Man Leaves Behind 109-Page List of Thousands of Books He Read After His Death at 92

Yahoo

7 days ago

Dan Pelzer read more than 5,000 books throughout the course of his life, including one classic he called "pure torture"
One man left his loved ones a very special memento of his time on Earth.
Dan Pelzer, who died on July 1 at the age of 92, left his friends and family a 109-page handwritten list of all the books he's read since 1962.
Though Pelzer's family considered distributing the list at his funeral, they realized it was far too long to share in that way. So instead, they scanned the list and created a website sharing his reads called, What Dan Read.
In Pelzer's obituary, his family shared that his love of reading and libraries first began in 1962, when he was serving as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in Nepal.
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'After discovering a library of about 150 paperbacks, he started documenting every book he read,' the obituary reads. 'Over the next six decades, he read more than 5,000 books.'
what-dan-read.com An excerpt of Dan Pelzer's lengthy list of reads as shown on the site 'What Dan Read.'
But despite being incredibly well-read, Pelzer's family shared that the grandfather's reading tastes align with 'his unpretentious nature.'
'While Dan conquered all the classics and read every volume to the end, he much preferred John Grisham to James Joyce, calling Ulysses 'pure torture,' ' the obituary reads.
In a post shared on the Columbus Metropolitan Library's Facebook page, Pelzer's daughter, Marci, wrote, 'ALL of his books were Columbus Metropolitan Library books. Nobody loved the library more than Dan.'
'When we were little, he took us to the downtown library every Saturday morning and enrolled us in every summer reading program,' Marci shared with the library. 'He was a regular at the Livingston and then Whitehall branches until he could no longer read. I'm sure he would be among your highest circulation and longest term borrowers.'
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Egan-Ryan Funeral Home Dan Pelzer
Pelzer was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Mary Lou Pelzer, who died in 2024. Dan and Mary Lou are survived by their children, Marci Pelzer and John Pelzer, and their three grandchildren, Sarah, Lauren and Owen Pelzer.
In Dan's obituary, the family asked that in place of flowers, donations be made to Kinship Community Food Center, adding, 'You could also honor Dan by reading 'a real page turner.' '
Read the original article on People