Thread: How quickly do you read?

I was struck by the reverse of my copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, when it states that W. M. Thackeray supposedly read the entire thing in seventeen hours, in just a single session. Six in the morning, until eleven at night.

If at all true, that is astonishing. For starters, if you work that out, it's a phenomenally fast pace, in addition to being one hell of a reading session for such a complex work.

I read quite fast, depending on the genre (novels quite quickly; historical fiction, biographies, etc, at a more relaxed pace), and I've probably read for ten, perhaps even twelve hours in a row. After that, my brain is mush, and I feel saturated by the activity, to which I then switch on a film, paint, or something else requiring less attention.

So howboutit?

When I was a kid (12-16) I could, if so interested in the material, read a full-length novel in about 24 hours. That's not continuous reading, mind you, that's reading around a regular school and sleep schedule. Sure, I tended to read during classes at school, and I estimate I got maybe 5 hours of sleep per night (the remaining hours of the night I was up reading), but it was still something my family found impressive (that a youngish kid could devour a made-for-adults novel in a day).

These days my reading speed is the same, but I have gained a lot of distractions so it would probably have to be a really riveting book for me to pull that off again.

Depends on various factors. If it's something like Harry Potter or by Ted Dekker, I zoom right through it. But if it's something older like The Lord of the Rings, I'm reading against my will, or overly descriptive like The Inheritance Cycle, a snail could travel from Earth to Neptune thrice and a half before I finish.

Everyone says I read through books like people eat apples. A book a day!

I was a terrible reader, all the way up until I was about twelve. Then I got sick one time. I was in bed for like three weeks straight, and all there was to do was read. All there was to read was the "Hobbit", which took me three or four days. Still in bed, someone gave me "The fellowship..." I struggled with that for a day or two. I would have to re-read a chapter because I couldn't follow it. It took me a whole week of reading all day and part of the night. Then something just clicked and I started picking up speed. I was suddenly becoming a fast reader. I blow through them pretty quickly, now. I can eat a whole piece of pulp in like four to six hours.

Very slowly Oops. Strike that, poor word choice - use of adverb. Like a snail sounds better. I need to re-read bits to make sure I haven't missed anything, that I've understood it fully, to check the writer's grammar - and make notes in the margin where appropriate if it's a library book - and so on. And I'll sometimes stop in mid-scene - when it gives me an idea - while I develop that idea. All in all, it's not quick.

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

Very slowly Oops. Strike that, poor word choice - use of adverb. Like a snail sounds better. I need to re-read bits to make sure I haven't missed anything, that I've understood it fully, to check the writer's grammar - and make notes in the margin where appropriate if it's a library book - and so on. And I'll sometimes stop in mid-scene - when it gives me an idea - while I develop that idea. All in all, it's not quick.

Tff! LOL

I can read about a hundred pages an hour without stopping. I can normally finish a book a day, if I find the material interesting. Anything else and it'll take a bit longer, but not much.

As fast as boiled asparagus.

Fiction? A book a day is easy, usually a book and a half or maybe two a day is norm. I don't sleep until 4am or later and my dogs nag me to go to bed by midnight so I read.
Non-fiction? If it's for reference, I might take two or three days because I'm reading for content and taking notes and writing scenes. Otherwise generally two days at most.

Today, aside from about three hours on the computer and doing some other stuff I've finished the last forty pages of one book, read another 286 page book and will start another when I go to bed, so it will be pretty close to two books for today.

About ten, twenty pages a day. I'd like to think the slower pace helps with some kind of greater understanding, but maybe I'm just kidding myself.

When in my teens and twenties, and on the dole, I would read 2 or 3 books a day, then I got a real life, you know, work and mortgage and family. Now I am too easily distracted to sit and read continuously (unless it's Now All Roads Lead to France, the best poetry book I have ever read).

I read like a man pacing back and forth about a room. I don't just move from Door A to Door B. Instead I linger, sit in the furniture, and leave my fingerprints all over the picture frames.

I read far more slowly than I did in my youth. I read for a while each night before I go to sleep, methodically working my way through 10 or 15 pages at a time. Some of the time I would spend reading I instead spend writing. A fair trade-off for me.

I think I read non fiction faster than fiction. But I can usually read fast. If the story is complex, or the subject, I will take my time. What I have noticed is that I tend to skim over paragraphs if the book is particularly annoying (if I don't abandon it).