What's a good age:book ratio?

Skunkworks

Skunkworks

Skunkworks

Soldato
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3 Jun 2005
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I own 2.3 books for every year of my age. I want to know if that's low, average or high. I get the feeling it's probably the lower end of average, as I have a narrow range of subjects I enjoy reading (books) about.

What's your ratio?

Perhaps we could have a poll with a few ratio ranges to get an idea at a glance?

EDIT:

It seems I may not have explained this very well (or overestimated the audience) as only a handful of people have understood the thread.

I’m not saying that more books = more knowledgeable/better educated, or however you want to word it, but the silly preconceptions someone might have about how many/few books you have. You calculate the ratio by simply dividing the amount of books you have by your age in years.

Example:

97 books ÷ 29 years old = 3.34

The rules are that they must be physical books (not ebooks) that you own at this moment.

If you’re just going to comment that the methodology is flawed, or that it doesn’t matter how many books you own, you’re correct, but you’re also taking the thread too seriously – it’s just a bit of fun, not a competition.
 
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You mean you read 2.3 books a year?

Pretty damn low. There are plenty of people who read one book a week [though I suppose that also depends on the quality/length of the book].

I am not one of them.
 
:confused: how would you even work it out.
Wouldnt have a clue where to even start.

And yes 2.3 a year is stupidly low. Even without reading in my teens, im massively above that.
 
Why does it matter how many you own, what does how many you own have anything to do with well anything.
I dont see the point in keeping books.
 
Skunkworks said:
No, I own 2.3 books per year of my age. If I were 10, I'd have 23 books at that ratio.
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Doesn't matter how many books you own, it's how many you've read.

You think the librarians at the British Library have read everything?

Kristoph said:
So you're 20, and you have 46 books? I'd have bought a Kindle instead.
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There I was thinking an exponent was involved, but no, you're right.
 
Glaucus said:
Why does it matter how many you own, what does how many you own have anything to do with well anything.
I dont see the point in keeping books.
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Stop overanalysing, it’s not an entirely serious subject. It’s to do with the preconceptions people might have about me due to the amount of books on my shelves.

And before you say anything, I know it’s not about the numbers, but more the content, but like I said, people often make judgements on this sort of thing, and it was just something I was thinking about last night while trying to get to sleep.
 
More fool them for judging on something pointless if they even do.
Who keeps their books on display.

I which case I have 0.1 per year (excluding cook books) as i said i see no point in keeping them once theyre finished, they go to the book recupycling bin or get sold if worth anything.
 
Why does this matter one single bit? You read a book when an interesting one finds its way to you. Simples. Might take 2 minutes via a recommendation or it might take 10 years after walking past it in a shop. I have a small selection from fiction to non fiction as well as eBooks. I don't know how many, I don't care :p

Also, about tree fiddy.
 
I think if I unboxed everything then I'd have about six Ikea Billy bookcases of books? I didn't realise this was maybe not normal until I'd been to friend's houses and there was not a single book :o

I haven't read all of them of course, quite a lot is just reference stuff. A lot of what I've actually read was on loan from the library, but that was back when libraries were not just glorified Crime Thriller book depositories for old people.
These days I read far more magazines.



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I read what most people cant stand, which is mainly epic fantasy. These are normally about 800-1000 pages long in paperback and are released as a part of a series from 3 to 15 books per series.

It is for this reason that i have bought 70+ books in the last two years. Any other genre would have been worn to death but for some reason i never get tired of epic fantasy books. I started reading them because they were lengthy and immersive, perfect for troubled sleepers like myself. Unfortunately i don't own a kindle, since i like to collect the books and have them all next to each other in order on my shelf, mainly because its nice to be able to pick another book up and look back to an earlier event in the series as a reference to a later event. Connecting all the dots makes epic fantasy books amazing if they can hold your attention long enough to get you through a few books and different characters.

I suppose my book to age ratio would be around 8:1 (23 years old). When i was a kid, my attention wouldn't stick to epic fantasy books like it does now. Also i wouldn't ever spend £12-15 a week on books as a kid, this was valuable sweets and drinking money!

Epic fantasy books have lovely maps, language runes and any number of extra bits and bobs inside them. For this reason i have always kept my books and have even bought books to read them after listening to their audiobook.
 
Skunkworks said:
It's just a bit of fun you miserable ****.
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Over reaction much.
Just pointing out its a bit pointless judging people on books, when people dont keep them in the public rooms and/or dont keep them.
I cant think of one person who keeps their collection in say the lounge. Spare bedroom yeah.
 
Are we talking fiction/non-fiction?

If the latter, then all the books i've bought throughout uni will have boosted my book:age ratio.

Otherwise, it would be pretty low, less than 1 infact. I don't have a lot of fiction books lying around.
 
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