Ten years ago, in April 1998, Trip mentioned keeping a list of books he’d read, an idea inspired by (ultimately) by Chrisber’s 9th grade librarian. I thought it sounded like a good idea. The 10th is actually the official Start Date for my booklist, but I figure that 1. I’ll forget on the actual date, and 2. I’m not likely to finish more than the one book I’m reading right now (REVELATION SPACE, Alistair Reynolds) between now and then anyway.
I just looked. In the last 10 years, I’ve read 903 books and graphic novels, plus a handful of others I’ve forgotten to record (I know I’ve forgotten a few because a couple times I’ve gone to look up the original read-date on something I know I’ve read, but it’s not on the list).
Probably because I’m profoundly abnormal, I actually find that number a little depressing. It’s not even a hundred books a year, which I feel is really the absolute minimum I should be reading. Of course, I suppose I’ve got 9 months of 1998 recorded, and only the first 3 months of 2008, so maybe I can pull up my average by the end of the year.
Hm, while I’m doing metrics, I started my Eowyn Challenge in April of 2003, and have walked 2953.9 miles around Middle Earth in the years since.