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How many fiction books do you all read? (lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app to c/casualconversation@lemm.ee
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I'm putting in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves for my living room today. I mostly read e-books on my Kindle, but I have an affection for old paperback pulp books from 60's and 70's.

So I go to ebay and buy "lots" of them fairly cheap, not caring about the titles. Sometimes 10 books at a time. Now that I'm retired I plan to read every single one, even the bad ones. I have the equivalent of a small home library of them now.

How many fiction books do you all read? E-book or paperback. But not interesting in audiobooks. I'm curious about physically-read books.

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[–] SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Ebooks are great. Libby is the reason I am able to read as much as I have

In high school I was a big Tom Clancy nerd. I played Rainbow Six games and having a book all about all the gear and training and planning was AWESOME to me

Last year I finally got around to The Hunger Games books. I liked them quite a bit and now I get the hype. When they first released the people who went crazy about Twilight recommended them so I ignored them haha

Now I'm on book two of The Expanse and I really like it. It strikes a nice balance between geeky believable world building and good storytelling.

[–] admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app 1 points 1 week ago

Funny you mentioned the Hunger Games. I never read them until I took a job at a middle school last year. Every single classroom had rows of them on the bookshelves. So I grabbed a few. They are really good books! I get the hype now!

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 4 points 1 week ago

I have always read, but it is only in the last decade or so - prompted by the internet, of course - that have thought about counting the books that I do read. Since then, the lowest in a year has been around 6 (an extremely busy year) and the highest around 60. A normal year is probably closer to the latter than the former. I am half way through my 3rd book so far this year.

However, just at the moment I am reading that book - Consider Phlebas - partly as e-book and partly as an audiobook, depending on where I am and what I am doing. Does that count? I am finding myself doing this more often lately.

[–] sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I read about one book per week using the Kindle app on my phone. I find books as I go, so I don't really have a TBR list.

[–] admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app 1 points 1 week ago

That's awesome. One a week! I need to catch up!

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Almost entirely fiction, a couple dozen a year. I'm currently rereading a book series with around 20 books, I think.

Not considering audio books in the statistic is a little weird and comes off as attempted gatekeeping... If someone has taken the time to consume book media, it shouldn't matter if it was listened to or not. My wife is dyslexic and listenes to quite a few audio books a year, but can only finish a couple print books.

[–] admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app 1 points 1 week ago

Not considering audio books in the statistic is a little weird and comes off as attempted gatekeeping

Nah, not meaning it to look like that. I just like picturing people sitting reading. I listen to audiobooks myself. But I like reading the words. So it was just my personal preference for the post, not a judgement on audiobooks.

[–] zante@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My phone has killed my reading habit to the point where I feel shame.

[–] admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You can always start up again. We belive in you!

[–] zante@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago

I really must .

The other problem of course is I keep buying the books I should read instead of books I would enjoy !

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

About 3 a week, I like to read in my sunroom on cloudy days

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago

Not many these days, barely one a week.

[–] fxomt@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Almost all of the books i read are fictional. Especially dystopian fiction like animal farm, i have no mouth and i must scream, 1984, "We" etc etc.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have a Kindle, but I will always prefer physical books. Recently, I have mostly been reading nonfiction, but I'm feeling the urge for some fantasy.

I'm a big fan of betterworldbooks.com for used books.

[–] admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app 1 points 1 week ago

Thanks for that link. I'll check it out!

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have read about 2,000 pages on ebook so far this year, which is an average month for me. And I listened to about 20 hours by audiobook. I do count audiobooks, and I listened to less in January than average.

Split is about 75/25 fiction/nonfiction.

I hold zero affection for physical books. Less than zero even. I've moved too many times. I have maybe 50lbs of textbooks, high school year books, and reference books for hobbies and that's it. I would have to be ready to settle into a home for the rest of my life before I could bring myself to buy physical books, and I'm still way too restless for that.

Enjoy your pulp books! I hope they're good, even if "so bad and cheesy, they're good".

[–] admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, I am a great lover of e-books, and in fact have been on the e-book train since pda's. I even had a rocket book. Long before kindle or anything.

But a lot of the strange crap I read isn't in ebook format. But after I fill my shelves, I'll probably be done with paper books. I like the look of a good study.

My house is paid off, so I'm not going anywhere. This is my forever home. And if by some chance I became sick or something and had to move, then books would be the least of my problems.

But e-books are def my main reading and in fact, a source of income for me since I write them.

[–] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Haven't been reading much lately, but I've been pushing myself to read more. I'm probably at one book a month now. Just finished reading the novelization of My Neighbor Totoro to my kids. I'm starting Slaughterhouse Five again. Just bought a beautiful version of The Three Musketeers and I'll need to work my way up to that.

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 2 points 1 week ago

How many fiction books do you all read? E-book or paperback. But not interesting in audiobooks. I’m curious about physically-read books.

To answer your question, I read fiction (be it novel, short stories, poetry, plays) less than I read essays, history, science(s), philosophy, sociology, spirituality books, and stuff like that. But I will always be reading some fiction, at any time. I love fiction, I just have to prioritize other kind of books if I want to read them ;)

The number of books depends the type of book I’m reading and their author, and in what language. I'm French, but I read a lot more in English and can also manage my way through not too complex Spanish books and this year I hope I'll be able to really start reading in German but obviously I will not read as fluently in any of those languages than I read in French, not even in English. And that's true not just for fiction.

I mean, I’m reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau at this moment and I obviously do not read him as quickly as I will read a novel but I also read Rousseau much quicker than I have read, say, Kant (Kant’s style is not as easy going as Rousseau’s, and his thought process is not as straightforward either, even though they ideally both require a lot of thinking in order to get anything worth out of reading them).

Even only considering fiction, my speed does vary a lot depending the author and their style, the length of the book and the type of book as I have personal preferences that will help me read a lot more than with anything written by an author or even in a genre I may not appreciate as much. I’m also much more likely to quickly finish a volume of short stories or a short novel than say Anna Karenina (which is probably my all-time favorite novel, btw) because I can read it even when I have much shorter time available to read.

Right now, I’m reading Proust In Search of Lost Time (I read it in French) and I know I will probably spend the whole year reading it. So, that’s one book a year? Not really, since I will read other fictions (and already have read others) during that time but still, it’s a whole year spent on a novel, or not?

Also, should I count the books I start and don’t finish for whatever reason, or not?

And then, even more so with fiction than with essays, I always have multiple books started at once. I don’t care much about finishing one book before starting another as I’ve pretty good memory and can instantly get back into the story where I left of and get back in the mood/atmosphere when I'm switching book), like when I'm watching a movie or a series. Even years after, I just have this odd memory.

So, it’s kind of a difficult question to answer but I would say: a lot ;)

[–] Didros@beehaw.org 2 points 1 week ago

When I was younger, easily 30-40 a year. Now that I'm not forced to go to a building with an in house library every day... some years none, others up to 6.