# How long would it take you to read a 1000 pg book?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 1, 2009, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570 "2009-12-01T09:14:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Sampsiceramos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Sampsiceramos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampsiceramos)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/81 "2012-05-06T13:23:30Z")

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Depending on the material and the desired level of comprehension, my rate of reading ranges from \> 1 ppm to \< 5 ppm. I’ve sped through “A Thousand Splendid Suns” in less than 2 hours a few years ago, and the 5th Harry Potter book twice in an evening (approx. 2\*800 pages, so around 200-250 pages pr. hour, IIRC). That’s one end of the extreme, at which I would suppose I achieve 85% comprehension.

The other end of the spectrum, which can quite quickly devolve into drudgery, is stuff like advanced mathematics or philosophy. In the case of the former, regarding something like algebraic geometry, I read at somewhere around 0.25-0.5 ppm, while in the case of the latter, I suppose I can manage 1 ppm when reading “Phenomenology of the Spirit” - a notoriously illegible book.

On my last formal reading test, in which memorization of the text was in essence required, I scored 500 wpm at 100% comprehension, and I was being _very_ careful. My reading style, which involves no internal vocalization (I can barely _imagine_ how one would even do that) or even conscious thought, means that the rate at which I read is in essence only limited by the max speed at which I can process visual input.

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**Author:** ![Sampsiceramos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Sampsiceramos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampsiceramos)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/82 "2012-05-06T13:31:58Z")

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> [@jifuniversal](#):
>
> I’m sorry to bring back an old one, but maybe some of you will help me anyway 😉
> 
> I feel lost and a bit helpless as it’s final exam in Psychology in 11 days. And I have just opened the first book (1 out of 2)!! I’ve always been kind of a last-minute-person and somehow it’s worked out most of the times. Now, I’m not sure sure..:smack:
> 
> So I mentioned I’ve got two books. The main one is basic psychology (mind and behaviour) and is about 8-900 pages. A big one too, so approx. about 1000 in “typical book” size. The other one, the history of psychology, is “typical book” sized and has about 350 pages. The big one is in english, which is not my first language as I’m norwegian, though it seems alright and not too advanced. The other one is in norwegian, so I suppose it’ll be easier to get through.
> 
> I’ve read this thread and I’m shocked at how incredibly fast readers some of you are! Wow. I feel slightly calmer after reading you guys use only a few days to get trough so many pages!
> 
> **What do you guys think? Am I doomed? I know it’s different reading this stuff vs. a story, but I do find it interesting. Do you have any tips I could use?**

(I duly apologize for the double post - didn’t see this until after I had posted my first post, but wanted to help anyhow - bolding mine.)

The single best tip I can give you is to try to read in “semantic units” instead of word-for-word, in the sense that you’ll read faster if you focus on what the text is trying to convey, instead of breaking it as far down as words. That, and try to train yourself to process what you read “unconsciously”, so to speak.

However, you should be aware that learning to read fast is something that, in my experience, is very much akin to learning a language. Unless you start with the right method, and do so at an early age, you’ll never read at first-rate speed. If you have a current ppm\<1, you might be able to force it up to 1 with the correct reading strategy, but it’s unlikely that you’ll ever manage to read as fast as, well, the rest of us 😃

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**Author:** ![jifuniversal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/45deac/32.png) [@jifuniversal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jifuniversal)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/83 "2012-05-06T13:50:09Z")

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> [@Sampsiceramos](#):
>
> (I duly apologize for the double post - didn’t see this until after I had posted my first post, but wanted to help anyhow - bolding mine.)
> 
> The single best tip I can give you is to try to read in “semantic units” instead of word-for-word, in the sense that you’ll read faster if you focus on what the text is trying to convey, instead of breaking it as far down as words. That, and try to train yourself to process what you read “unconsciously”, so to speak.
> 
> However, you should be aware that learning to read fast is something that, in my experience, is very much akin to learning a language. Unless you start with the right method, and do so at an early age, you’ll never read at first-rate speed. If you have a current ppm\<1, you might be able to force it up to 1 with the correct reading strategy, but it’s unlikely that you’ll ever manage to read as fast as, well, the rest of us 😃

Thanks! :)) I agree on your tip, I’m just a little afraid I’ll misunderstand something if I go too fast and read a word as another similar one, but I’ll definitely try it out 🙂 I can scan a page rather quickly, but I’ve just done it when I know what I’m looking for, and not for learning (and remembering!) what it says.

Yeah, haha, I have no high hopes of getting to your level! I just don’t wanna fail this exam..to be honest I’d be happy with an E :eek:

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**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/84 "2012-05-06T14:57:05Z")

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I just finished a 960 page book in 5 days. I read about 1.5 hours each night. A little more some nights, a little less others.

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**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/85 "2012-05-07T02:45:10Z")

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Speed depends on what it is and what language it’s in. In English, my native language, I average out to about 100 pages per hour. Some things more, some things less – when I finally caved and bought the first three Harry Potter books in a boxed set of paperbacks, reading them was the work of a Saturday afternoon.

I actually sat down and clocked this once because when I read in French, which was the first language I was taught formally in school, I drop to about 60pph. It feels excruciatingly slow to me.

The way very quick readers do it is that they mostly don’t mentally pronounce the word as their eye skates across it. They have a very large “recognition vocabulary”, or set of words they can identify by general shape alone. So instead of seeing “dog” and listening to your mental voice sound out “d…o…g” and associating the sound of “dog” with the image of a dog, you see the shape of “dog” and bam! mental picture of a dog. Saves a lot of time.

The way I can normally tell when I have a large enough recognition vocabulary in a language to read stuff without keeping a dictionary nearby is when I start forgetting what language I have read said stuff in. Without the subvocalizations, the language becomes transparent, and all I store is the information.

As for your studying, I would recommend that you read until the vocabulary you need for the test becomes recognition vocabulary. That’ll save you all the time you spend reading key words. 😉 Seriously, though – to a large extent, you can learn to read faster by reading more, encountering more words, and becoming so familiar with them that you recognize them by vague shape alone. Once it’s part of your recognition vocabulary, then it’s just a matter of how good you are at visual pattern matching.

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/86 "2012-05-07T04:25:39Z")

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Took me a month to get through Plutarch.

It was on a Kindle, so it’s hard to estimate page count, but I’d say the rough equivalent of 1300 pages.

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**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/87 "2012-05-07T04:51:54Z")

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Its a novel? I read it in a day, but it didn’t seem that long. I read fast when its junkfood for the mind. When I need to read and retain the info, I’m much slower. Now that I’m learning Latin, I slow down a lot while rereading the Cthulhu Mythos.

When I’m reading techy stuff, it can take me an hour a page.

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**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/88 "2012-05-07T08:52:05Z")

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If I had nothing else to do and if the book was interesting, it would probably take me 2-3 days.

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**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/89 "2012-05-07T17:11:30Z")

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> [@jifuniversal](#):
>
> I’m sorry to bring back an old one, but maybe some of you will help me anyway 😉
> 
> I feel lost and a bit helpless as it’s final exam in Psychology in 11 days.

So you’re telling us you’re studying _BRAAAAAIINNNSS!!_?

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**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/90 "2012-05-07T17:45:04Z")

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The biggest book I’ve ever read was 1100 pages. Did that in 4 days. At a certain point, your body just needs to get up and move around. I can’t stay in one position for hours and read a book, especially lying down, cause I tend to fall asleep

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**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/91 "2012-05-07T18:13:38Z")

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> [@Cubsfan](#):
>
> So I got the new Stephen King book Under the Dome and it’s just over 1000pgs. I’m curious how long it takes most people to finish a book this large.

Unfair. That book I read in about 12 evenings. I could hardly put it down. Other less enjoyable stories might take me a month of evenings to get through that volume of pages.

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**Author:** ![Big\_Mark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f1d935/32.png) [@Big\_Mark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Mark)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/92 "2016-06-27T18:09:40Z")

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> [@silenus](#):
>
> If it’s fiction, I’ll burn through it in no time. I generally read for entertainment at a little better than 800 wpm. Of course, it helps if you know the author and style before starting. Tom Clancy just flies, because I know when to skip paragraphs (hell, pages!) of description and dive in again when the plot resurfaces. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, OTOH, I tend to read more slowly. It also depends on how well I like the story. New Terry Pratchett tends to get read in one or two intense evenings.

Wow 800 Words per minute? Sheesh lol

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**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/93 "2016-06-27T18:15:15Z")

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How fast do zombies read? Second-time-around zombies?

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**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/94 "2016-06-27T19:10:23Z")

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For me if I like the book I’ll read it twice. The first time is a binge of speed reading usually over the course of 1-3 days and probably losing sleep, I think a 1000p book (especially with King’s fairly straightforward writing) would fit this fine. The second time is more leisurely, and I’ll spread it out over the course of weeks soaking up details and spotting things I missed in the ‘find out what happened’ read. If I’m not really into a book, it’s not uncommon for me to read 1/3 or 1/2 way through, put it aside, then weeks or months later pick it up.

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**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/95 "2016-06-27T20:20:35Z")

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Most books I read, 3-400 pages, take me two weeks. I rarely start a book longer than about 500, and if I do, it is with the understanding that if it doesn’t continue to hold me spellbound, , I will quit rather than keep plodding through it.

I’m now reading “A Little Life”, which is 700.

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**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/96 "2016-06-27T20:40:19Z")

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As has been mentioned, it depends on the book and why I am reading it. Studying some subject, I read a lot more slowly than if I am just reading for entertainment.

I read about an hour and a half a day, but that includes an hour of audiobooks while walking Leet the Wonder Dog[sup]TM[/sup]. There I am limited to the rate at which a book can be read out loud. Reading from paper, I can generally burn thru a book in three or four nights, but they are not generally 1000 pages. I did the longer Harry Potter books in about a day and a half, but those are special cases. I read the entire Chronicles of Narnia in about a Saturday, but, again, special case.

I got a C in my speed reading course in high school, even though I was the fastest reader in the class, because I was doing all those things already and didn’t improve my reading speed very much. 😃

Regards,  
Shodan

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**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/97 "2016-06-27T20:44:04Z")

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Here’s my two cents, better late than never:

When I am reading for pleasure, I definitely take my time. I’m not just sounding out words, but I’m putting voice inflection and tone into the voice in my head. (If I started reading something in serious tone and realize it’s a joke, I’ll back up and re-read it using the voice inflection proper for a joke). I’m also pausing to remember similar scenes, and thinking ahead to predict or analyze. I am definitely \*interacting \*with the text. At that rate, I think I’m about 80 words per minute, or 20-30 pages per hour, though it’s been a while since I really measured it. I read digitally now, which makes it hard to measure my progress by traditional means. I also do a lot of reading while walking to work, so I’m not always 100% focused on reading.

(As an example of this: Terry Pratchett’s has a character Teatime who has his own special pronunciation of his name. Every time I hit that name, I stumbled on who was saying it, and tried to figure out which pronunciation that character would have used. )

If I’m reading just to get through it, I read much more quickly, at least two or three times as fast without losing big-picture comprehension. At that point, I’m no longer sounding out words and I’m no longer creating scenes. I’m just doing a book-to-brain data transfer when I read like that. Nowadays, it’s pretty rare that I spend time in this mode, but it helped me get through school.

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**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/98 "2016-06-27T23:52:47Z")

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> [@kayT](#):
>
> How fast do zombies read? Second-time-around zombies?

I can cruise through a good zombie story at about 500 wpm. Cormac McCarthy OTOH slows me down to about 50.

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**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/99 "2016-06-28T01:50:23Z")

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As a general rule, your standard American paperback novel will average 250 words per page. This isn’t true for all books, of course (the number used to be higher), but it works as a good approximation. So, for example, \*_Dracoi_ reads from 83-120 wpm. 4 pages a minute is about 1k wpm, etc.

I tested in the 11th grade @ 600wpm, have no idea what it is today.

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**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-you-to-read-a-1000-pg-book/519570/100 "2016-06-28T02:50:30Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> How on earth do you read with out sounding out the words? I’ve been trying for the last hour or so and it just doesn’t work. Just glancing at a word makes me start pronouncing it automatically. Has anyone seen any studies on the way people read with regards to sounding/not sounding? I would be very interested in seeing if this is something that can be learned and how one would go about doing that.

you actually sound out the words? I didn’t think anyone did that unless it was a word they had never seen before. Most people go by the “shape” of the words, kind of like how your fingers (well, your brain) learn “patterns” of typing each word or phrase instead of hunting and pecking for individual letters. Reading/writing and talking/speaking seem to be entirely different brain processes. I can read entire pages at a glance, not in detail, but enough to get the gist and/or to locate the relevant information I am looking for. I don’t read for pleasure that way but’s handy when scanning through a textbook, paper, or a webpage. People tend to be really good at visually spotting patterns.

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