The Running Book Count

The first number is the number of books that have been read to Opal since her most recent birthday ("last year" is the year she was three). The second is the number of books she's read. Don't get too excited; both numbers include board books.

I kept seeing people say that you needed to read your kid 1,000 books before school (or before the kid could learn to read). For instance, here's Mem Fox suggesting that you have to hear a thousand stories before you learn to read. And here's Carol Hurst talking about the difference between kids who arrive at school with a thousand books already read, and those who don't.

In case you have a small baby and are feeling guilty, Opal was not read to "from birth". She was well over a year before she was even willing to put up with the most interactive, touch-feely books. Plus, you know those people who say they don't read their kids twaddle? We read whatever she sits still for. Dora books, Scooby-Doo books, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (which are terrible twaddle even if they are classics), board books… We do end up reading a lot of excellent literature as well, of course (if for no other reason than that it's more fun for the grown-ups to read). But she can pick whatever she likes from the library. And she didn't start with anything vaguely classic. She started with things you could play with, and not too many words. As in, Goodnight Moon? No, too wordy.

It seemed to me that we read Opal an awful lot of books, but I developed a desire to know how many. So since I was working on blogging every day anyway, I decided to keep count.

I had to pick some rules. They're pretty arbitrary, but hey, you have to make up rules if you're going to have numbers. (If you wish to use them and save yourself the trouble of reinvention, feel free.)

• I count only whole books.
• If a portion of a book is bound as a separate book, it counts (so, for instance, individual stories from Winnie the Pooh that are published as picture books count).
• If a whole book is bound into an anthology, it still counts, but only if it's a whole book. (So The Enormous Crocodile counts whether I read it out of the paper back or out of the anthology, but the extracts from Matilda in the anthology don't count as a book. I decided on this rule after I'd been counting for a while, so the count is actually low by 2 muddle-headed wombat books, but it seems like cheating to go back for them now.)
• Books in foreign languages count only if you can actually read them and the reader understands them (so Babar books I read in French count, the German story book we have is iffy because to be honest I don't understand every word, but I get enough of the plot to sound surprised in the right places so I count it anyway. The Japanese Pingu and Anpanman books count only when read by a Japanese speaker, not when one of us makes up the story by looking at the pictures.)
• I have to witness the reading and remember the book for it to count, but I don't personally have to read it, and I don't have to remember the title exactly. (Actually, I do count reports from other members of the family who know I'm keeping track. I do not bother to ask other people or to track or estimate books read at daycare.)
• The book is counted when we've read all the pages in it, whether they were in order or not. I list partial books as we read them, but only bump the count up when they're finished.