Feeling bad about not finishing a book?
You shouldn't.
Research shows that even mega-bestselling books are rarely finished.
Here are some of the top unread bestsellers:
Wisconsin mathematics professor Jordan Ellenberg used data from ebooks to determine how much of a book readers actually read.
He looked at the “Popular Highlights” in ebooks and would find the 5 most highlighted passages by readers.
If more readers got to the end of the book, those highlights would be scattered throughout the length of the book.
But if readers rarely made it past the first couple of chapters, the popular highlights will be clustered at the beginning.
He named this mathematical measure the Hawking Index–named after physicist Stephen Hawking’s "A Brief History of Time," which was dubbed ‘the most unread book of all time.'
Although Prof. Ellenberg says his formula is more entertainment than scientific, it does present an interesting question about how many books become major bestsellers but aren't actually read.
Here are a few popular books and the percentage of readers that finished the book:
-6.4% of readers finished "Infinite Jest"
-6.6% of readers finished "A Brief History of Time"
-6.8% of readers finished "Thinking Fast and Slow"
Meaning out of the 1,000,000+ people that bought a copy of "Thinking Fast and Slow", there are only 68,000 people who actually finished the book.
Here's the Hawking Index for political books:
Less than 25% of people finished any of these books.
Key Takeaways:
1) Don't feel bad about not finishing a book.
As the data shows, the vast majority of people don't finish the book they're reading. So if a book gets boring or you feel you understand the main lessons halfway through, drop it and pick up a new book.
2) Bestseller ≠ Bestwritter
A lot of books likely became bestsellers due to good marketing or the person being famous, and not because readers loved the book. Avoid these types of books. Look for books with great ratings and reviews, not at how many copies they've sold.
3) Finishing books can give you a competitive advantage.
Your competition likely doesn't read books, but if they do, they likely don't finish the books they read. So if you put in the work to read and finish your books, you'll have an informational advantage over them.
You shouldn't.
Research shows that even mega-bestselling books are rarely finished.
Here are some of the top unread bestsellers:
Wisconsin mathematics professor Jordan Ellenberg used data from ebooks to determine how much of a book readers actually read.
He looked at the “Popular Highlights” in ebooks and would find the 5 most highlighted passages by readers.
If more readers got to the end of the book, those highlights would be scattered throughout the length of the book.
But if readers rarely made it past the first couple of chapters, the popular highlights will be clustered at the beginning.
He named this mathematical measure the Hawking Index–named after physicist Stephen Hawking’s "A Brief History of Time," which was dubbed ‘the most unread book of all time.'
Although Prof. Ellenberg says his formula is more entertainment than scientific, it does present an interesting question about how many books become major bestsellers but aren't actually read.
Here are a few popular books and the percentage of readers that finished the book:
-6.4% of readers finished "Infinite Jest"
-6.6% of readers finished "A Brief History of Time"
-6.8% of readers finished "Thinking Fast and Slow"
Meaning out of the 1,000,000+ people that bought a copy of "Thinking Fast and Slow", there are only 68,000 people who actually finished the book.
Here's the Hawking Index for political books:
Less than 25% of people finished any of these books.
Key Takeaways:
1) Don't feel bad about not finishing a book.
As the data shows, the vast majority of people don't finish the book they're reading. So if a book gets boring or you feel you understand the main lessons halfway through, drop it and pick up a new book.
2) Bestseller ≠ Bestwritter
A lot of books likely became bestsellers due to good marketing or the person being famous, and not because readers loved the book. Avoid these types of books. Look for books with great ratings and reviews, not at how many copies they've sold.
3) Finishing books can give you a competitive advantage.
Your competition likely doesn't read books, but if they do, they likely don't finish the books they read. So if you put in the work to read and finish your books, you'll have an informational advantage over them.
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