endlessly reading...
Jeremy offers his reading statistics for the year passing as we speak. Since I'm trying to put off some fairly onerous tasks, and since it sounds like fun, I thought to try the same thing. There's a wrinkle, however...or is it a spanner? Hm. Well, anyway, the question is, do each of Shakespeare's plays count as a 'Book', or does the big Complete Shakespeare count as one? What of plays read in multiple versions? For instance, I read Midsummer Night's Dream in both the big Complete Shakespeare, and in the Arden Shakespeare stand-alone with all it's lengthy introduction and critical apparatus. Can I say that I read, therefore, two books? Or did I read the same book twice? Or, did I read one big book, and yet another smaller one.
Is that pedantic? Does it sound like I'm just playing for time?
Well, being generous - to include thusly books merely skimmed, trolled for information, read and tossed aside, along with those I really liked, we get the following -
Total consumed in one way or another - 38, which breaks down like so near as I can figure,
Poetry - 10 [counting the Big Book O' Shakespeare, which would also count under 'Plays' I suppose]
Fiction - 7
Non Fiction - 21;
alls which can be broken down further it seems:
AD - 1900 - 15
1900 - present - 23.
And, yes, I own the means of production, as you would expect.
Note:
All figures are in 1982 valuations, and are estimates based on good faith approximations of guesses made in haste, all in an attempt to pass the time without accomplishing anything. No representations are made with regard to, inter alia, arithmetical accuracy, memory, or anything else you may think of while reading this.
All reading done for professional purposes - i. e., various licenses and suchlikethatthere - is omitted in order to at least appear humane. Please do not rely solely on these figures when making a decision regarding your own reading in the future. Consult a reading professional to work out a plan to meet your own personal retirement and other reading goals.
Thanks for your time.