Have You Read More Than .000077% of The Books in The World?

Have you ever wondered how many books there are in the world?

In 2010, Google did some metadata research to determine how many books there have been in the history of the world. Leave it up to Google to do something crazy cool like this. They came to the conclusion that there were around 130 million books created in modern history… From their data it was precisely 129,864,880 books (how they determined this number exactly, they had some kind of formula… god bless their algorithms).

If anything the number is lower than what it may actually be.. so we can say today that there are over 130 million books out there, especially with it being 3 years later as well. Regardless of the accuracy, definitely a ridiculous amount of books.

Now, for fun, let’s think about how many books we’ve read. For me, over the past four years I can recount around 35 books I’ve fully read.. thanks to school and curiosity. Probably can add in 10-15 that I read bits and pieces of.. some you just can’t read all of. And from my younger days I could probably tack on another 30-35.. though they were probably shorter books.

Nonetheless, I can say I’ve read around 80-ish books. It may be more, may be less. But it is some number around that probably. For fun we will round it up to 100 books.

Using 100 as the amount of books I’ve read in a world of 130 million books.. I can officially say I have read in the ball park of .000077% of the books in the world. Not 1%, not .01%, not even .001%… but .000077%. Don’t see that number everyday.

To me that is wild! The small amount of books that I’ve read have made me draw conclusions on certain beliefs, values, and ways of life. They’ve taught me certain lessons and have opened my eyes to new ideas. However, there are 130 million other books out there that I could have read, that could have given me different perspectives on life, love, and happiness.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am thrilled with the books I have read and think they have made a positive influence on my life… but how crazy is it that these 80-ish books are the ones I’ve read. I could have been influenced by literally millions of other books but it just so happens these 80 are the ones which entered my life.

Not only that, but I’m sure a lot of people with similar upbringings as myself have read a lot of the same books I have. From going to a public/private school in America.. the choices are usually similar between schools and states. Especially now with the current standardization of reading material for High School English classes. So a lot of us may end up reading about the same stories, ideas, values, and lessons when growing up through the educational system.

Is this good or bad? I’m not sure but it’s definitely some food for thought and it’s pretty wild and mysterious to think about.

Maybe someday I will be able to read .0005% of the books this crazy world has to offer!

“Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.”
― Paxton Hood