According to the article "Self-Published Titles Topped 764,000 in 2009 as Traditional Output Dipped", self published titles caused the total book titles published to increase by 87% to over a million titles from 2008 to 2009.
It's never been so easy to be a published author. But how would copyright libraries such as the Library of Congress and the Bodleian Library cope with such unforeseen explosion of book titles?
[see Bowker's statistics (pdf)]
Here appear occasional jottings of my random musings. Profound or jejune, they reveal the contours of my mental universe, with world history, intellectual history, civilizations, philosophy, religion, society, knowledge, and books as some major themes. Since May 2011, this blog has been exclusively focused on Singapore. All my other reflections are now posted in "Notes from Noosphere" (see link under "Miscellany" on the right margin).
Showing posts with label book statistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book statistics. Show all posts
Friday, November 12, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Bibliosphere, viewed with Worldmapper
Worldmapper is a wonderful way of gaining a visual perspective on many aspects, social (demography, health, education, etc), economic, cultural, of the globe.
Maps 343, 344 (below) show the total book titles published, and the total book loans from public libraries, respectively, in 1999. Map 2 shows populations, and serves as the reference for other maps.
Titles Published
Book Loans
Populations
Map © Copyright SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)
Map source
Maps 343, 344 (below) show the total book titles published, and the total book loans from public libraries, respectively, in 1999. Map 2 shows populations, and serves as the reference for other maps.
Titles PublishedBook Loans Populations Map source
Monday, October 11, 2010
106,456,367,669 humans had been born, as of 2002
Google Books' census of books of the world (see this post) reminds me of palaeodemographers' commendable effort at finding an answer to the question, "How many people have ever lived on Earth?"
Carl Haub in 2002 provided an answer: 106,456,367,669 humans had been born, as of 2002(mid 2002?). Of course Haub understands the false precision associated with twelve significant digits in the number 106,456,367,669. It is entirely my fault for citing it.
For getting an order-of-magnitude estimate, Haub's effort is invaluable. Human life expectancy was only about 10 years throughout most of the last 50,000 years. Infant mortality (by age one) was estimated at 40%.
For a ballpark figure, assume that the median life span of the 106.5 billion people ever born is 10 years. So 53.25 billion people lived/live beyond 10 years of age.
A tiny proportion of them would have been sufficiently literate to read. Ten years might have been close to the age of first reading of a book. (Who can tell?) Assume 10% literacy among those aged ten or above (a very high estimate) and that literate people (living beyond 10 years) have 40 reading years (another high estimate). Then there are 213 (=5.325*40) billion literate-man-years.
Google's figure of 130 million (129,864,880) book titles produced for 213 billion literate-man-years means 1638 literate-man-years per title.
Using this ratio, yearly publication of 289,729 new titles in the Anglosphere (see my previous post) would suggest a literate population of 474.6 millions (289,729* 1638) in the Anglosphere. Considering the vast army of English language learners in the world, and the changes in reading culture and publishing through history, this calculation yields reasonable ballpark figures.
Contrary to my initial suspicion, neither 106.5 billion people nor 130 million books seem unreasonable.
Carl Haub in 2002 provided an answer: 106,456,367,669 humans had been born, as of 2002(mid 2002?). Of course Haub understands the false precision associated with twelve significant digits in the number 106,456,367,669. It is entirely my fault for citing it.
For getting an order-of-magnitude estimate, Haub's effort is invaluable. Human life expectancy was only about 10 years throughout most of the last 50,000 years. Infant mortality (by age one) was estimated at 40%.
For a ballpark figure, assume that the median life span of the 106.5 billion people ever born is 10 years. So 53.25 billion people lived/live beyond 10 years of age.
A tiny proportion of them would have been sufficiently literate to read. Ten years might have been close to the age of first reading of a book. (Who can tell?) Assume 10% literacy among those aged ten or above (a very high estimate) and that literate people (living beyond 10 years) have 40 reading years (another high estimate). Then there are 213 (=5.325*40) billion literate-man-years.
Google's figure of 130 million (129,864,880) book titles produced for 213 billion literate-man-years means 1638 literate-man-years per title.
Using this ratio, yearly publication of 289,729 new titles in the Anglosphere (see my previous post) would suggest a literate population of 474.6 millions (289,729* 1638) in the Anglosphere. Considering the vast army of English language learners in the world, and the changes in reading culture and publishing through history, this calculation yields reasonable ballpark figures.
Contrary to my initial suspicion, neither 106.5 billion people nor 130 million books seem unreasonable.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
129,864,880 unique books of the world
As of August 1, 2010, the best estimate of the number of unique (as defined) books in the world is 129,864,880, according to Google Books. It is amazing that such an effort at counting was launched.
This number is very nearly the number of minutes in 247 years (247* 365.25* 24* 60). And 247 years is the span from 1763, the year the Seven Years' War ended, to 2010.
Browsing the world's books ceaselessly at the rate of one book a minute would take me from 1763 to now. However, from now on, I would be in a comfortable position since English language books are published only at the rate of one title every 1.82 minutes.
This number is very nearly the number of minutes in 247 years (247* 365.25* 24* 60). And 247 years is the span from 1763, the year the Seven Years' War ended, to 2010.
Browsing the world's books ceaselessly at the rate of one book a minute would take me from 1763 to now. However, from now on, I would be in a comfortable position since English language books are published only at the rate of one title every 1.82 minutes.
792 new book titles daily in 2008
I have always been energized by good books. I am not at all persuaded that all that is worth reading has been written by the classical (Greco-Roman) writers, as is the contention of fervent classicists. It is not even true that it suffices, for one's liberal education, to stop one's reading at 1930, or 1950.
The contemporary society is responding to entirely unprecedented challenges, due to the globalizing influence of technology. Therefore its responses are not anticipated by the ancients. It is fascinating to observe and understand our world at this very instant. And this requires that we read contemporary writers.
It is therefore reassuring that, by all accounts, the book industry is thriving, despite the Internet.
The information and knowledge explosion continues with increasing pace. According to Bowker's latest statistics (for 2008), there were 289729 new titles and editions published (in Angloshere, not worldwide, I suppose) in 2008. This works out to one title every 1.82 minutes, and 791.6 titles every day. Of course such publishing activity overwhelms one. But as an indicator of a literate and curious society, it is gratifying.
This is a summary of the 2008 book statistics for some categories that interest me:
Category New titles minutes/title titles/day
Total 289729 1.82 791.6
1.Fiction 53058 9.93 145.0
2.Literature 10843 48.61 29.6
3.Language 6181 85.27 16.9
4.History 13477 39.11 36.8
5.Philosophy, Psychology 12605 41.81 34.4
6.Religion 18296 28.81 50.0
7.Biography 11375 46.33 31.1
8.Travel 5101 103.32 13.9
Sum of 4,5,7 (core interests) 37457 14.07 102.3
In contrast, Whitaker's Cumulative Book List shows that in 1977, 36322 new titles and editions were published in the UK, This is equivalent to 99.5 new titles every day, a deluge even then.
The contemporary society is responding to entirely unprecedented challenges, due to the globalizing influence of technology. Therefore its responses are not anticipated by the ancients. It is fascinating to observe and understand our world at this very instant. And this requires that we read contemporary writers.
It is therefore reassuring that, by all accounts, the book industry is thriving, despite the Internet.
The information and knowledge explosion continues with increasing pace. According to Bowker's latest statistics (for 2008), there were 289729 new titles and editions published (in Angloshere, not worldwide, I suppose) in 2008. This works out to one title every 1.82 minutes, and 791.6 titles every day. Of course such publishing activity overwhelms one. But as an indicator of a literate and curious society, it is gratifying.
This is a summary of the 2008 book statistics for some categories that interest me:
Category New titles minutes/title titles/day
Total 289729 1.82 791.6
1.Fiction 53058 9.93 145.0
2.Literature 10843 48.61 29.6
3.Language 6181 85.27 16.9
4.History 13477 39.11 36.8
5.Philosophy, Psychology 12605 41.81 34.4
6.Religion 18296 28.81 50.0
7.Biography 11375 46.33 31.1
8.Travel 5101 103.32 13.9
Sum of 4,5,7 (core interests) 37457 14.07 102.3
In contrast, Whitaker's Cumulative Book List shows that in 1977, 36322 new titles and editions were published in the UK, This is equivalent to 99.5 new titles every day, a deluge even then.
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