I hope – for the simple fact that we should.
With the iPad being released last month it brings up the discussion regarding the future of book sales and readership. I will get back to that in a minute…
John “Jack” Lawson has accomplished a feat that many can’t dream of. He is addicted to reading and has been a book addict for decades. Since 1979 Jack has read over 1,500 books and cataloged them. By 1979 he was already reading a tremendous amount of literature so he decided to begin logging his adventures as he moved along. Approximately 31 years, 1,500 books, an almost full composition book, a Papermate pen ready to run out and thousands of stories later he has accomplished something most wish they could claim.
Reading through his catalog of read books you try to truly grasp the magnitude of it all – but I’m not sure you can. You look at the endless pages where each line is a different book with title, author, amount of pages along with statistics of his progress within the time period. Each month and year he breaks down the amount of pages, number of books, averages and other modules of information based on his progress. You can almost tell how his life was from month to month depending on the books he read and how many were consumed.
Jack Lawson Read 1,500 Books as Marked by His 26th Book of 2009
Jack Lawson Read 1,500 Books as Marked by His 26th Book of 2009
Just a Glimpse at The Books Jack Lawson Read in 2009
There are some themes within his reading that help to create a rhythm through his life. He would find a good author and read all of their books. Or he might find a series such as “Doc Savage” and set out to read all books in that collection. He has discussed with me the amount of time and work it took to find certain books he wanted. For the “Doc Savage” collection he would scour used book stores, swap meets, flea markets and online to find the rare prints. He read every book he could get his hands on but not all of them – not for a lack of effort. I asked if he had the opportunity to gain access to them would he have read more and undoubtedly the answer was yes.
Right now traditional book sales are down from last year while eBook sales are up. Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell predicts U.S book sales (print and electronic) will rise 5.8 percent through 2015. He predicts that through that period eBooks will gain in sales enough, to overcome printed book sales dwindling, for an overall raise in purchasing.
This makes sense due to how the iPad, Kindle, Nook and other electronic book readers are helping the book industry in multiple ways. From making it easier to purchase books, cheaper to manufacture reading material, lowering barriers for distribution and adding portability of book stores to the ability to carry multiple books in one device. We should be able to read much more now as we move forward with this technology. It is far easier now to get your hands on that book you want then it was in the past.
Jack had to search high and low looking for desired books while only having newspapers’ book lists and word of mouth to gain any idea of what lie ahead within their chapters. We now have electronic devices like the Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook to aid us in our desires for book consumption. We can peruse through countless synopses of any book while having the opportunity to download most of them that moment or in the near future. Will we read more now that we have these tools?
John “Jack” Lawson has an addiction that can only be fulfilled by reading books and gaining knowledge. Hopefully with the release of the iPad and tools alike this addiction will be contagious. I believe that we all should possess that type of thirst for knowledge and use these newfound technologies to create a smarter world.
The greatest aspect of Jack Lawson is not that he has read more than 1,500 books in 30+ years or the amount of knowledge he has gained and bestows on others – it’s that I get to call him “Dad.”