Most people have reading lists for each year. Which is essentially a list of books that they intend to read within a year.
People generally have different reading lists, some shorter than others and some longer than others.
Because of this, it Often becomes a challenge to figure out whether you’re reading enough books in a year or not.
One of the popular questions I see floating around in most reading forums, that I wish to discuss is:
“is reading 15 books a year good?”
Well, reading 15 books a year is definitely good and alright because it is above what the average person reads. 15 books a year is a great start for people looking to get serious with their reading as well as looking to expand their knowledge on certain subjects.
So, if you’re thinking of reading 15 books this year, I say go for it.
It will definitely be beneficial for you and will give you enough confidence to take on more books per year.
The average person (non readers included) doesn’t read as even more than 2 books a year. So doing 15 books a year is actually going over the average and out performing most people.
What 15 books a year looks like
When it comes to reading 15 books a year, you can do the math and easily figure out just how much time you have to spend on every book.
Since we have 365 days in a year. Reading 15 books within that year, means you have to basically read and finish a book every 24 days.
Is it practical?
Well it is very practical to read a book in around 24 days. Depends firstly on the kind of lifestyle you’re leading.
If you have a busy life that keeps you engaged in work activities, you can face some minor difficulty scheduling time for reading. This is because you’d have to split your time between work and hobby activities like reading in this case.
But its still manageable to read and finish a book in 24 days which is almost like a full month. Only around 6 days less.
You can become more surgical and technical and divide the total number of pages a book has by 24 days, so you get a basic idea of how many pages you should read per day to reach your target.
For example, if you have a 300 page novel or book:
300÷24 = 12.5 pages
So if you’re to read a 300 page novel or book within 24 days, you have to read 12 and half pages per day.
This is practical. An effective way I’d go about doing this is allocating different time slots for reading.
Which can be helpful if you have a busy life but can manage to sneak a few minutes in here and there to read.
If you’re serious about reading this is achievable, the only advice I can give is that you figure out what works best with your schedule and build a reading schedule around that.
Is 20 books a year good?
20 books a year is more than good enough and it’s almost as twice or thrice as many books that people read within a year.
Ofourse you have to do the math and actually figure out whether this can be done. Lifestyle and schedule all taken into consideration of course.
20 books a year means reading approximately a book every 18 days.
This is doable if you’re reading short books even longer ones if you can manage to read enough to finish whatever number of pages in 18 days.
is 50 books a year a good idea?
Now reading 50 books would put you in the top or upper echelon of readers. I say this because less than 5% of the world population read that many books.
People even struggle to finish a book a year so reading 50 books a year is not only good, it is excellent. You’d amass so much knowledge that would make you a fundamentally intelligent person wielding Knowledge at their will.
So let’s do the math in order to figure out what it actually takes to read 50 books a year in practice.
In order for you to read 50 books a year you have to read a book every week (7.3 days in this case).
That’s quite a crazy ordeal but doable non the less. You just have to figure out how you can possibly pull this off.
my advice is do the basic math to get an idea of how much you have to read per day depending on the length of the book that has to be read within that week.
The formula is pretty easy:
Number of Book Pages ÷ Number of days(which is 7 in this case) = Pages to read per day.
So if you have a book with say a 120 pages.
You can plug that number into the formula to figure out how many pages you have to read per day to be able to finish reading the whole book within a week.
120 Pages ÷ 7 days = 17 pages.
According to our formula, to read a 120 paged book within 7 days we need to read 17 pages per day of that book.
Figuring this out is helpful and can show you what is practical and what isn’t.
Reading is essentially a mental activity so you have to know how to use your mental power to the best of your ability. This way you can balance everyday activities like going to work with everyday reading.
In my opinion, reading above 10 books a year is a great thing and most people don’t do it. However, it can be very rewarding and can help you strategically build knowledge in certain areas.
This is why my advice to new readers is always centred around figuring out what is to be achieved with the reading.
Once you understand why you want to read books, you can then go ahead and form a good list of books to read within the year to be able to fulfil your wants and/or needs.
I mostly read to get ideas and understand key life concepts much better. So my yearly lists have books in different genres.
Science, business, philosophy etc. These are the main 3 categories I read. So it always helps to balance out my yearly reading list with books in each of the three categories I’ve mentioned here.
You can use my strategy.
Ofcourse our interests are different and it will be your job to figure out yours.
Once you figure this out, you’ll then be able to come up with a good list of books to read every year.
So the emphasis should be more on what one likes to read and not really how many books one reads.
Content of the books is more important.
Think of this, if you wanted to learn everything about engineering. Would you read 50 engineering books in a year?
I don’t think so, you’d have to filter that list to a minimum number of the best books that explain engineering clearly.
This is point I wish to make, it’s less about how much you read, it’s more about what you read and how it impacts your life.
How many books does the average millionaire read a year?
According to various surveys, the average millionaire reads 12 to 30 books a year with a few exceptions that go over the 30 book mark.
Reading habits for most successful people are cultivated early on in life, for some even before their success hit.
Ofcourse, being a millionaire means having a busy life but most millionaires do find the time to read books.
12 to 30 books is an achievable number for anyone really….but you have to be disciplined enough to make reading a habit otherwise you’ll fall off the reading ladder pretty easily.
Is reading 2 hours a day good?
Reading 2 hours a day is impressive because of the simple fact that people don’t read as much.
People may read a page here and there but staying focused on reading for an hour a day is something commendable.
My general view is that spending anything more than 20 minutes reading everyday is great for the mind.
2 hours a day will not only make you knowledgeable and wield a lot of information but it will line you up to cultivate a healthy reading habit that you could nurture and turn into a permanent habit for your lifetime benefit.
How many books does the average person read?
On average people are able to read a book within a month and around 6 to 12 books a year.
But it’s worth mentioning that some people may struggle to finish even two books a year. So while 6 to 12 books is common for the average reader, when we factor in non readers, the numbers drastically drops.
Final Thoughts
Reading anything above 6 books a year is good and alright because it is almost above what the average person reads.
It can be a good start for somebody looking to get serious with their reading as well as expand their knowledge on certain topics or acquire certain information.
Articles You Might Find Interesting
How Long Does It Take To Read A 300 Page Book?
How Much Smarter Does Reading 100 books In 1 Year Actually Make You?
How Many Books Can A Person Read In A Life Time?
Is Reading Books A Waste Of Time?
Helpful Resources
What the size of your reading pile says about you – Penguin
How Many Books Should One Read in a Year? – Medium
Read More: The Simple System I’m Using to Read 30+ Books – James Clear
Reading Just 1.5 Books a Month Will Put You in an Elite … – Inc
