What's your estimate on how many books you've read in your life? (+some BQS)?

I wouldn't be able to count in all honesty. During the 5 years of secondary school I sat in the library most days, reading books which I would then check out and finish at home, I was pretty much going through one book a day for every school day for 5 years. Then I would go through dozens of books through the summer holidays, at a very minimum I've probably devoured my way through 1,500 books in my lifetime, as well as hundreds of poems and epics.

1) Although I hope you do not take this offensively, The Bible. I do believe The Bible holds some truth to it, such as the flood. But as for Noah's Ark? I believe much of The Bible is fantasised and over exaggerated. On a more recent book level though, then the Twilight Saga.

2) Having recently read this book, it has to be The String of Pearls - Original tales of Sweeney Todd..

3) The Harry Potter series. During my younger years I was in and out of hospital many many times. The Harry Potter series distracted me from the troubles of life and let me become immersed into an entirely new world.

4) N/A.

5) Oh gosh, I've read dozens of genres and sub-genres, I wouldn't be able to name them all, let alone remember them all.

6) The String of Pearls - Original tales of Sweeney Todd.

7) Barry Trotter and the Shameless Sequel. (Parody), I've been meaning to read it but just haven't got around to picking it up and starting it yet.

8) Don't Tell Mummy: A True Story of the Ultimate Betrayal by Toni Maguire. It is a true story book which I can't say I didn't like the book, but it is excruciatingly heartbreaking.

9) I wrote a story when I was much younger about aliens that lives inside of our heads and crawled out of our ears when we was asleep and would roam around, the "Brain Aliens", I was about 7 at the time, thinking back to it, the idea was awful.

10) Oh, I don't remember, plus we don't have "grade school" here in the UK. It would of probably be known as primary school here in England though so probably the first Harry Potter book which if I remember correctly was out at the time, I was 6 years old, nearly 7 when the book came out.

1.) Worst book ever read?

Traditionally published book? Twilight. However, I've read excepts from some astonishingly bad self-published books advertised here.

2.) Best Book?

Lord of the Rings.

3.) Book that left the biggest imprint on your life?

I don't think I could name a single one, though _books_ have left a huge imprint on my life.

4.) Book that inspired you to write (if you do)

That would be a kid's TV show, not a book - I've been a fanfic writer for 30 years. However, Twilight inspired me to write down the idea for an original novel which has been bubbling around my brain for a couple of decades - if that can get published, maybe I can too.

5.) First book you read from each genre?

Not the faintest idea. 25 years ago.

6.) Most recently read book?

Josephine Tey - "The Man In The Queue"

7.) Book you keep telling yourself you will read but never get to?

Pride and Prejudice. Tried it several times, never got through it. (Though I enjoyed Mansfield Park and Emma).

8.) Hardest book to read?

Camus - "La Peste". Set text for my A level French. I never did finish it, not in French or English.

9.) Worst story you've ever written?

There's some pretty bad self-insert Mary Sue fanfic under my bed, but I was only 14...

10.) What was the most popular book when you were in grade school?

There wasn't one - reading was _seriously_ not done when I was that old, I would never even have considered taking a book to school and only read at home. I predate Harry Potter by a fair bit :)

At a rough guess, including text books, I'd say about 400, based on starting at around 6-7 years old and being 29 now. I haven't always read (particularly in my mid teens I had 'other things' on my mind) but when I have I've read a lot. Saying that, I read at an average rate (I like to experience the book, not just skim read it) and I think around 15 books a year is a good guess.

I have to say I don't believe for one minute the people who are saying thousands. Like the answer of 15,000 in 14 years. That's at least 3 books per day, EVERY day, for 14 years.

Anyway, BQs:

1) London Bridges by James Patterson

2) A Song of Ice & Fire (assuming I can nominate a series. If not, then A Storm of Swords)

3) Lord of the Rings

4) All books inspire me to write

5) I really don't know

6) Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

7) 1984

8) Using Statistics to Understand the Environment (oh the joys of university...)

9) Some attempt at combining my environmental knowledge with sci-fi. Didn't get far with it.

10) Don't really understand what grade school is (I'm British), but assuming it means really young then I'd say The Famous Five or The Secret Seven.

I'd love to know the actual answer to that question, but I have no idea. It's probably somewhere in the thousands as I've always been a big reader, but I wouldn't have the first idea how to estimate a total.

1. Don't know if it's the worst, but Sister Carrie by Theodore Drieser was the one I hated to most.

2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

4. Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

5. It's hard to remember. Charlotte's Web was one of the first fiction books I remember reading. A Wrinkle in Time was among the first sci-fi/fantasy books I picked up. I also used to read Nancy Drew mysteries in elementary school, though I don't recall the names of any of them.

6. Finished a re-read of Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce yesterday. It's been a favorite for a long time.

7. 1984 by George Orwell. I feel that, as I was born in 1984, I should really read this, but I never seem to get to it.

8. The first time I read The Sound and the Fury is was quite a struggle. Ended up loving it though.

9. There have been a lot of bad ones over the years.

10. My friends and I all loved the Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin, or the Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine.

I have probably read more than a million no joke. I made a list one time and I even wrote down the titles. I got to 1500 before I got bored with it lol.

1. Umm it was a harlequin romance but I cant remember the title because I didn't even finish it.

2 Omg I CANT pick one best book, but a few the best books I have ever read would be either "the vision" by Dean Koontz "The diary of Ellen Rimbuaer" By Stephen King or "A child called it" by Dave Pelzer.

3. Umm "chicken soup for the teenage soul"

4. I dont write

5. Wow I know it would be a "goosebumps" book from horror, and a "Babysitters club" book from a series but I dont know about the rest. I do know the first classic I ever read was "Treasure Island.

6. The last book I remember was "My Sister's Keeper"

7. The "Twilight" book. Its probably tasteless, but I would love to give it a chance.

8. Harry Potter books. I have read one but they aren't easy to follow if your not a fan lol.

9 I don't usually write but I did write a pretty bad cartoon thing. It was about a man who found an egg after he fell into a magical world. His name was century and the egg hatched. It was sort of like a monster that came out and the monster grew up and made friends and they had adventures together with Century as their guide. It was a little far fetched.

10. The gossip girl series :/

Thousands, I don't even know but it's somewhere in the thousands area.

1) Twilight. Only because I wanted to bang my head against a brick wall after reading it and that was before it became such a big hit.

2) There is so many and not enough room to name them all.

3) The Power of One.

4) I don't write.

5) Um, I don't remember. I know the first romance book I ever read was Texas Empire's: The Crown of Glory by Evelyn Rogers because I just read it earlier this year.

6) Sleepless by Cyn Balog.

7) The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

8) The Book Thief. Took me weeks to get past the first few chapters.

9) Probably something back when I was at school.

10) What is grade school? Kindergarten? I don't know.

I have absolutely no idea. I'm going to shoot a rocket in the dark and say.... a thousand. *scratches head* I'm not really sure.

1) Evermore.

2) I have to pick two series. Harry Potter and The Gemma Doyle Trilogy.

3) Probably Lovely Bones. That book actually has tear stains on the pages.

4) The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, A Certain Slant of Light, Harry Potter. Junie B. Jones was the first book that made me say "I want to be an author when I grow up."

5)

Horror: The Mist by Stephen King

Sci-Fi: Maximum Ride

Romance: I actually think it was Twilight. I'm not a romancey person.

Mystery: Cam Jenson (she was the girl who had a photographic memory and could take pictures by squeezing her eyes shut and saying, "Click").

Fantasy: Harry Potter

6) I just finished A Great and Terrible Beauty (first book in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy). For the third time.

7) *glances at The Golden Compass books that are getting dusty on shelf* I'll get to them someday.

8) There was one book I read back in fifth grade called The Teacher's Funeral. We had a group of about six kids, and we all decided to quit it.

9) Worst story ever? "The Stick Fighters"

Story that was awful for how old I was? "The Frosting."

10) There were these books called TTFN by Lauren Myracle. Our fifth grade teacher banned them because they had a lot of things that we shouldn't know about (at the time, I was offended, but now I can't believe I was able to read them).

I would estimate that in my 21 yrs I would have read close to 14 000 books. I read alot. and when I dont have any new books to read I re-read out of my collection, which is about 200 books.

1) Worst Book ever read? I really didnt like Lord of the Flies

2)Best book? The Other Boleyn Girl- I really enjoyed this book

3) Book that left the biggest imprint? A Child Called "IT"- every body has to read this book

4)Book that inspired me to write? Probably the twilight series (I know!) but the fact that she is a first time published author, with nothing previously written gives people hope

5)Im gunna skip this one

6) Most recently read book-? Hex Hall

7)Book I keep telling myself to read-? Pride And Prejudice- One day I'm gunna get through it.

8) Hardest Book to read? Shakespeare- its always Shakespeare- although I find that Merchant of Venice was easier to read then some of his other books.

9) Worst story I've ever written? That has to be a short story I wrote for english

10) Most popular book in grade school? Again Harry Potter ^^ like previously said.

While the big three of best selling atheist writers garner a lot of attention, there are excellent books on the topic that are a bit older. One of the best is Atheism; The Case Against God, by George Smith. The rest of your question is hard to answer, because you leave the field so wide. In science, I'm big on A Man On The Moon by Andrew Chaikin is one of the best histories of one of the greatest things that humans have ever done, flying and landing on the Moon. On the subject of evolution, Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show On Earth is excellent, as is Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, by Eugenie Scott. Sam Harris wrote a great book on the topic of morality, and why religion isn't a part of it, The Moral Landscape. And, a great SF novel that's firmly rooted in science would be Steven Baxter's Evolution.

O.o well I'm just about to turn 14 but I've been able to read since i was about 3.... but i got into reading, a lot at about 9. So I would say I've read hundreds, maybe even a thousand, maybe more???

1. The Pigman, ugh I had to read it for school and hated it :/

2. Too many to pick! Top 3: Pretty Little Liars Series, Vampire Diaries Series, and Maximum Ride Series

3. Vampire Diaries Series

4. Hmmmm, maybe Twilight, it was one of the first "big" books I read and I fell in Love :], ohhh that or the Clique and Maximum Ride hahha

5. Im not exactly suuure.

6. Ive redently re-read Fang, in Maximum Ride

7. Wuthering Heights

8. Davinci Code

9. Haha there were many Fails

10. The Uglies Series, but only for those who liked to read, Im thinking back to 5th grade :]

6.