I read so many posts on Facebook or Twitter-X asking similar questions – “Do you read and reread favorite books”?
And most often the answer is yes; often people will say they reread books, and sometimes the same book or books many times. With that said, I decided I would reread the first book I remember reading. (Kind of remember). That would be the book all of us old timers started with, FUN WITH DICK AND JANE.
What a great book; it
introduced all of us young readers to 100 new words, which, when added to the 58
words we knew from the three basic primers we started with, gave us a reading
ability of 158 words. Who could forget those first readers? We Look and See, We
Work and Play, and of course, We Come and Go, all unforgettable reads when I
was six years old.
Many readers will be surprised
that today most modern books use only 4,000–6,500 unique words, no matter their
length. When you compare that to most average adults' vocabulary of 20 up to 30
thousand words, reading is a cinch! If that sounds like too few words, many
have read popular classics like The Outsiders (3,898 words) or The Catcher in
the Rye (4,306 unique words). Both books are good examples of unique word
counts, although many more recent books use even less.
Reading level for most
books sits around an 8th-grade level or at the level of a 14-year-old. Why only
a reading level for Jr. High? Ease of reading keeps us turning pages – simple!
How many of us hear
that people no longer read or don’t read much anymore? Sadly, it is mostly
true. Too much time on social media and gaming are the most often stated reasons
people don't read like we once did. Interestingly, those are the most
often cited reasons why kids are not as physically active or fit as they were a
few years ago.
Statistically, the
average American reads 1 – 12 books each year, but the median is only two
books, and even that might be skewed by the fact that 19% of readers account
for more than 80% of all the books read each year.
Surprisingly, the
average trade paperback or e-book is now fairly short at a bit less than 250
pages. Some think a book of that length is too short, but I enjoy shorter
fiction and love reading books quickly, so it works for me. In today's world,
nearly 80% of readers do at least part of their reading on an e-reader, tablet,
or on their phone. I admire people with eyes good enough to read on a phone,
but it’s not for me – I do probably read more on my e-reader (Kindle) than from
physical books now.
By reading for 15-20
min each day, you could read 20, maybe 30 books in a year. Odd that spending
that much time looking for memes or shorts doesn’t seem like much, but reading
for that long seems a chore to many. I read about an hour each day, maybe up to
three if I am really into a book or the weather is too bad to go outside and do
something.
So go ahead, pick up a
book, read a few pages, and feel smug. Statistically speaking, you’re already
ahead of the game.
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