“Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville, John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll may not seem to have much in common, but they can all be found on the reading list belonging to one Columbus, Ohio man.
His name is Dan Pelzer — and he read 3,599 books in his lifetime, meticulously keeping track of each one from 1962 up until his death in July of this year at age 92.
“I think he’s one of those people who traveled through books,” said his daughter, Marci Pelzer, who found out about her dad’s list 20 years ago. “It was an escape. It kept his mind going.”
According to his daughter, Dan Pelzer lived an incredible life with a book in tow every step of the way. He read while in the Peace Corps in Nepal, on his bus commute to work in Columbus, during his late night shifts as a Marriott hotel security guard and while residents slept when he volunteered at a domestic violence shelter.
“He loved learning,” said Marci Pelzer. “It was just his favorite pastime, his favorite thing.”
For more than 60 years, Dan Pelzer would handwrite or type every book title he read, keeping lists filled with the titles that spanned genres from presidential biographies to science fiction to literary classics.
U.S. & World
“The only requirement was that it was a real page turner,” said Marci Pelzer about the variety of books her father read. “The one rule he set for himself was if he started it, he finished it.”
How Dan’s reading list went viral
When going through her dad’s belongings after his passing, Marci Pelzer rediscovered the iconic lists he had kept all these years. With the help of her godson, Peter Campanelli, they made a websiteshowcasing the titles to share with friends and family at the funeral. She even made custom bookmarks in his honor.
“At that time, the website was just going to be for the service,” said Campanelli. “There was just going to be a QR code in the booklet and that was going to be it. I thought maybe a couple hundred people would see it.”
After the service, Marci Pelzer decided to share the list with Columbus Metropolitan Library — the place her dad checked out the majority of his books throughout his decades of reading.
“Marci Pelzer reached out to me via email to share the story about Dan, and the subject line of her email was ‘Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Biggest Fan,’” said Lauren Hagan, CEO of Columbus Metropolitan Library. “I was just blown away by his story.”
The library worked quickly to spread Dan Pelzer’s story far and wide. They made a searchable version of his list, and set up physical displays showcasing “What Dan Read” at their library branches.
But the story really took off when Columbus Metropolitan Library posted a TikTok video that’s been viewed nearly 2 million times.
“It has just been incredible,” said Grayson Kelly, the digital storytelling specialist for Columbus Metropolitan Library. “We knew that it would be a compelling story for at least some people, but it took a while for us to realize the breadth of the story.”
Kelly says the response to Dan Pelzer’s list — both online and in-person — has blown him away.
“People are posting about applying Dan’s story to their own lives, and checking something out from their own home library,” said Kelly.
Avid readers from around the world are rallying around the list, leaving comments on TikTok about making stickers, buttons and book clubs — even encouraging the library to add “The Dan Pelzer Wing.”
“At the rate this is going, maybe we’ll have to see about that,” said Kelly. “It’s the general public who’s chiming in and saying, ‘We need to really honor him in a physical, tangible way.’”
Kelly says librarians are also reaching out, crediting Dan Pelzer’s story to an increase in visitors at their locations too.
“Librarians in other parts of the world, as far away as Australia and Switzerland, are commenting about how Dan’s story has strengthened their resolve to come to their library and provide the best service to their community,” said Kelly. “I’ve been moved by how many library professionals have been impacted in that way.”
Thanks to the library’s viral video, a book list from a 92-year-old man is inspiring an entire generation of younger readers.
“It’s nice to see someone from an older generation really connecting with books from a younger generation,” said Katie McGreal, Dan’s great-niece.
“That’s been the big thing that struck me. We all can connect over the same thing.”
McGreal knew about her Great Uncle Dan’s love for reading and had seen the list at the funeral, but had no idea how big the story would become.
“I was going through Instagram one day and all these people I knew were sharing this Columbus library story about this man who read all these books,” said McGreal. “I clicked through probably four or five of them until I realized they were talking about my Uncle Dan!”
A new class of proud library-card holders are now rising up to Dan’s challenge.
“To hear young adults saying that he’s the OG book influencer and the Michael Jordan of readers, he would have loved that,” said Marci Pelzer. “And the whole idea that if we told him he blew up on TikTok and we’d have to explain what that meant — I mean, that’s a riot, too.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY: