{"id":930,"date":"2010-02-08T10:16:22","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T15:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=930"},"modified":"2014-01-02T12:37:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T20:37:23","slug":"4000-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/4000-books\/","title":{"rendered":"4000 Books"},"content":{"rendered":"
I’m sure it’s just me…but I sometimes panic when I realize how few books I will read during my life. There’s so much to read and so little time! Is there a phobia for this…The fear of not being able to read?<\/p>\n
Look at it this way: The average reader reads only four books per year<\/a>. Over the course of a lifetime of 80 years (with reading taking place between the ages 15 and 95), this would be only 320 books!<\/p>\n But let’s say you read more. Let’s say you are an avid reader, and read one book a week, or about 50 books per year. Over the 80 years of reading, that is still only 4000 books! That’s about how many books I already have in my personal library! So even if I never buy another book, I will not be able to read all the books I already own.<\/p>\n That is so depressing…<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So I guess the lesson for me is that I must carefully select the books I read.<\/p>\n Every time I pick up a book, I ask myself, is this a book that I want as one of my 4000? It makes me sad to think of some of the pointless books I’ve read.<\/p>\n So I decided to keep track of the books I read. Since I don’t know how many I have read up to this point, I went through my library and counted all the books I remember reading, and then doubled it. I remember reading many hundreds of books in my teenage and college years that I no longer own, so I figure this was a good starting place. This process brought me to 1500 books. Down below, I list some of the best books I have read during these years.<\/p>\n Then, I am going to keep track of the books I read from year to year, and update the count here.<\/p>\n Here is my count so far:<\/strong><\/p>\n Below are some books I am glad I have read, and may even read again, thereby taking up not just one, but two spots<\/em> on my list of 4000 books. These books have shaped my thinking in amazing ways. In the future, if I read some list-worthy books, I will include them in the comments.<\/p>\n For more of my favorite books, see my Burning Books<\/a> List…books that set my mind on fire.<\/strong><\/p>\n That’s all I can think of right now off the top of my head. By including these books on this list, I am not saying I agree with everything written in them. All I am saying is that these books stretched my mind, and brought about paradigm shifts in my life and thinking. A few of them caused earthquakes.<\/p>\n Oh, and novels are good to read as well. Novels can sometimes shape your life and theology more than a book on theology. One of the novels I am glad I have read is Ender’s Game<\/em><\/a> by Orson Scott Card. I’m not really into Sci-fi novels, but it was so good, I read it twice.<\/p>\n Did you know that the average reader will only read 300 books in their life? An avid reader will only read 4000 books! I am keeping track of my 4000 books. My goal is to average one book per week, or about 52 books per year, so that by the time I reach 80, I will have read 4000 books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13],"class_list":{"0":"post-930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-books-im-reading","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nBooks I have Read<\/h2>\n
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Best Books I Have Read<\/h2>\n
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