/9/2001, 5:28:40, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
I record the bibliographic data of each book I read and also the date of completion. I have a list that goes back
about ten years or so. (Too bad I hadn't thought of keeping such a list when I was in college). One of the main
reasons I do this is because I like to observe the "trends"... I like to observe how my interests tend to
congregate. Also, I do a lot of re-reading, so I like to be able to see when was the last time I read such and
such a book. But I consider myself to be a very slow reader as compared to other people. I find that I am
averaging around 50-55 books a year, a little over one a week. At the present rate that I am adding essential
volumes to my bookshelves, and considering how many people in our world cannot afford such luxury, I figure I
only have to live to about the age of 340 in order to leave this earth with a clear conscience....
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 20/9/2001, 20:01:46, in reply to "Re: most books read in a life time"
I never trusted soliciters ever since. And the last I heard was that the books changed hands again only weeks
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