In order to achieve fluency in writing and reading, I want to know how many books a person should read.
When I talk about fluency, I mean being able to express oneself effortlessly in a second or third language, without needing to think, being able to be moved by other languages and feel the same emotions as native speakers, and not having any barriers to obtaining information, just like someone who has been highly educated in their native language and enjoys reading.
I have seen people with tags indicating their goals and JLPT levels in the Japanese learning Discord community jpdb, such as: xxx[24/100 manga] N2, xxx[2400/5000h], xxx(680,000 characters, 5.25 books) N2, xxx120/500 books N1. When I saw 500 books, I felt some pressure and wondered if I really need that many.
I found some information that, in terms of average lifespan, a general reader reads around 700 (plus or minus 30) books in their lifetime, while a super reader reads over 4,000 books (source: https://lithub.com/how-many-books-will-you-read-before-you-die/).
The quality of books is an important consideration. Fluent readers in their native language cannot be limited to books in a single field such as business English or computer English. Therefore, we need to consider the following two aspects:
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Field: The broader the field, the better. The most common fields are clothing, food, housing, and transportation. Unfortunately, many foreign language education programs overlook the study of everyday things. For example, some college English teachers refer to the game of Go as "wei chess," when it should actually be called "go," which comes from the pronunciation of the Japanese word "碁." Even the word "go" is a simple example, not to mention using foreign languages to refer to things like magnolia flowers or door latches in daily life.
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Vocabulary quality: Some people believe that as long as they master the top 3,000 most frequent words, they can speak a foreign language fluently. However, they overlook the fact that a single word can have up to 60 different uses. Usage also varies in frequency and difficulty. A simple children's picture book cannot cover the vocabulary usage found in high-level literary works. Some people can understand complex professional literature but struggle to understand works derived from everyday conversations.
In conclusion, how many books do we really need? Some people believe that reading is not important, so they answer 0, reasoning that illiterate people can still demonstrate fluency in their native language through speaking and listening.
There are two answers found online: 92 and 137 books. The underlying principles are:
- Zipf's law: In a corpus, the frequency of a word is inversely proportional to its rank in the frequency table.
- Native speakers have a vocabulary of around 35,000 basic forms.
- If a word is encountered at least 12 times, the reader will remember it.
- An average book should have around 85,000 words.
- Books should cover different fields and subjects.
- Applicable to all languages.
Note: Among the media of language learning, books are the most difficult to approach. Why? There are several reasons:
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Price: Books are usually more expensive than movies and music. A foreign language book may cost tens or even hundreds of yuan, while a movie ticket or music album may only cost a few yuan or be free.
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Quantity: Books are usually fewer in number than movies and music. In the Chinese market, there are limited options for foreign language books, and many of them are censored or not well-known, without anyone promoting them. Movies and music, on the other hand, have more choices and channels. They not only have algorithm recommendations but also advertising.
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Quality: Books are usually more difficult to digest than movies and music. Reading a foreign language book requires a certain level of language proficiency and background knowledge, and often requires looking up words in a dictionary and reading annotations. Movies and music, on the other hand, are easier to understand and appreciate.