I’ve read a lot my whole life, especially when I was a kid and we didn’t have a TV in our house. If you count the books I’ve read before I began keeping track and added in all the re-reads, I’ve read far more that 5,000 already.
But for this goal, I intend to read 5,000 different books of more than 40 pages. Here’s where I’m at:
- 1-264 — These are books I read before I began listing in January, 1987. And they’re only the books I’d read that I could remember.
- 500 — 01/20/90
- 501-1,000 — 11/26/94 (1,771 days at a rate of one book every 3.54 days)
- 1,001-1,500 — 07/24/97 (971 days at a rate of one book every 1.94 days) These were the Carp years when I was reading the Carp classic list and trying to keep ahead of all the other members.
- 1,501-2,000 — 02/11/00 (932 days at a rate of one book every 1.86 days)
- 2,001-2,500 — 02/24/03 (1,109 days at a rate of one book every 2.22 days)
- 2,501-3,000 — 09/07/07 (1,656 days at a rate of one book every 3.31 days)
- 3,001-3,500 — 07-17-2015 (2,870 days at a rate of one book every 5.74 days) Obviously I slowed down a lot here. These were the “red chair photos” years when I was bizarrely pursuing content for a blog nobody read.
- 3,501-4,000 — 12/06/2021 (2,334 days at a rate of one book every 4.67 days) My first four years in Colorado. I was still reading at a slow pace, but I don’t think I ever went more than a day or two without having a book to read. I happened to notice when I got close to 4,000 total, and that’s when I decided to pursue this goal.
- 4,001-4,500 — 06/30/26 (1,667 days at a rate of one book every 3.33 days) Since moving to Arkansas, I’ve been birding a lot, but my reading has picked up lately. If I keep reading at this rate, I should reach 5,000 in January, 2031, when I’m 72.
- 4,501-5,000 —