The average book length is 200-300 pages. The average number of words per page in a non-fiction book is about 250-300 words. The average reading speed of an adult is about 230-260 words per minute.

So a typical 275-word page read at 250 words-per-minute takes roughly one minute per page.

With about 30 minutes of focused reading a day, you can comfortably finish around a book a month—roughly 12 books a year. If you push your pace a bit or choose shorter titles, you can stretch that into 2–3 books a month. With 45–60 minutes of reading a day, reading about 2–3 books a month (roughly 24–36 books a year) becomes very realistic.

Meanwhile, the global average on social media platforms is about 2.5 hours a day. On average, we consume an hour or more of online streaming content. That's three and a half hours of your day on these platforms. Total screen time in the US on average? About seven hours a day.

Not to be grim, but let's talk about life: Average US life expectancy is 78-79 years. Let's assume that serious independent reading starts around age 15—meaning an adult's reading life is about 63 years.

How many books does the average American read in a lifetime? That's about 250 books if you read four books a year, and in reality, it's probably less for many people. Now consider that over those same 63 "adult reading years," the average American will spend 50,000-80,000 hours scrolling feeds and streaming shows.

Now picture this: with just 30 minutes of reading a day starting at age 30, you can still read about 600 books over the rest of your life. If your child builds this habit early, we're talking about roughly 750 books in their lifetime. Bumping that up to one hour a day could push it to around 1,500 books, and starting at 15 or 30 still gets you about 1,150 books.

Older? Not a problem. Reading 30 minutes a day starting at 50 adds up to about 335 books, and if you increase that to an hour a day, you can roughly double that.

It's all about perspective. With something as small as 30-60 minutes of reading a day, even if you start late, you can still turn the rest of your life into a compounding stream of deep, life-changing knowledge.

Draft: No Time to Read

The average book length is 200-300 pages.

The average number of words per page in a non-fiction book is about 250-300 words.

The average reading speed of an adult is bout 230-260 words per minute.

So a typical 275-word page read at 250 words-per-minute takes roughly one minute per page.

At one minute per page, you can:

With about 30 minutes of focused reading a day, you can comfortably finish around a book a month—roughly 12 books a year. If you push your pace a bit or choose shorter titles, you can stretch that into 2–3 books a month. With 45–60 minutes of reading a day, reading 3–5 books a month (36–60 books a year) becomes very realistic.

Meanwhile, the global average on social media platforms is about 2.5 hours a day. On average, we consume an hour or more of online streaming content. That’s three and a half hours of your day on these platforms. Total screen time in the US on average? About seven hours a day.

Not to be grim, but let’s talk about life: Average US life expectancy? 78-79 years.

Let’s assume that serious independent reading starts around 15 years of age.; meaning an adult’s reading life is about 63 years.

How many books does the average American read in a lifetime? That’s about 250 books if you read four books a year, and in reality, it’s probably less for many people. Now consider that over those same 63 “adult reading years,” the average American will spend 50,000–80,000 hours scrolling feeds and streaming shows.

Now picture this: with just 30 minutes of reading a day starting at age 30, you can still read about 600 books over the rest of your life. If your child builds this habit early, we’re talking about roughly 750 books in their lifetime. Bumping that up to one hour a day could push it to around 1,500 books, and starting at 15 or 30 still gets you about 1,150 books.

Older? Not a problem. Reading 30 minutes a day starting at 50 adds up to about 335 books, and if you increase that to an hour a day, you can roughly double that.

It’s all about perspective. With something as small as 30–60 minutes of reading a day, even if you start late, you can still turn the rest of your life into a compounding stream of deep, life‑changing knowledge.