Well, some of the words are duplicates.

I just scrolled through my Libby history to check. I checked out 25 books in 2025. Several of them I didn't finish, so the number is closer to 15 completed books, but that's only though Libby. I also finished an entire fiction series that wasn't available on Libby, which was an additional 7 books.

Series is really what makes the number so high IMO. I read a lot of fanasy/sci-fi which is often a lot of trilogies. Reading just one trilogy puts you above the median. I have several friends that read only 3-4 books last year, but several that also read as much or more than me. Discussing the books amongst friends helps, as we recommend books to each other. Book-tok and other book-centric social-media circles are huge.

And it may seem like a lot but that was spread across an entire year. I often read a few chapters before bed each night, but it often depends on how hooked I am on the book, I make more time for it when I'm more hooked on a book, or on a deadline to return the book to the library.

Audiobooks helps carry the number higher as well. Its a lot easier to "read" a book when you can do it while doing other things. Although I prefer to sit down and dedicate time for e-books, I do listen to some audiobooks as well, and many of my friends exclusively read via audiobooks.

I don't count in words but page numbers, but reader like me read ~100 page/hour (depending on the book it can be more or less). A 600 page book is 6 hours, which is roughly as long as the train ride to Paris (3 hours, both way) I take twice a month. ~24 books just to pass the time (in truth I also read non-fiction to sleep, and fiction during the weekend, so I'm probably above 40).

My wife and I are both "book a week minimum" readers. In 2025 she finished 80 novels. I was in the mid 70's. We've been doing this basically since middle school uninterrupted. Reading is just our preferred form of consumption based entertainment. Last year we watched maybe five movies and I finally got my wife to sit through the fourth season of The Wire. The only "modern" show we're actively watching is The Pitt.

It's starting to sound like reading books has a similar distribution as consuming cannabis. The "daily" users account for 3/4ths of the spending on cannabis despite being 1/3rd of overall users. The heavy consumers consume A LOT and skew the statistics.

I read a lot as well but I do find that my retention has slipped compared to some years ago.

Books are entertainment for me. Even when I watched more movies and TV, I didn't remember everything I watched. I've definitely read beyond my preferred genre's "greatest hits" and am sometimes pretty deep into the daytime TV section of novels. I'm okay not remembering all of them.