Book Reading Progress

Yesterday I shared my counting of books we own as a family, arriving at a total of 1,362. That reminded me it's time for my annual sharing of my book reading progress over the last year. Warning: There is a fair amount of geekiness coming!

I keep a journal of every book I've read, dating back to 2003 when I started my book journal. I've also started keep track of these in Goodreads. At the start of each year I add to an Excel graph I started several years ago so I can see the rate at which I'm reading. Here's the newly updated chart that includes books read in 2018.

The solid, straight line is the best fit line to the data graphed as the bumpy line. The graph shows that since the start of 2004, I've averaged 36 books per year. However, there was an uptick in my reading rate around 2011. Since then I've averaged slightly more than 40 books read per year. Last year, 2018, I read 40 books. 

So what does this all mean? First, it shows that I'm quite the geek if I keep a reading journal, make charts, and use trend-lines to analyze my reading rate! Second, it gives an idea of how many books I'll finish in my lifetime. Let's assume I live to the ripe old age of 85 and keep up a pace of 40 books per year. I'm almost 40, so that is 45 more years of life. 45*40 = 1800. I have 1800 books left in me. How long is my to-read list? Well, longer than 1800 books!!!! :-)