How many books before we die?
Do you have a book "bucket list?" and other nosy questions
Before we begin…
If you knew you how many books you’d be able to read in your lifetime, how would you go about choosing them? Would you change anything about your current practice? And since we’re talking about things to do before we die, what about non-book goals? What’s one thing that you hope or intend to do before you die, or have you already done it?
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A wake-up call
This week’s post was prompted by the wake-up call I received recently in an email from subscriber and Spark author Andrew Merton who’d just had his own wake-up call courtesy of this piece by Emily Temple . In her essay which originally appeared in LitHub, Temple used the SSI life expectancy calculator and the number of books she read on average each year to calculate how many books she could expect to read before she died. If you are not up to the math (or don’t want to face your life expectancy quite so precisely) she kindly provided a quick rundown by age and number of books that “average” (12 books/year), “voracious” (50 books/year), and “super” readers (80 books/year) will get to before they croak.
In his email Andy wrote:
“Take me, for example: at age 79 years and 7 months, I am projected to live exactly 10 more years, to 89 years, seven months. (Whether I’ll actually get there is another matter…) I am not a particularly fast reader, so I calculate that I’ll read about 30 books a year—a total of around 300 books before I croak. Damn! I’ve got to be more selective.”
The SSI calculator tells me I can expect to live another 20 years, to 87 and change. Factoring in the relative longevity of my parents, their parents and my general state of health, I could be sitting around wondering what book to read next for another ten years after that – assuming I can still see or hear. For the past several years I’ve averaged 50+ books a year. So if I live another 20 years, that's a thousand books. If I live ten years longer, I get to read another 500. Let's call them bonus books.
The number of books I read does not compel me though, it is desire. That desire competes with other desires – like writing books. I suspect that if I weren’t trying to write novels (and posts like this one) I’d read more books which might edge me closer to the 80-book-a-year super reader. I find myself wondering at times, if it might just be better to devote myself to reading than to writing because, let’s face it, there are millions of books and more just keep coming even though there are, reportedly, fewer readers for them.
But desire is desire, not something rational or fair. Gripped with desire, we writers imagine there is always someone, somewhere who might find our words and love them. So books will keep coming and those of us who read with the passion and dedication others may bring to adventure, sex, or making the perfect souffle, will keep reading them. In my case, some of those books will be ones I read over and over again.
I turn the question over to you. Does knowing how many books you have left, actuarially speaking, make you want to look closer at which books you choose to read? How do you think you’ll decide or will the books choose you? Do you have a book “bucket” list?
And if this is not question enough for you, what about your non-book desires for yourself? What’s one thing you want to experience or do before you die or have you already done it? What was the inspiration for this desire?
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Still looking for more to read?
Sometimes I read what someone I trust has to say about a book I’ve never heard of and I hear a “ping” from my internal radar. I found several this week from these folks below:
Emma Straub’s husband, a bookstore owner, knows how to give a book’s essence in a few sentences. He’s got some good ones here in Straub’s “My Husband’s Favorite Books of the Year.
I bought Coin in Nine Hands by Marguerite Yourcenar and Kappa by Ryunosuke Akutagawa thanks to this post from What I read on My Winter Break by
- has induced me to add the Lilith’s Brood trilogy to the three Octavia Butler books I’ve read to date.
Most Anticipated Books of 2024: #Bookstacker Edition by
(Reading Under the Radar)- you’ll find some great reasons to look forward to 2024’s crop of new books from a bunch of us #Bookstackers here, including my pick: Kelly Link’s The Book of Love due out next month.
When the TBR list turns into an avalanche
At this rate, I’ll probably lose my ability to read long before I lose the desire to reach for a book, open it, and tumble in even if the sheer number threatens to bury me. This is perhaps why my husband recently surprised me with this tee-shirt.
In case you missed them…
Here are a couple of links that fit right in with this week’s theme of finding the right books in the time we have:
If I were to die tomorrow what are the joys and regrets that will flash through my waning consciousness? In this context, the number of books I might have read by that point may not seem terribly important. On the other hand, the question taps directly into what Oliver Burkeman calls the concept of finitude. Time is not unlimited. (His book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals made a big impression on me and I wrote about it here. ) Reading, for me, is never a waste of time. Or perhaps it is the best way to waste time.
The Right Book at the Right Time. Not long after my father died, three years ago to this very day, I found myself reading Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach which turned out to be a way to visit the world of my dad when he joined the Merchant Marines at the age of seventeen. This post explores the magic of the right book finding you at the right time.
A new way to support Spark
Spark comes to you free each week and will continue to do so. A number of you, however, have expressed a desire to support my work more directly. I appreciate that more than I can say. So, following the example of public radio, the intrepid
, and others, I have set up subscriptions on Substack ($5/month or $35/year) as well as a link that will allow single contributions of any amount via PayPal.There will be no paywalls. All subscribers will still have access to every post, archives, comments section, etc. If finances are an issue (and when are they not?), you can still show your support for Spark by participating in our conversations, “liking” a post by hitting that heart, and by sharing Spark among your friends. All of these things help bring new subscribers into the fold and every time we expand our audience, the conversation grows and deepens.
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If you’ve just subscribed, thank you so much and welcome! If you would like to check out past issues, here’s a quick link to the archives. Be sure to check out our Resources for Readers and Writers too where you will find links for readers, book clubs, writers, and writing groups. And if you’d like to browse for your next read, don’t forget to check out books by authors in our community at the Spark Author Page which will be updated with new names and books for next week’s issue. Another great source: the many wonderful reviews you’ll find among the #Bookstackers.
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Ciao for now!
Gratefully yours,
Betsy
P.S. And now, your moment of Zen…winter sky, winter water
Cyndi K. shows in these shots why it pays to get up early and to keep one’s eyes open. January never looked so good.
Calling for Your Contribution to “Moment of Zen”:
What is YOUR moment of Zen? Send me your photos, a video, a drawing, a song, a poem, or anything with a visual that moved you, thrilled you, calmed you. Or just cracked you up. This feature is wide open for your own personal interpretation.
Come on, go through your photos, your memories or just keep your eyes and ears to the ground and then share. Send your photos/links, etc. to me by replying to this email or simply by sending to: elizabethmarro@substack.com. The main guidelines are probably already obvious: don’t hurt anyone -- don’t send anything that violates the privacy of someone you love or even someone you hate, don’t send anything divisive, or aimed at disparaging others. Our Zen moments are to help us connect, to bond, to learn, to wonder, to share -- to escape the world for a little bit and return refreshed.
I can’t wait to see what you send!
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I like to read a wide range of books and authors, but I read more books by women than men. I'm fine with my choices, and plan to read another 1,000 books before I die. As for life goals, my main goal in life from the time I began to read was to travel. And I have. I'm so happy I went to Egypt and Turkey when I did. Europe, the Philippines, Canada, and 48 of the 50 states. I'd still like to complete that list by going to Rhode Island and Delaware. I definitely want to get back to Canada to see my friend there, and also to NYC. I love NYC, and though I never lived there as planned, I've visited many, many times, and have good friends there. Even if I never travel again in real life, I can always travel in books and in my imagination.
First, an answer to last week’s big question: How to take the temperature of a dog with a hairy bottom? I promised to ask my vet surgeon granddaughter, not expecting her dog Cedric to start his own substack post: https://theadventuresofcedric.substack.com
It’s all there in graphic detail. Now, back to this week and Andrew Merton’s prompt about how much reading time do we have left? By chance I am within a few weeks, if not days, of being the same age as Andrew. I will be 80 in the middle of May and, like him, read about 30 books a year, of which half will be ‘comfort reads’ - that is re-reading books we already have. Some I would like to change the ending of, so I read in the hope that this year the book in question will have the ending I want. Others will come to me unexpectedly. Like from Betsy in the past year and no doubt the year ahead. My only ‘must have’ author is Ellie Griffiths. Then there are those I will find via the radio. Rarely newspaper reviews, where I find a lot of ‘self satisfaction’ among writers. For me what I will read is like the future - unpredictable, despite the 10 year estimate. You know the saying I’m sure:
‘There are lies, damn lies and statistics’🐰