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?
The mean and median are two different things. They are two different ways to measure the “average.” If it’s clear from context that a question would be better answered with the median, it’s not a great transgression to give that value. (Yes, in certain mathematical contexts we tend to use “average” synonymously with “mean” unless specified otherwise, but we’re in the world of casual speech right now anyhow.)
But to your original comment, you’re absolutely right, OP is thinking of “median” when they are asking this question, but the data they are getting is the mean.