# How quickly do you read?



## philistine (Jan 16, 2012)

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? :rapture:


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## The Jaded (Jan 16, 2012)

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.


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## beanlord56 (Jan 16, 2012)

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.


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## Sunny (Jan 16, 2012)

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


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## Kevin (Jan 16, 2012)

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.


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## The Backward OX (Jan 16, 2012)

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.


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## Kevin (Jan 16, 2012)

The Backward OX said:


> 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


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## rachelwrites527 (Jan 16, 2012)

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.


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## garza (Jan 16, 2012)

As fast as boiled asparagus.


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## egpenny (Jan 16, 2012)

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.


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## Jon M (Jan 17, 2012)

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.


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## Bloggsworth (Jan 17, 2012)

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).


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## Kyle R (Jan 17, 2012)

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.


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## Terry D (Jan 17, 2012)

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.


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## Robdemanc (Jan 17, 2012)

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).


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## Lalaley (Jan 18, 2012)

I can read at a relatively quick speed, if I am engrossed in the book. I did read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in less than 24 hours. (I've always been proud of that...) Though, I just don't have the time or energy to read for hours on end these days.


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## themooresho (Jan 18, 2012)

When I have the time, I'll read a book every week.  But these days I hardly have the time.  Maybe when things slow down at work.  I have absolutely no chance to read at home though, because I have a 1.5 year old son and a pregnant wife to take care of.


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## philistine (Jan 18, 2012)

themooresho said:


> When I have the time, I'll read a book every week.  But these days I hardly have the time.  Maybe when things slow down at work.  I have absolutely no chance to read at home though, *because I have a 1.5 year old son and a pregnant wife to take care of*.



Which of the two is a bigger handful? nthego:


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## themooresho (Jan 18, 2012)

It's a bit of a tie actually.  I was going to say my wife, but then I remembered this morning.  I said goodbye to my son and started walking away, he screamed and chased me down.  As I was trying to step over the baby gate, he seriously latched himself onto my leg and refused to let go.  I had to pry him off so I could leave for work.


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## Kyle R (Jan 18, 2012)

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention, I'm incapable of reading for fun nowdays.

When I read, it's to study the technique and mechanics of the writing. There's no other purpose for me. I read popular novels to attempt to figure out why they sell.

If I enjoy a piece, it's because I'm impressed by how competent the writing is, and I spend my time re-reading it to analyze how the author did it.

It's like learning music composition.. once you do, whenever you hear a song, you think "bridge, bridge, chorus, I-IV-V".. instead of appreciating the music itself... I am stuck with technovision!


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## felix (Jan 18, 2012)

For somebody who reads every day, I'd say that it takes me a very long time to complete a book; for an average four hundred page book it takes a week or two. I usually end up lingering on words that I found interesting, or just staring into space. I'm quite easily distracted by my own imagination, I think.


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## philistine (Jan 18, 2012)

felix said:


> For somebody who reads every day, I'd say that it takes me a very long time to complete a book; for an average four hundred page book it takes a week or two. I usually end up lingering on words that I found interesting, or just staring into space. I'm quite easily distracted by my own imagination, I think.



I hear that. As mentioned in the 'expanding one's vocabulary' thread, I originally began by noting down unusual and previously unknown words. This eventually mutated into noting down place names, specialist terms, historical figures (if it's a non-fiction text) and basically anything else one could desire to know about. It's a wonder that with all the note taking, I actually got any reading done at all.

Also, I don't know if you experience this before, but I have this odd habit of drifting into my own thoughts (either about another book, a film I recently watched, or my own writing/ideas), whilst somehow, miraculously maintaining a steady pace in my reading. I have no idea how that happens, but it does. I've found myself a dozen pages further on, without having recalled _anything_ which transpired.


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## felix (Jan 18, 2012)

That most definitely happens. I finish a chapter, blink, and wonder what happened, because I was busy wondering about a plot line which I could use.


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## MaggieMoo (Jan 18, 2012)

felix said:


> For somebody who reads every day, I'd say that it takes me a very long time to complete a book; for an average four hundred page book it takes a week or two. I usually end up lingering on words that I found interesting, or just staring into space. I'm quite easily distracted by my own imagination, I think.



Oh gosh, that makes the two of us.  I am forever changing the plot to suit my weird and whacky mind.  Thus it takes a good week or so to read a 300-400 page book.  Sometimes I put the book down and don't pick it up for a month.  Not because it was boring or anything, but because I get upset that's it's not going the way I would like it...  Then I come back to reality (Well at least the authors reality...) and read the rest.  

The only book I didn't finish reading (and girls don't snap at me, on this one) was Wuthering Heights...  Sorry but it did absolutely nothing for me.  I was completely bored by it.  (Ok, now I'll duck...  And wait patiently for a shoe to hit me on the head.  Ha ha)


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## Robdemanc (Jan 19, 2012)

MaggieMoo said:


> Oh gosh, that makes the two of us.  I am forever changing the plot to suit my weird and whacky mind.  Thus it takes a good week or so to read a 300-400 page book.  Sometimes I put the book down and don't pick it up for a month.  Not because it was boring or anything, but because I get upset that's it's not going the way I would like it...  Then I come back to reality (Well at least the authors reality...) and read the rest.
> 
> The only book I didn't finish reading (and girls don't snap at me, on this one) was Wuthering Heights...  Sorry but it did absolutely nothing for me.  I was completely bored by it.  (Ok, now I'll duck...  And wait patiently for a shoe to hit me on the head.  Ha ha)



Its a shame you didn't read all of Wuthering Heights.  (I am a boy BTW).  I know whay you mean about its tendency to bore, and some of the sentences were far too long.  But when I finished it I felt it had left a real impression.


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## MaggieMoo (Jan 19, 2012)

Robdemanc said:


> Its a shame you didn't read all of Wuthering Heights. (I am a boy BTW). I know whay you mean about its tendency to bore, and some of the sentences were far too long. But when I finished it I felt it had left a real impression.



Well maybe I might reconsider it.  I still have it sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust.  I could retry it one day.  

I meant girls, because most of the girls snap at me when I say I didn't take well to the story.  But hey, your the first fellow who's quoted me on it.  

Cheers


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## Robdemanc (Jan 20, 2012)

MaggieMoo said:


> Well maybe I might reconsider it.  I still have it sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust.  I could retry it one day.
> 
> I meant girls, because most of the girls snap at me when I say I didn't take well to the story.  But hey, your the first fellow who's quoted me on it.
> 
> Cheers



Actually I read it without knowing anything about it - other than the Kate Bush song.  So I had never seen any of the dramatisations and maybe thats why it left an impression.  If you have seen any of the films then it may not be a great read, I don't know.  But books are always better IMO.


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## MaggieMoo (Jan 20, 2012)

Robdemanc said:


> Actually I read it without knowing anything about it - other than the Kate Bush song. So I had never seen any of the dramatisations and maybe thats why it left an impression. If you have seen any of the films then it may not be a great read, I don't know. But books are always better IMO.



Absolutely. I agree with you there, books are always better. (But we're biased.  )
Like the Dan Brown book The Da Vinci code. The book was fabulous. The movie was good, but average.


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## Fallen (Jan 21, 2012)

Up until the age of 16 I didn't read at all (except literature set by school). Reading was a forced activity (Dickens, Shakespeare...) and I hated the classic greats for it. Then my sister passed on a copy of Shaun Hutson's Slugs (a classic horror to me okay, lol) and it set me on a drunken horror binge. I can down a book within a few hours (Stephen King's It took me a night, which wasn't really the best time to read it, looking back). Strange how it made me fall in love with the classic too (Shakespeare's Lady MacB is an utter favourite of mine). 

But horror is my comfort zone, so to is romance and sci-fi. Historical fiction takes longer. It's rare I do biography/auto.


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## josh.townley (Jan 21, 2012)

I used to try to read as quickly as I could. When we were in year 10 at school, we even had a few classes on 'speed reading' where they taught us that you don't need to read every word to understand its meaning. While that is true, I never read like that now. I probably only read slightly faster in my head than I would aloud, stopping every now and then to play the scene out in my head or read back over a particularly good sentence.
I just find it much more enjoyable like that, and I feel like I get much more out of the book.


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## philistine (Jan 22, 2012)

I've just started _The Count of Monte Cristo_. Regardless of how fast I read, that is going to take some time...


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## Artdecovampire (Jan 22, 2012)

I remember as a child reading Animal Farm (Orwell) in one  afternoon and being very proud of myself.  Now the speed with which I read is dictated by how much spare time I have, and how much the novel grips my imagination.  Aside from this I can read very rapidly and people often think I haven't read what they have shoved under my nose in the few seconds it takes me.  Conversely if something really draws me in I'll read it slowly over an over, like allowing good wine to sit on your tongue.  The last few pages of the Time Machine (Wells) does this for me, as do the opening few paragraphs of The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald).


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## Walkio (Jan 22, 2012)

philistine said:


> I've just started _The Count of Monte Cristo_. Regardless of how fast I read, that is going to take some time...



:icon_cheesygrin: Must admit it took me nearly two months to finish Stephen King's uncut edition of The Stand.


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## kennyc (Jan 22, 2012)

The Backward OX said:


> 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.



Yes, me too, very slowly unless I force myself to skip/speed read...

except the note part, I hate writing in my books and those who do.


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## Japanny (Mar 6, 2012)

I read whole paragraphs at once (not exaggerating,I swear), sooooo I can finish a 350 page novel in less than 5 hours if I don't get interrupted.


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## kennyc (Mar 6, 2012)

Yeah, but what do you retain? particularly details...


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## Japanny (Mar 6, 2012)

Everything.  I can read thatfast and comprehend and remember all of it.


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## squidtender (Mar 6, 2012)

In junior high and into high school I would read several novels a week. Now, between work and my stringent writing routine, I read about a book a month depending on the size. I don't include my subscription to Analog (which is great sci-fi short stories, btw) in my one-a-month count.


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## kennyc (Mar 6, 2012)

Japanny said:


> Everything.  I can read thatfast and comprehend and remember all of it.



Excuse me if I disbelieve.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Mar 7, 2012)

It depends on the book. I read Harry Potter 7 in one sitting, roughly five hours in all. I just couldn't help myself. Although Truman's Murder at the Watergate took me two weeks despite having only as much pages as HP7.


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## sunaynaprasad (Mar 8, 2012)

I don't read that fast at all, and unlike other people, who advance in reading incredibly fast, I haven't at all. I'm in college, but I find myself to have the reading skills of a 4th grader. I actually prefer to read BELOW my level much more than at it. I am a kid at heart when it comes to reading. When I was going into 12th grade, my mom had to stop me from reading a children's novel for my summer reading assignment.


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## JosephB (Mar 8, 2012)

I have a reading disorder -- so very slowly. One of the reasons I'm very picky about what I read. I love and appreciate good prose -- I don't have the patience to put up with mediocre writing. On top of reading slowly, I don't have a lot of time to read -- so it might take me a few weeks to get through a novel. But for me -- it's all about quality over quantity.


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## Dramatism (Mar 10, 2012)

Not very fast at all.  I read the boring novels we read for school terribly slow, which is bad news since we often have to read 200 pages in 4 days.  It may sound like nothing to you, but with small print and a boring plot... I don't even want to get around to reading it.  That would easily take me 10 hours, I should say, so you can't blame me if I don't want to finish it.  If I'd try to read it faster, then I would miss everything.  

Even with books I read for fun, I read slow.  For these novels, I don't see the point in reading fast anyway.  I want to be immersed in the book and don't want to rush through it.

I'm so slow that I recall reading a short story in class in English in 8th grade, and we all started at the same time, and I was one of the last kids done reading before we could talk about it...


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## TWErvin2 (Mar 10, 2012)

I read somewhat slowly, even when reading for pleasure, but I tend to remember what I read pretty well. That doesn't mean I cannot skim or scan for certain passages or information, or to get the gist of a story, but for most of my reading, that's not what I'm focused on.


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## Turnip (Mar 10, 2012)

Like the other posters above me, I like to read slowly because I find it to be a more rewarding experience. I can get obsessive though, and end up re-reading a whole chapter if I feel like I did not understand it 100%.


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## Magnum (Mar 10, 2012)

About average speed, maybe a little faster.  If its a book that i really like, i will easily finish it in a few hours depending on length.  If i like it, i dont want to give myself a cliffhanger and wonder for a day what the next part is.  And since i got a Kindle, its gotten worse haha


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## Meliha (Mar 11, 2012)

Not as fast as I'd like... I'm hoping for some miracle by which my reading ability would mirror the speed in which books are published. Now I ask you: What are my chances?


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