Reading is a form of entertainment for many people, but also a way to become much smarter. It also serves to keep our brain in shape and advance intellectually without too much effort and enjoying the stories that many books offer us.
Unfortunately we do not usually have too much time in our day to day to enjoy reading, and that is why today the question that gives the title of this article has arisen and that is none other than how many books are we able to read in one anus?. Mathematics has given us a curious answer, of nothing more and nothing less than 200 books.
Charles Chu, a mathematical expert has published an article in which, thanks to simple mathematical operations, he has shown that anyone can read up to 200 books a yearThe excuse that we don't have time to dedicate to this hobby is of no use or almost nothing.
The statistics that lead us to be able to read 200 books a year
Let's first take a look at the statistics that have been used to conclude that up to 200 books can be read per year;
An American (or anyone else) can read between 200 and 400 words per minute
Most of the books have about 50.000 words on average, although it goes without saying that there are books with many more words and with many fewer, even if we did not make an average it would be impossible to carry out these calculations.
The time has come to do some simple math operations
- 200 books x 50.000 words / book = 10 million words
- 10 million words: 400 words / minute = 25.000 minutes
- 25.0000 minutes: 60 =417 hours
If it seems impossible to you to be able to sit and enjoy a book for 417 hours a year, keep in mind that most of us spend 1.642 hours watching television or 608 hours viewing and interacting on social networks.
Can we Spaniards read 200 books a year?
This study refers to North American people, although all the data could be extended to anyone and of course also to Spaniards. That if we are capable does not mean that we do it and more considering that only three people out of ten claim to read regularly. Many people don't even get to read one book a year to ask them to read 200.
Anyone can read 200 books in a year, as soon as they propose, although we will have to read each book in just under two days, something unthinkable if we work and have any other hobbies. Honestly, that each one gets the answer they want to the question we have raised, but we are going to stay with a resounding no, but not only for the Spanish, but for anyone from any country.
Opinion freely
I honestly believe that most of us would find it impossible to read 200 books a year, more than anything because we do not have all the time that we would like to dedicate to reading. It fascinates me to spend long periods of time reading, but unfortunately all the everyday things do not allow me to enjoy reading for more than an hour a day or even less. Also when I read I like to read slowly, understanding even the smallest detail and enjoying every word. Sometimes I even take notes or make annotations on the books themselves, something that would undoubtedly prevent me from reading 200 books in a year.
I am convinced that if we set our minds to it, we could read a book a day, and therefore 365 books a year, but surely we would not enjoy or savor them as a book should. Our recommendation is that you read for pleasure without setting a goal to read a certain number of books and that you end up leaving yourself apart from the beauty of reading.
Do you think you could read 200 books in a year and also enjoy them?. Tell us in the space reserved for comments on this entry, in our forum or through any of the social networks in which we are present. Also tell us what is your record of books read in a year.
Continuing with the operations, 417 hours: 200 books = 2 hours and 5 minutes per book. And a question comes to me: only 2 hours for each book? I personally don't read that fast.
There seems to be some mathematical error, since it is impossible to read a book in 2 hours! Personally, after finding blogs in which you set your own reading challenges, by 2016 I had proposed 50 books, and I reached 52, enjoying reading. The problem is that many novels, especially historical ones, do not go below 700-800 pages. Of course, my reading speed has increased in recent years thanks to the e-reader, which allows me to read in previously unthinkable situations.
It is best to aim to read a reasonable minimum of books per year. For example, this year I took on a 40-book reading challenge, and to make it more interesting, each one must fit into a specific category (A book written by a person of color, a book that involves travel, a book that is go to make film). It has been very entertaining and gives a lot of variety to my readings. I recommend it.
Hello, I think there has been an error somewhere, or so it seems to me. We are likely to get closer to 30 than 200 ... Let me explain: a book, more or less "normal" has about 300 words per page. In the case of 50.000 words, we are talking about books of just over 150 pages ... I don't know about you, but in my case, the books I read usually exceed 300 pages. Another aspect is that of the words per minute. I consider my reading capacity to be quite "normal", barely exceeding 200 words per minute. With all these data, if a "normal" novel has 100.000 words (330 pages) and we go at a speed of 200 ppm, it will take 500 minutes to read it, or what is the same, almost 8 and a half hours per book ... I think these numbers are more real. If we put that we dedicate to reading 3/4 of an hour a day (I do not have more time), if we read from Monday to Sunday, it would take 11 days per book. So one year we would read 33 books. Quite far from the 200 books.
regards
I have come to this page while preparing a digital reading workshop. The fact of turning reading into an arithmetic question based on counting words, pages and hours has caught my attention. In my opinion, reading is something else, it is an activity that should be pleasant without taking into account hours or figures of any kind, with a better experience we will spend more time and by the end of the year we will have read more books, it does not matter if there are ten or more books. one hundred. One good read inevitably leads to another; If we find a work that marks us, we will want to find more by the same author, or from the same historical period, or we will investigate the author's references and look for other related titles… The important thing is quality, not quantity !!
I will come on January 1, 2020 to tell you how many I have read
I don't know where those calculations came from.
According to my Goodreads stats, the average pages of the books I read are 350 (a little more, but let's round down). From what I have read, 350 pages is roughly 100000 words.
I do NOT read 400 pages a minute, I get closer to 250 (rounding up), so let's put 250.
200 books x 100.000 words / book = 20 million words
20 million words: 250 words / minute = 80.000 minutes
80.000 minutes: 60 = 1333 hours
Where do I get 1333 hours a year to read? I would have to read more than 3 and a half hours a day, and currently I have time for just over an hour ...
It depends on each one and the free time they have, on vacation, in 2 days I read the entire maze runer saga, and in a normal week I read the entire Harry Potter saga in 5 days, the normal one book per day, and yes the week is complicated about 3 or none,
I depend on the book, the pages it has and the time available. I can read one or two books a week. That silos of more than 500 pages took longer but I read them at the same time as others. Obviously I don't take a book like this with me on public transport so I can have a longer one for home and those with fewer pages for the bus, to read in a park, to take somewhere ...
It is not about reading many books, if not that they are of quality, that you enjoy them, that you learn from them, etc.
In fact, there are some other books that could have saved me.