An Ohio man made a list of the 3,599 books he read in his lifetime. It has become an inspiration to book lovers everywhere.

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