Since its founding in 1966, Reading Is Fundamental has given away 300 million books and counting. But what does 300 million books look like*? Read fun facts about that number below, or download a printable facts handout here.

• If placed in a single stack, 300 million books would be 592 miles high, stretching to the outer limits of Earth’s atmosphere (which is about 620 miles thick) and virtually into outer space.
  
  
• They would overwhelm the Library of Congress, which has approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. Where would you put the other 62 miles of books?
  
  
• If spread out flat, 300 million books would cover 2,500 football fields.
  
  
• 300 million books would fill 13 Olympic-size swimming pools*.
  
  
• If laid in a line end-to-end, 300 million books would circle the globe one and half times.
  
  
• If you wanted to use the books for building materials (after you’ve read them of course) instead of limestone, granite, and bricks, you could build two Empire State Buildings. Note: You would still need to use steel for the internal skeleton.
  
  
• You could lay 300 million books in a path five feet wide down the entire 3,946 miles of the Great Wall of China. If you can’t afford to go to China, you could use 300 million books to build a path seven and half feet wide from New York to Los Angeles.
  
  
• If you handed out one book every second starting at midnight on January 1, 2006, you wouldn't finish giving away 300 million books until 5:20 am, July 5, 2015.
  
  
• If you had 300 million books to give away, you could give a book to every person in the United States and still have a couple million left over to start a second round. But then we would have to figure out, what does 300 million smiles look like?

40th Anniversary Home

*based on an average book of 6" wide, 9" tall, and 1/8" thick.
*50 meters long, 25 meters wide, 2 meters deep.