First: I wanna clarify this. I know that loads of people read like 100 books a year, or read all the time. I know these people exist. I’m asking about people that are like… average. An average american who just… reads. Doesn’t track everything or sets goals of like 100, or never stops reading… Anyway, I’ve been searching this up, and i find answers like 15-50, even 100. I find this highly unlikely, especially for average US citizens. Half the people i know don’t even pick up 5 books a year, let alone 15! I just don’t believe these stats. I read somewhere that people read 8 a month on average? That can’t be right for an average person. That’s like 2 books a week… I know people do read this much, but still… For an average person? So be real… how many books do people actually read a year?

  • BenevolentCheese@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Honestly, the average of little importance. I’ve found overwhelmingly amongst my friends and coworkers that it really is just two kinds of people: people who read and people who don’t. The people who read all do so regularly, as their schedules and preferences allow. But whether those people read 4 books a year or 40 is really irrelevant: they all have something they are actively working through and other books on their radar and no one would ever hesitate to call them a reader.

    And the other people, just… don’t. Some of them will be people who want to read but are just failing for whatever reason, and others just don’t read and don’t much think about books.

    • KimBrrr1975@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Agree. I am a reader but nothing crazy. I don’t set reading goals, I don’t read for hours a day or 100 books a year. I don’t read with every spare second I have or carry a book everywhere I go. But I read daily. My husband is not a reader. He reads once in a while. Maybe 1 book a year. I read like 60. That means our “average” is 30 books each. Which is meaningless information because it’s not remotely representative. One year I might read 30, and another year I might read 80. But I read regularly and have a TBR list.

    • NotYourShitAgain@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      The fact that 1/2 of Americans don’t read books for pleasure at all is the most important fact.

      Also the average reading level in the US is 8th grade.

      And the US is 17th in the world in literacy.

      And the numbers among youngsters bodes for a worse reading future here.