27 Comments

1. February 24th, 2011 / 6:10 am Ann—

   My best guess? About 70%. I’ve been pretty good on staying on top of the books I purchase.

2. February 24th, 2011 / 6:17 am Dan Gray—

   20%

3. February 24th, 2011 / 6:20 am Anonymous—

   50% of my dead-tree books

   If you include my e-books then it shrinks to about 20%

4. February 24th, 2011 / 6:35 am Jonathan Crowl—

   Maybe 50 percent. But up a much lower point — being poor really helped.

5. February 24th, 2011 / 7:02 am Lincoln Michel—

   Of what I’d consider my personal library, maybe like 75%? Much lower if you are counting the piles of books people have sent me to review, left at my house by accident, old books I had to buy for school and never read, or whatever.

6. February 24th, 2011 / 7:06 am Dstack—

   Completed: 50%. Read first 50 or so pages: 80%

7. February 24th, 2011 / 7:07 am Michael J Seidlinger—

   0% of my ebooks. Between 40-60% of actual books.

8. February 24th, 2011 / 10:35 am BeMighty—

   about 40%. started bu never finished 60%.

9. February 24th, 2011 / 11:52 am math—

   right now 100%; before i last moved across the country, 60%.

10. February 24th, 2011 / 12:29 pm Krishartrum—

    I’d say about 75%, counting comics..

11. February 24th, 2011 / 12:53 pm Sean—

    90%

12. February 24th, 2011 / 1:21 pm Jack M—

    20% – I’m a book slut, but trying to rein myself in.

13. February 24th, 2011 / 1:36 pm DJ Berndt—

    I’ve often thought about this, how I keep buying new books even though I haven’t read every book that I own. It’s not my fault new interesting books keep coming out.

    I’d say I’ve read 85% of my collection. Another important question though: how large is your collection of books?

14. February 24th, 2011 / 1:40 pm Monika Soria Caruso—

    If only my books are considered, then ~90%. If we include my husband’s books, though, it drops to about 60%.

15. February 24th, 2011 / 2:46 pm Joseph Riippi—

    90+, not counting my wife’s collection. I make a point not to buy any new books until there are fewer than 10 books in the queue.

16. February 24th, 2011 / 3:30 pm Janey Smith—

    Andrew? Probably less than 2%. I usually sleep in libraries.

17. February 24th, 2011 / 3:49 pm M. Kitchell—

    thanks to goodreads i can quantify my answer:

    I have read in full 336 / 893 books that I own, apparently.
    so, 36.7%

    let us not forget that benjamin essay about how the book lover who has read all the books in his library finds himself in despair or whatever

    But I’ve sold a lot of books in the last couples of years.
    But, I have read 882 books in the time span my goodreads account covers (basically 2006ish-present), so apparently I just read a lot more books from the library than books I own (which makes sense I guess since I work in a library)

18. February 24th, 2011 / 4:15 pm Frank Tas—

    95%? I’m all about da library.

19. February 24th, 2011 / 4:42 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

    ZZZZZIPPP’S LIBRARY IS CONTAINED ON A DISTANT PLANET AND IT IS NOT ALWAYS AVAILABLE TO BE PERUSED. THE FICKLE GUARD DOES NOT ALWAYS RECOGNIZE ZZZZZIPPP EVEN WHEN ZZZZIPPPP HAS BROUGHT WITH HIM THE PROPER KEYCARD AND GENETIC IDENTIFICATION SERUMS (TO BE POURED IN THE ESSENCE-LOCATOR). IT CAN BE FRUSTRATING DEALING WITH THIS MAN WHO FOR REASONS OF SECURITY CAN LOCATE AND BAR ENTRY EVEN TO PHOTONS.

    BUT EVEN WITH THESE OBSTACLES ZZZZIPP HAS MANAGED TO READ ABOUT 33.33%.

20. February 24th, 2011 / 5:06 pm symmetrical—

    90%

21. February 24th, 2011 / 5:39 pm Blake—

    99%

22. February 24th, 2011 / 5:52 pm letters journal—

    Maybe 20%. I subscribe to Nassim Taleb’s anti-library theory (actually, I use it to justify my book buying after-the-fact).

23. February 24th, 2011 / 5:52 pm letters journal—

    Best commenter in the history of the internet.

24. February 24th, 2011 / 6:52 pm Tim—

    38% read, an additional 20% started and abandoned. 4% strange books that have appeared mysteriously on the shelves and will never be opened but by drunks.

25. February 25th, 2011 / 12:04 am Dawn.—

    80%

26. February 25th, 2011 / 3:21 am Anonymous—

    100% in spirit.

27. February 26th, 2011 / 11:50 pm Zenmaenad—

    75%, owing to the fact that I am now strict about giving away books I’ve already read & can bear to live without. I have to hang onto references, anything by certain authors, books my father gave me, anything I’m going to want to reread, etc. Everything else goes back into circulation.