So Many Books...

The publication of the NEA's Reading at Risk study, and my impending birthday, got me thinking about just how little time there is left to read all those books.  The analyst in me devised a metric:  the Book-Life Number.  Your Book-Life Number is your remaining life expectancy in years times the number of books you expect to read per year.  The categories used in Reading at Risk are as follows:  Light Readers read 1-5 books per year; Average Readers read 6 books per year (a book every other month); Moderate Readers read 6-11 books per year; Frequent Readers read 12-49 books per year (at least a book a month); and Avid Readers read 50 or more books per year (about a book a week).  For purposes of the calculation, I've used 3, 6, 8, 30 and 50 books per year respectively.  Here's the table:

Book Life Number

Age	Light	Average	Moderate	Frequent	Avid
15	180	360	480	1800	3000
25	153	306	408	1530	2550
35	126	252	336	1260	2100
45	96	192	256	960	1600
55	72	144	192	720	1200
65	51	102	136	510	850
75	30	60	80	300	500

So what's the point?  "So many books, so little time."  Your Book Life Number has several different interpretations:

1. At any age and reading level, there are woefully few books to read in your future.  (My Book Life Number of 960 looks incredibly puny.)  Therefore, choose wisely and read well. 
2. If possible, accelerate your reading pace.  If I could move from being a Frequent Reader (which I am now) to an Avid Reader (which I once was), I'd be able to read another 600+ books in my life.  What a positive impact they could have!
3. Weeding is your friend.  If your personal collection (reference books aside) is much larger than your Book Life Number, it's time for some weeding.  Again, choose wisely.  At my age, my future reading could be held on five 6-foot bookcases.  I own many more books than that.  I believe this is termed "bibliomania."  I must remember, and so should you, that the local library has far more books than you could read, or own, so take advantage of it.
4. The average American reads 6 books per year.  The median age of Americans is 35 and rising.  Therefore, America's "average" Book Life Number is 252, and shrinking.  What impact will this have on future libraries:  their acquisitions, their collection mix, their marketing?
5. A 15 year old Avid Reader has about 3000 books ahead of him/her.  How should we advise this person to maximize the fulfillment they achieve through a life of reading?  And what is to be done for young readers who are "less than avid?"
6. As another birthday looms, I "lose" another 30 books from my Book Life Number.  Did I read 30 books last year?  Were they worth it?  Now that the pool has shrunk, what will I choose next?  What will be the last book read? (It seems that there's a book to be written about this topic:  Last Books of Famous People.)

Additional Source:  National Vital Statistics Report, National Center For Health Statistics