How long does it take for you to read a book?

[closed.......]

For me it takes 3-7 days for me to finish, depending on the size of the book and how into it i am.
I'm just about to start 'Shantaram' which is nearly 1000 pages thick and has micoscopic writing. oh god... this could be intense

[manolia]

You are a fast reader then..I usually read at a snail's pace. I even surprise myself sometimes. Recently i achieved a new record. I read 'Oliver Twist' and it took me more than two weeks :D

*EDIT* Welcome to the forum!

[scotpgot]

That sounds about right for me as well. On average 3-7 days. Of course some can be finished in a day, some take a month.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, actually. I work in a small retail store, and most of the day it's just waiting for customers to come in. And lately I've been taken to reading, and as much literature as I can. I wonder if I'm not reading it too quickly.

I wonder if it's really possible to appreciate "The Sun Also Rises" in three days, or "The Great Gatsby" in a day and a half. I wonder if I'm not missing a lot by reading so quickly.

I see some posters who have read 30, 40 books of major literature in a year or two. For me, I don't think I could get my head around that much. There must be a lot of people on this site who are a LOT smarter than me.

[whatsername]

Depends on the size of the book and if I'm interested in it or not.

For example, I finished 'The Alchemist'(170 pages) in 5 hours
while 'The Hobbit'(360 pages) in 2 weeks

[Stieg]

Depends on the size of the book and if I'm interested in it or not.

For example, I finished 'The Alchemist'(170 pages) in 5 hours
while 'The Hobbit'(360 pages) in 2 weeks

That sounds about true to myself, I mean Stephen King once said, a writer should at least read four hours a day minimum. As a reader, one that has tons more literature to enjoy, I actually thought of creating a reading regiment of two hours a day at the least but preferably more with undistracted focus. Some books I can consume miles of pulp in a relative short time (finish a novel in a single afternoon) and others I slug through with comparitively greater drag.
But back to the question at hand, usually about 3-7 days.

[toni]

It really does depend if the book is interesting.
But i have to say, it takes me about a week or two. ;)

[SleepyWitch]

T

I wonder if it's really possible to appreciate "The Sun Also Rises" in three days, or "The Great Gatsby" in a day and a half. I wonder if I'm not missing a lot by reading so quickly.



me too.
although it takes me longer than you to read a book (because univ keeps me busy and I also have lots of other hobbies) i generally read to fast...
i never think about what i read but just gobble books up for pleasure, even classcis.. so i miss a lot of the "deeper meaning"... on the other hand, i don't think that's such a bad thing, because why on earth would anyone do a close reading, except the analyse the book.

Ali, how many hours a day do you spend reading?

when i was in school it took me something like 3-7 days as well, but now it's more like 2 to 4 weeks.

[liesl]

At the moment i have to read a book a week for one module and a large chunk of whatever huge novel we are doing (Bleak House, Moby Dick etc.) So i would say it takes between 3-7 days to read a book on the whole. But it all depends on whether i need to have the book read for a class and whether i like or dislike the book.

Although i have been known to finish a book in less than a day, i read 'Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime' in 4 hours.

[Nightshade]

Hummm I usually cant sleep till I know the ending so I dont know depending on what it is around 2 hours per avarage size 'popular' novel. Really depnds on how complex it is and how similar the names and the writing style...

[amanda_isabel]

two day to two weeks. if i go beyond two weeks then i'm either very busy (highly unlikely, since i usually make time to read. i even read instaed of doing homework.) or soo not into it, at which point i probably will not continue.

[Aiculík]

why on earth would anyone do a close reading, except the analyse the book.

Because that way I can enjoy in the book twice as much. I always feel like explorer when I read interesting book. And because I can understand the book much better than if I read it quickly.

I was recently helping to my sis (teaches literature at university) to write a study about close-reading for her students . She chose Evelyne by James Joyce. It was great fun to discover different possible ways of reading Evvy - and in the process, I learned many interesting things of Ireland, England, and even Buenos Aires. :) And her students were equally fascinated. Now they try to do the same with every text she gaves them. :D

[metal134]

It really varies for me. Some times, I'll finish a 500 page book in 7 or 8 days. But sometimes, I get so side tracked thatit may take me much longer. for example, I'm currently reading War and Peace. I started about 3 weeks ago and after about 2 week, I was halfway through. But I got sidetracked with reading I had to do for my World Civ: China class and long days between my internship, class and my job and in the last week I haven't even gotten 100 pages read. And the last couple of days, after everything has settled down, I sit down to read and I'm so tired that I can't focus; I just drift. So it's taken me a while and could take another couple weeks for me too finish War and Peace. Now, I realize that is an extreme example because War and Peace is uber long, but it illustrates my point well enough.

[closed.......]

me too.
although it takes me longer than you to read a book (because univ keeps me busy and I also have lots of other hobbies) i generally read to fast...
i never think about what i read but just gobble books up for pleasure, even classcis.. so i miss a lot of the "deeper meaning"... on the other hand, i don't think that's such a bad thing, because why on earth would anyone do a close reading, except the analyse the book.

Ali, how many hours a day do you spend reading?

when i was in school it took me something like 3-7 days as well, but now it's more like 2 to 4 weeks.

Hi there, Yeah it really does depend on alot of things how much you read. I read around 1-2 hours a day which isnt very much but satisfying, because i am also in college at the moment and i have other hobbies on the side aswell. I would love to read much more than i do, I'm certainly no bookworm. I fi became rich and didnt have to work, i'd read soooooo much...

[Bakiryu]

I'm In high school so they usually make us read useless stuff like Great Expectations (SORRY DICKENS' FANS!). It took me about four months and I only ended up by chapter 19 when i gave up and tossed the book out my bedroom window.

However, I finished the lord of the rings trilogy (My edition has 1137 pages in really tiny type) in two days.
It takes me about 2-5 hours to read a book, usually less if it's a weekend and i can fully concentrate instead of looking over my shoulder so they teacher doesn't catch me reading (and failing). It depends on how good the book is, or how paced. Fast paced books such as Maximum Ride go faster.

[Nick Rubashov]

a very long time, even for short books. I just don't read as often as I would like to.

[Domer121]

I am a pretty slow reader, though when it is fiction I like it takes me a matter of a day...

[grace86]

Unfortunately I cannot read as much as I would like. College gets me bogged down, and when I get to uni. I will have less time I think.

But right now I am lucky to finish a book in a month. I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and it took me two days, but the other short stories in the volume are still sitting there, about two months later.

I tend to start a book really fast, I will get to the halfway point in no time, but then I slow down..and it is probably better that way because I can absorb more.

I haven't sat down to read in about a month. I cannot wait until the summer...that is all I will be doing.

[bibliophile190]

Honestly, it depends on the length of the the book and the style. Anything less than 400 pages, I can usually read in five days, give or take. Anything longer and it could take up to a month. Also, my reading time depends on how dense the book is, to me. For example, I spent almost a month and a half slogging my way through Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose", because it was so dense. Also, distractions definetly slow down my reading pace. I have almost no reading time anymore. I'm in my Junior Year in Highschool, so the homework is nightmarish. Also, I'm in the school musical, which means I have practices till ten at night, so I can only read during the weekends. However, in the summer, I average roughly 30-40 books. Now, not all of these books are huge books, though. It's not like I'm reading 40 Les Miserables size books.

[Stieg]

Like for instance I am only about 100 pages into my third Taylor book, an extraordinary genre writer, all but ignoring my volume of Roald Dahl collection of adult short stories (no fault of Dahl's but it is like *bam* *bam* *bam* alot of his earlier stories are war related but genuinely funny), Mark Gatiss is doing nothing for me regret buying them, and have been playing alot card games etc with family and friends.

[loneangel]

For me it depends on the book I read Stephen King's The Stand in about a month but the last book I read I finished in a few days

[cardplay]

I don't think there is any real comparison. I can read a Stephen King in a few hours, but Umberto Eco takes 2 weeks. It's not the number of words, but the difficulty of the ideas.

[SleepyWitch]

I don't think there is any real comparison. I can read a Stephen King in a few hours, but Umberto Eco takes 2 weeks. It's not the number of words, but the difficulty of the ideas.

yep, i think you're right there, card. glad you pointed it out :)

[pinkmoon]

Me.. if the book is a long novel I may need a month to read it all
but if it's just a short one, (e.g. Great Expectations) I will finish it in a week , maybe.
if it,s not a novel, I look into the page of contents and choose to read what I'm interested in, then I may complete the book, and I may not.:D

[Idril]

Like most people have said, it depends on the book. I can read an 800+ Trollope book in a few days because his writing is so fluid and then it can take me a couple weeks to read a book half that size if the writing is more dense. I also find that I take longer with a new author, it takes awhile to get 'into the groove' of it. The first Dostoevsky book I read took awhile but now I can zip right through them because I'm familar with his style and language and form. Anna Kerenina, which was the first Tolstoy book I read, took me twice as long to read as War and Peace which was the third. Another thing that really effects my reading is my mood and of course other interests. I'm moving at a snail's pace right now because I'm also playing Harvest Moon on the DS and my animals aren't going to feed themselves and my crops are not going to harvest themselves so I have other important things to do right now. ;)

[aabbcc]

I cannot answer this question. It depends on plethora of things - from how much time have I got, how well do I know the language I read in, how much the book I read matches my current mood or interests, why do I read it at all, and so on.

There are books which I read at once, within several hours; likewise, there are those I read at slower pace for weeks.
There are books to be swallowed and books to be studied and given to more attention than one rainy afternoon; books to be taken in huge doses and books to be read little by little and let the ideas in them develop gradually in us; my pace of reading thus varies greatly.

[Koa]

It used to take no time, really - when I was a child I used to read 3-4 books per week... Now it takes me ages, simply because in my free time I do many other things besides reading, especially wasting time online.

[jason07]

It depends on the book's size and the author's writing skills. A 500-page book usually takes me at least a week.

[bouquin]

My average reading speed is 50 pages/day.

[Adolescent09]

My average reading speed is 50 pages/day.

Mine is anywhere from 60 to 200 depending on which type of book. I can read 200 pages of John Steinbeck's longer novels (East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath) in one day but only 60 pages of The Brother's Karamazov or Gone with the Wind in the same period of time.

It's interesting seeing all the reading rates of the people on this forum. Great diversity ;)

[BroadwayBaby]

I think I read Rebel Angels (I believe it's about 850 pages) in about 6 hours and that is my record... of course, when I read I kinda tend to skip a lot, like read speech completely, and most actions, but descriptions and some longer actions I'll just skim because I get bored

[Mortis Anarchy]

Depends on the book...sometimes I just want to see how fast I can read it...or to keep personal records(Harry Potter.). Or if it is really, really, really good, then I tend to take my time...my normal book time varies between a day-3days...or if it is good enough and I read all day, 8 hrs maybe...it just varies.

[Turk]

I normally read a novel page in a minute that means i can read a 100 pages book in 100 minutes. But that only works with very good novels (Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, The Old Man and the Sea, Heart of Darkness etc.), otherwise i find myself dreaming about something or imagining how to write one of my future stories. :)

[Mortis Anarchy]

I normally read a novel page in a minute that means i can read a 100 pages book in 100 minutes. But that only works with very good novels (Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, The Old Man and the Sea, Heart of Darkness etc.), otherwise i find myself dreaming about something or imagining how to write one of my future stories. :)

I read The Pearl so fast...wow! That was a good book. Most of my favorites I read really fast, but I always re-read them just to savor them.

[Annamariah]

When I feel like reading (and have a lot of time, for example when I'm having a holiday) I can read about 1000 pages on one day. On average I read about 80 pages on one day.

[farnoosh]

i like to read anything that others recomend so i can find out what others think about ,and it usually takes 4 days

[Behemoth]

Again, depending on the book it can be anything from 24 hrs to 1 yr! :D I usually average about 5-6 days, longer for larger texts.

[Bakiryu]

I'm 1h to 2 days. I can't make a book last longer than a week!

[Argyroneta]

Sometimes I can do 50 pages a day, sometimes about 10. I'm a really slow reader.

[Orpheus]

I don't really think it matters how fast you read a book. Honestly, are there going to be any more words or events if you were to spread the book out over two weeks vs. two days. If you're able to pay attention and look for underlying meanings while reading at a fast pace, then that is what you should do. If it is more enjoyable for you to read a book at a more temperate pace and really dig in, then there is that option as well. The only reason that you would ever miss anything is when you aren't truly focused or that you still have the quantity over quality mentality. Yes there is a lot of stuff out there, and no you will not be able to devour everything. Accept it. If we are just reading through a ton of books for reasons none other than to say that we have read them, then what is the point of reading at all? There are much better ways to waste your time.

i've seen this question come up all too often, and once again, I ask, what is the point? This is just another way that we compare ourselves with what others are doing and have done. I may be stretching this question further than it was intended but I have to wonder why it was asked at all. In the same way that musicians, when they meet a player of considerable talent will ask, "How long have you been playing?" people who read ask "How long does it take you to read a book?" Musicians do not ask this question out of curiosity but moreso as a way of comparing themselves and sizing each other up to see whether they will be able to play at the same level in the future.

[Brigitte]

I have to say that with books like Harry Potter, even though one of the books was 600 something odd pages I read that in 6-8 hours. However I don't think it has anything to do with pages. I was absorbed and nothing could stop me from reading, and of course the font isn't all the small :lol:

Typically, I'm a fast reader, but it depends on the level of interest and how busy I am. I can get through most stuff fairly quickly if I'm waaay interested because I just don't stop. ^_^

The Plague (by Camus)... that took me two months. Talk about something like 2 page a day... :blush: It just put me to sleep.

[Bartholomew]

Sometimes it takes an hour, sometimes years. It depends how long the book is, how it is organized, and how much I enjoy reading it. If I'm really enthralled, I'll try to get through something in one to three sittings over the course of one or two days. Also, the density needs to be considered.

[F.Emerald]

I remember reading the Catcher in the Rye within hours, whereas I read, or rather, forced myself into reading the Heart of Darkness in a matter of weeks. And I do believe that the latter is shorter. So I think speed depends much more on whether you're enjoying the book, rather than the length of it.

Averagely, I think I read at about 40 pages/day. But if I'm really enjoying it, I think it would be more like 80 pages/day.

[byquist]

You are a fast reader whereas I mostly go slow and savor what's going on. Give me at least 1 1/2 to two weeks for a book. Oh, and it took me 2-3 years each reading both of Tolstoy's long ones in the bathtub and at least a year to read the Dostoevsky one that has that Sagrovin bad guy (check spelling).