Reading Every Book

At what point in human history were there too many (English) books to be able to read them all in one lifetime?

Gregory Willmot

This is a complicated question. Getting accurate counts of the number of extant books at different times in history is very hard bordering on impossible. For example, when the Library of Alexandria burned, a lot of writing was lost,[1]On the other hand, a lot of Egyptian readers were probably excited to get out of overdue book fines. but how much writing was lost is hard to pin down. Some estimates range from 40,000 books to 532,800 scrolls,[2]The Great Library of Alexandria and other writers say that all those numbers are implausible.

Researchers Eltjo Buringh and Jan Luiten van Zanden used historical book catalogs to put together statistics on the number of books (or manuscripts) published annually per region.[3]Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries By their figures, the rate of publication in the British Isles probably passed one manuscript per day in around the year 1075 CE.

Most of the manuscripts published in 1075 weren't in English, or even the variants of English common at the time. In 1075, literature was typically written in some form of Latin or French, even in areas where Old English was commonly spoken on the street.

The Canterbury Tales (written in the late 1300s) were part of a move toward vernacular English as a literary language, although they're not exactly readable to a modern eye:

Wepyng and waylyng, care and oother sorwe
I knowe ynogh, on even and a-morwe,'
Quod the Marchant, 'and so doon oother mo
That wedded been.

Even if we know how many manuscripts were published per year, in order to answer Gregory's question, we still need to know how long it takes to read a manuscript.

Rather than trying to figure out how long all the lost books and codices are, we can step back and take a longer view of things.

Writing speed

Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings in 11 years, which means that he wrote at an average pace of 125 words per day, or less than 0.085 word per minute. Harper Lee wrote the 100,000-word To Kill a Mockingbird in two and a half years, for an average of 100 words per day, or 0.075 words per minute. Since To Kill a Mockingbird is her only published book, her lifetime average is 0.002 words per minute, or about three words per day.

Some writers are substantially faster. In the preface to Opus 200, the prolific writer Isaac Asimov estimated that he had published about 15,000,000 words between age 30 and 50. His average over his writing career might have been around 1 word per minute, and at times he was averaging writing several thousand words per day. (Over his entire life, his average dips as low as 0.5 words per minute.) Some pulp writers have even higher averages.

It's reasonable to assume historical writers had a similar range of speeds. You might point out that typing on a keyboard is more than twice as fast as writing a manuscript in longhand. But typing speed isn't a writer's bottleneck. After all, at a typing speed of 70 words per minute, it should only take 24 hours to type out To Kill a Mockingbird.

Typing and writing speeds are so different because the limit on writing speed is how quickly our brains can organize, produce, and edit stories. This "storytelling speed" has probably changed much less over time than our physical writing speed has.

This gives us a much better way to estimate when the number of books became too large to read.

The average person can read at 200-300 words per minute. If the average living writer, over their entire lifetime, falls somewhere between Isaac Asimov and Harper Lee, they might produce 0.05 words per minute over their entire lifetime.

If you were to read for 16 hours a day at 300 words per minute,[4]For an average of 200 words per minute. you could keep up with a world containing an average population of 100,000 living Harper Lees or 400 living Isaac Asimovs.

If we estimate that during their active periods, writers are producing somewhere between 0.1 and 1 word per minute, then one dedicated reader might be able to keep up with a population of about 500 or 1,000 active writers. The answer to Gregory's question—the date at which there were too many English books to read in a lifetime—happened sometime before the population of active English writers reached a few hundred. At that point, catching up became impossible.

The magazine Seed estimates that the total number of authors reached this point around the year 1500 and has continued rising rapidly ever since.[5]Seed: A Writing Revolution The number of active English writers crossed this threshold shortly thereafter, around the time of Shakespeare, and the total number of books in English probably passed the lifetime reading limit sometime in the late 1500s.

On the other hand, how many of them would you want to read? If you go to goodreads.com/book/random, you can see a semi-random sample of what you'd be reading. Here's what came up for me:

• • School Decentralization in the Context of Globalizing Governance: International Comparison of Grassroots Responses, by Holger Daun
• • Powołanie (Dragon Age #2), by David Gaider
• • An Introduction to Vegetation Analysis: Principles, Practice and Interpretation, by David R. Causton
• • AACN Essentials of Critical-Care Nursing Pocket Handbook, by Marianne Chulay
• • National righteousness and national sin: the substance of a discourse delivered in the Presbyterian church of South Salem, Westchester co., N.Y., November 20, 1856, by Aaron Ladner Lindsley
• • Phantom of the Auditorium (Goosebumps #24), by R. L. Stine
• • High Court #153; Case Summaries on Debtors and Creditors-Keyed to Warren, by Dana L. Blatt
• • Suddenly No More Time, by Emil Gaverluk

So far, I've read ... the Goosebumps book.

To make it through the rest, I might need to recruit some help.

How do you decide what to include on your packing list for any given trip? Obviously, the nature of the trip will determine some things, such as the need for hiking boots or formal wear. The following are some questions to consider as you develop the rest of your list:

• For air travel: Do you want to have carry-on luggage only? Going carry-on only gets you out of the airport sooner, and it minimizes the risk of lost luggage. It also means you’re dragging more stuff through the airport and fighting for space in the overhead bins — and sometimes it’s simply not going to be practical. I make different trade-offs on different trips. You need to make this decision first when you’re flying.
• For other travel: What space constraints do you have? If you’re not going by air, you’ll still want to consider how well your luggage will fit in the car, bus, train, or other vehicles you’ll be using. How much space will you have for your things?
• How much technology do you want with you? Sometimes I’m going to need to do enough work that I’ve got to bring my laptop with me. On other vacations, I won’t take the laptop, but I will bring some smaller devices so I can do quick email checks, read e-books, etc. Other people prefer to go technology-free on a vacation.
• How will you handle washing clothes? I’m usually a daily hand-wash kind of traveller, which lets me pack a limited amount of clothes. I’ve got a friend who’s a Laundromat user, so she packs more than I do. If you prefer not to do laundry at all — and your trip is short enough to allow that — you’ll need to pack to accommodate this decision.
• How much wardrobe variety do you want? Sometimes we need a range of clothes to handle different types of events or different weather. But, sometimes how much we take is more a matter of this: How crazy will you go wearing the same few things every day? Will adding some accessories, which take less space than more clothes, give you enough wardrobe variety?
• What would be hard to get at your destination? Some things are easy to pick up if you need them for any reason, but others are more difficult. The answers to that questions will change depending on your destination, and they’ll also vary from person to person. Are you OK with using hotel shampoo, or do you really want your own brand, which may not be available at your destination? One thing I always pack is a spare pair of prescription eyeglasses — ever since I broke a pair on a trip and didn’t have a spare pair with me.
• Do you want to bring gifts? There are definitely times when I do want to pack some gifts: to give to people whose homes I’m staying in and/or to give to any special people I meet along the way. I do try to ensure that whatever gift I’m giving won’t create clutter for the person I’m giving the gift to; consumables often work well. Sometimes I can just purchase a gift like flowers or chocolate at my destination, but other times I really want to give something representative of home or something very special that I can’t just get on the run.
• What worked well in the past? I keep a personal packing checklist so I don’t forget what things I want to take, based on prior travels. I’ll never pack everything on that list, since it covers a range of locations and weather conditions, but taking a look at the list ensures I won’t forget something important.
• What do other people suggest? There are online packing lists that you might find useful: from Rick Steves, One Bag, Real Simple and more. These might give you ideas for your own list.

Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today.

Pocket hole joinery is very popular, but can get costly. Carmen Salamone's solution was to build his own jig for $13. Works just as well as the $100+ commercial version. He has no plans, but here's his description:

Scrap 1 x 6 for the base. 2 x 3 cut to about 3 1/2 ". Small slot carved out to fit the Kreg jig.  I used the kreg Jr and removed the grey sliding guides. The 2 x 3's were placed apart slightly wider than the jig itself. Screwed and glued. Cut out a small place on the base under the jig for it to slide down far enough to use the 1/2 setting. I used a piece of all thread with a knob, and glued in a nut on the opposite side. When tightened it squeezes the 2 x 3 slightly together holding the jig in place. 

Some people feel like they shouldn’t snack, but there are lots of reasons you might reach for something to tide yourself over. Maybe you’re snowed in with work and your schedule was thrown off. You could be a little hungrier than normal from yesterday’s tough workout. You could need a snack because you’re just starting with intermittent fasting or keto as your metabolism is adjusting. Quality snacks are a good thing to have on hand so you’re not caught off-guard. These homemade energy bars are perfect snacks filled with my favorite fats and very low in carbs and sugar.

Frozen Coconut Macadamia Bars are incredibly easy to make and have a deliciously decadent flavor and texture. Macadamia nuts and coconut oil add a naturally sweet

taste. Coconut flakes and chia seeds add a crunchiness that contrasts perfectly with the otherwise smooth and creamy texture of the bars.

And, that’s pretty much all there is to these bars! Just pop them into the freezer, and 30 minutes later they’re ready. Keeping the bars frozen is essential – if left out too long they’ll start to melt. The cold texture is partly what makes them so delicious, almost like a keto ice cream bar.

Feel free to add more chia seeds if you’d like. You can also drizzle some nut butter or dark melted chocolate on the bars if you’d like. Make sure to keep them stored in the freezer so they stay firm and solid. We used thick pieces of dried coconut, but you can use thinner flaked coconut as well.

Frozen Coconut Macadamia DIY Energy Bars Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried coconut
• 1.5 cups macadamia nuts
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2 tbsp. chia seeds
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lay the coconut out on a sheet pan or baking dish and let it toast for 5-15 minutes, or until the coconut is golden.

The length of time it takes for the coconut to toast will depend on its size and thickness, so watch it closely to prevent burning. Once the coconut is toasted to your liking, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool.

Place the macadamia nuts in a food processor and blend. Once the nuts begin to crumble and turn into a paste, add the coconut oil and process until smooth. You may need to scrape the sides of the food processor down once or twice in between processing.

Add the toasted coconut, chia seeds, vanilla and salt and pulse or blend until a chunky paste forms, or until the coconut is just incorporated into the macadamia mixture.

Line a 8”x8” pan with parchment paper and pour the macadamia mixture in. Place the pan in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Take the pan out of the freezer and lift the parchment out. Use a knife to cut the macadamia coconut square into 12 or 16 pieces.

Keep leftover pieces in the freezer.

Print

The post Frozen Coconut Macadamia DIY Energy Bars Recipe appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.