<p>I'm curious, how many books do you read in a year? I was just reading over the comments on the thread about the supplemental essay, and was kind of shocked when people said 50+ books in a year was way too many. Am I weird if I try to read a book every other day? Granted, I am taking a gap year, so I have much more free time than most, but even in high school I rarely went more than a week without finishing a book. Am I a freak, or are there other posters out there that like to read as much as me?</p>
<p>I myself am much more interested in current events. I make an effort to read the Wall Street Journal daily, and while I do read close to 30 books a year, most of them are memoirs, or concern leadership. I used to read plenty of fiction, but I stopped at one point and never picked it up again. Pity.</p>
<p>Why were you shocked when you saw 50+ if you read a lot yourself? Thought you were the only one?</p>
<p>I don’t read that much; managed to cram in about 40 last year.</p>
<p>I “was kind of shocked when people said 50+ books in a year was way too many.”</p>
<p>Ooops. Sorry. I’m having a very exciting day you know. :P</p>
<p>Well, 50 IS a lot to many (a book a week), unless you come from a uber-book-reading place. The average Joe would be surprised. And you’re not weird; I personally know a person who has read about 500 books last year.</p>
<p>I, like Clamzonio, love the Wall Street Journal. I usually just save them all and read bits of them over the weekend, especially the Taste/De Gustibus section (De gustibus non est disputandum, is that it?).</p>
<p>Books vary from year to year. I’ve only counted twice, once for TASP, once because after applying to TASP, I like doing so. The first time was 47, I think, and the second time was 37, or something. I knew 37 was quite low for me, but I had been writing apps, literally, all year, so I’d been very busy.</p>
<p>My sister probably reads like 60 a year. But she also enjoys books that are shorter and less dense. Personally, I need a “recovery” time after I finish most of my books, to reflect, accept situations, etc. Not after reading like Murakami or anything (which I fly through in about 3 hours, unless it’s the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle), but even a shorter classic, like The Awakening, Sorrows of Young Werther, or Fathers and Sons, leaves me with enough to think about that I can rarely start a book the day immediately after I finish one.</p>
<p>Exactly Millancad! I have to digest a book before moving on too. A shower usually serves the purpose.</p>
<p>Well I know its more than average, but hey, this is a board full of aspiring Harvard graduates… I agree with digesting books too, but I tend to read five or six books at once, and finish all of them around the same time. I then take an hour or so just absorbing and interconnecting everything I’ve just read. Showers are indeed great for this.
P.S. I know this isn’t very important, but I was trying to come up with something other than chances threads that could keep our minds off the impending D-Day…</p>
<p>^ More like Fall Blau. D-Day was a logistics. This is going to be an all-out meat grinder. 30,000 go in, 2,000 come out.</p>
<p>Haha yeah I know, but I was going with D for decision day…</p>
<p>Ah, I see. Like I mentioned before, I view all of life through metaphors of World War II. I should have realized. I see what you did there.</p>