Columbus, Ohio — After the death in July of their father, Dan Pelzer, at the age of 92, John and Marci Pelzer discovered something extraordinary in his things — a very long list of every book he had ever read.
Dan, a social worker from Columbus, Ohio, was in the Peace Corps when he started the list in 1962. And over the next six decades, his whale-sized appetite for books took him on a journey through the likes of James Michener, Jack Kerouac and Homer.
He learned about everything, from saints to sinners and prayer to prey. In total, from 1962 to 2023, he read a staggering 3,599 books. The list of all the titles is a book in itself: 109 pages long, single-spaced.
“When I looked through the list, it seems like a microcosm of his life,” John told CBS News.
“He wanted to learn about the world and learn about other people,” Marci added.
Dan borrowed almost all his books from the Columbus Metropolitan Library. When the library staff heard about Dan’s list, they decided to share it on social media. The library went through every title in his collection and made it available in its own list.
“So the next time you need inspiration, perhaps you can find it from Dan,” the library said in a video posted to social media.
Columbus Metropolitan Library CEO Lauren Hagan told CBS News the public’s response to the list has been “just incredible,” adding that people have been “absolutely” coming in to check out the books Dan read.
“People are intentionally going up to the displays,” Hagan said. “The traffic to the social media post is in the millions.”
Dan wasn’t an academic. He was a humble father who is now arguably becoming one of the country’s most popular bibliophiles.
“I love that it’s perpetuating the conversation about who my dad was, because he was just such a fun, caring, intelligent, quirky, unique guy,” John said.
Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent. He brings viewers moving stories from the unique people he meets in his weekly award-winning feature segment “On the Road.”
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