December 6, 2021
We love to read and we bet you do, too. How many books do you think you’ve read? One hundred? One thousand? And hey, how many books are there in the whole entire world? That’s what our fellow bookworm friend Ali D. was wondering. Well, back in 2010 Google counted 130 million different books in the world. This other website estimates that there were 134 million books in 2016, and that 3/4 million new books are added to the world every year. So while you can start a new chapter anytime, you’ll never finish them all!
Wee ones: What shape are the bookshelves in the picture?
Little kids: If you read 1 book in January, 3 books in February, 5 books in March, and keep up the pattern, how many books will you read in April? Bonus: If you keep up the pattern all year, will there be any months where you read exactly 16 books?
Big kids: If 1,000 books are published every day, would that add up to 1 million books in 1 year? (Reminder: 1 year has 365 days - unless it’s a leap year with 366 days!) Bonus: If you pick up a book that was 156 pages long, but your pet parakeet chewed up 28 pages, how many pages are left for you to read?
The sky’s the limit: If there are 138 million books right now, and 750,000 new books get added each year, how many years will it take for the number of unique books in the world to double what it is now?
