He Sure Liked To Read! (Part 2)

A couple of days ago I wrote about Dan Pelzer, who, when he died in July at age 92, was found to have kept a list of every book he's read between 1962 and 2023. In that span he read 3,599 books, a truly impressive total. He averaged 59 books a year.

The library from which he borrowed those books created a catalog listing books he'd read. It was heavy on nonfiction, especially history, biography, politics, and religion. I looked at a couple of the pages of the catalog and saw no fluff. I know of people who read lots of lighter works who could probably claim to have read more books than he did, but certainly not books of the level of those on his list.

I then noted that I had been keeping a tally of my own since 2013. In the past 13 years my total is 560 books. That works out to an average of 43 per year, but since I retired in 2020 my average per year has been 65 books a year.

My list is not as heavy as his, though. I do read histories, biographies, and religious works, but I also read lots of  fiction, including YA fiction from my teaching years. I read classics, but I'm also fond of mysteries, fantasy, and science fiction.

In my earlier post I observed that I had only begun keeping my yearly tally in 2013 when I was 57/58. Mr. Pelzer began his tally when he was about 30. So if I had started when he began I would have had a list that included books from 27 more years. That probably would have added about a thousand books to my tally. Moreover, I've been a voracious reader since I first learned to read, which probably could add many more titles to my list.

But I did not have a list of those books.

Then I remembered that in this blog before 2013, in a previous blog, and in a written journal I used to keep, I sometimes mentioned books that I had read. I did a quick look at my blog posts and the journal.

Yes, I am a bit obsessive at times!

I was surprised to see some books I'd forgotten I'd read. 

I've been able to identify an additional 161 books at this point. So my total increases to 721, though I may be able to add more to the list eventually. Still, even if I keep up my current rate, and if I live as long as Mr. Pelzer, I will not equal his remarkable total. 

Not that it's a competition. Mr. Pelzer's is in a class of his own! 

Pax et bonum

Blogging Limerick

There once was a blogging progressive
who judged conservatives too aggressive.
He went on the attack
and they fired back -
isn't Screwtape's scheming impressive?

Pax et bonum

He Sure Liked to Read!

CBS News reported about a man who liked to read.

"After the death in July of their father, Dan Pelzer, at the age of 92, John and Marci Pelzer discovered something extraordinary in his things — a very long list of every book he had ever read. In total, from 1962 to 2023, he read a staggering 3,599 books. The list of all the titles is a book in itself: 109 pages long, single-spaced.

Dan borrowed almost all his books from the Columbus Metropolitan Library. When the library staff heard about Dan’s list, they decided to share it on social media and made Dan’s title collection available as its own list that the library says people have been checking out."

I did check part of the list. He did not achieve his total by reading fluff! And he averaged just under 60 books a year. I salute him!

I started keeping a record of books I read each year beginning in 2013 - when I was 58. Since then, I've read 560 books. I'm up to 44 this year alone. 

I have been a voracious reader since I learned to read, and in my first 50 or so years of reading I suspect I've read several times that total from the last eight years. It helps that I was an English major (with a Philosophy minor) in college, earned a Master's degree in literature, and taught for 25 years.

Since retiring, I've been averaging 65 books a year. If I make it to 92, if my eyesight does not fail me, and I keep up my post retirement pace of 60-70 a year, I'll pass 2,000 since I began keeping records. And maybe a couple of thousand before I began keeping records. So I might come close to Mr. Pelzer's tally. 

Whatever my ultimate total, I applaud Mr. Pelzer.

Pax et bonum

Agatha Christi List

Five years ago, the editors of FORMA Journal selected what they deemed Agatha Christi's 20 best novels. 

And Then There Were None

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Death on the Nile
The Murder on the Orient Express
The ABC Murders
Sleeping Murder
Curtain
Five Little Pigs (or Murder in Retrospect)
A Murder is Announced
Endless Night
Ordeal by Innocence
Crooked House
4:50 from Paddington (aka What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw)
The Murder at the Vicarage
Evil Under the Sun
Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
The Hollow
The Body in the Library
They Do It With Mirrors
The Mystery of the Blue Train

I've read a number of them - I bolded the ones I've read. To be honest, I've never even heard of some of the others!

There are other lists out there that include some of the same titles. 

I'll use this one as a guide. I've already got some goals for this year - I'm currently rereading The Lord of the Rings, for example. But now that I've read all the Father Brown mysteries, the Lord Peter Wimsey novels of Dorothy Sayers, and the Navajo mysteries of Tony Hillerman, I might tackle this list. I'd also like to find more of the Cadfael mysteries of Ellis Peters. 

Goals for next year?

Pax et bonum

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