# What's the fastest you've ever finished a book? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 15, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513 "2004-06-15T18:26:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ForgottenLore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@ForgottenLore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForgottenLore)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/21 "2004-06-15T19:44:47Z")
> [@dwalin](#): > > I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in about three hours, IIRC. The best speed I’ve ever gotten is reading Babysitter’s Club books (Ann M. Martin, around 150 pages per) in about half an hour. So, around 300 pages of fiction an hour is a good speed for me. Urk. I’m having an attack of pph envy. 300 pages per hour? My normal “casual reading” speed for a hardcover book is about a page a minute, so if I’d read OOTP straight through it would’ve been over 13 hours. For the record, I read Stephen King’s **The Drawing of the Three** in one day. not 'cause I thought it was a great read, but because I was stuck in a car on an all-day roadtrip. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/22 "2004-06-15T19:58:06Z")
I am a notoriously fast reader. When I was in high school I got a cushy summer babysitting job: 11-year-old kid, single dad worked second shift. I was at their house from noon to ten or so, kid basically hung out with his friends, I made sure he ate and went to bed on time. I was an Ellery Queen freak that year and on a good day I could suck down two novels in a row. Thank you, Public Library. 🙂 Another time we were assigned _The Count of Monte Cristo._ I started it right away in class, read it on the bus home from school, read it during dinner, read it in my room after dinner and finished around 2 AM. For some reason it just sucked me in. But now I don’t recall much of it. I should read it again. Unfortunately I don’t do as much pleasure reading as I would like these days. For my job I have a big stack of most of A Famous Author’s books here (for reference only), an author of whom I am a big fan, and I’ve been thinking how delicious it would be to just read them all again, start to finish. ---
**Author:** ![Mirth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Mirth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/23 "2004-06-15T20:00:16Z")
I read the first six books of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series in about four days. (I am a university student, so I had quite a bit of free time, but I didn’t skip class for it or anything.) Then again, afterwards I got online on the fan sites and realized I had missed HUGE ideas in the series. Don’t know how to do spoilers or I’d give an example. Anyway, I went back and re-read them over 2 weeks and got a lot more out of them. ---
**Author:** ![kitarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/24 "2004-06-15T20:09:39Z")
Well, the fastest I’ve ever read a book was some crappy sci-fi novel (might have been a doctor who book) - probably about 2, 3 hundred pages. Finished it over a lunchbreak sitting in the school library (about an hour). Never quite reached that level of speed reading before or since. Generally speaking I can finish a new novel in an evening - sit down and start reading it at around 5:00, maybe a bit earlier, and come to at around 1:00 having finished it. More heavy going books of course take longer. I think I read the first two, maybe the third as well, Harry Potter books on a plane trip. A fairly long plane trip - about 6 to 8 hours - but still pretty fast. I am however a major book addict, and read far too much. If I didn’t read fast I’d have no free time for anything other than reading. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/25 "2004-06-15T20:13:20Z")
Heck, I can read _Go Dog, Go_ in, like, 60 seconds. Seriously, though, I read _Of Mice and Men_ in about two hours. It’s a fairly short book, though. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/26 "2004-06-15T20:28:06Z")
I read Faye Kellerman’s “Prayers for the Dead” in about 5 hours. Once I started it I just couldn’t put it down. ---
**Author:** ![bafaa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@bafaa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bafaa)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/27 "2004-06-15T20:41:27Z")
When I was about 12 or 13 I borrowed 3 or 4 of the Chronicles of Narnia books from a friend with the condition that I just HAD to return them the next day before his parents found out. Apparently he wasn’t allowed to lend things to people or something. :rolleyes: Anyway, after school I worked my way through all of them. I think it was too much to process because I honestly don’t remember too much about them. Oh and it snowed that night and school was closed so I ended up keeping them for another day anyway! D’oh! If I find a good book I will usually go through it in a weekend if I can make the time but there are lots of books that I only took a day to read such as: \*The Silence of the Lambs Misery The Vampire Lestat Queen of the Damned \* When I started them I just couldn’t put them down. ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/28 "2004-06-15T20:44:00Z")
I read pretty quickly, though I slow down for some for denser or more intellectual material. The fifth Harry Potter took me about five or six hours; I read _The Devil in the White City_ this weekend and that took me about three hours. I think I probably average about 100 pages an hour or so. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/29 "2004-06-15T20:48:21Z")
When I first got into Grisham’s writing I read a few of his books in either one or two nights each. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/30 "2004-06-15T20:53:39Z")
Depends on the size of the book, how absorbing or challenging the content is and my schedule of course, but anywhere from an hour or two to a two or three days. I work full time, have weekly volunteer responsiblities and a family and I manage to routinely read two books a week. I almost always have a book handy in the car or in by bag. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/31 "2004-06-15T21:02:26Z")
> [@The Man With The Golden Gun](#): > > What’s your best time for reading a book? I read Dean R Koontz (sp?) “Watchers” in a day, back in Highschool, during summer vacation. That same summer I regularly finished a whole bunch of Koontz (as well as Steven King, and a few sci-fi novels) novels fairly quickly. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/32 "2004-06-15T21:15:51Z")
I never really thought about it before but the talk of road trips made me remember. IIRC, in 5th grade or so, I read War of the Worlds on a trip. I would guess it was about 5 hours of reading for over 200 pages. I would love to be able to read a page per minute atleast. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_griffin-kentzel/32/14787_2.png) [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/33 "2004-06-15T22:25:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Not sure if this goes in here, IMHO, or Cafe Society, so I’ll put it here. Since this is basically a poll, I’ll move it to **IMHO** for you. **Cajun Man** for the SDMB ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/34 "2004-06-15T22:38:00Z")
Whenever I get a new Terry Pratchett book, I’ll be done with it inside of 6-8 hours. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/35 "2004-06-15T23:25:09Z")
I chewed through _The Amityville Horror_ in about four and a half hours. At night. When I was thirteen and extremely impressionable. I’m not the voracious reader I used to be, though. I used to be able to sit or lie in bed and read for hours at a stretch. Now I need to get up and move around or “rest my eyes” for a few minutes every hour or so. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/36 "2004-06-15T23:38:19Z")
I read a reasonably thick novel in about four or five hours in the car once (I was bored and it was someone else’s book, so I had to finish it before we got home) - it was about an artificial human thing, I seem to remember it as being by Danielle Steele, but that doesn’t seem right. ---
**Author:** ![WCStyles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7cd45c/32.png) [@WCStyles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WCStyles)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/37 "2004-06-15T23:42:43Z")
I can’t remember all the books I’ve sat down with and read straight through, though the one that really sticks in my mind is _Great Expectations_, read in about ten hours on the last day of winter break in tenth grade (forgot about the assignment). I didn’t much care for it then, and I know I should probably give it another (more leisurely) shot, but twenty years of hard feelings is tough to overcome. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/38 "2004-06-15T23:58:08Z")
_Who Moved My Cheese?_ Ten minutes flat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/39 "2004-06-16T00:06:16Z")
I read Brave New World, Catcher in the Rye, and 1984 in one day over the course of about 12 hours or so. I did The Winds of War, War And Remembrance, and The Caine Mutiny (I was on a Wouk kick) in a week. I regularly finish any new book that I buy in a day, rarely longer than 3 days, and that’s usually because I’m reading about 10-15 books at a time and I put it down and start to read another one, only to go back to it later. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/40 "2004-06-16T00:12:40Z")
OOTP in 24 hours, including sleep and class (and the fact that I get ill if I read in the car). These days I don’t read many books. I also read Beowulf in prose poetry (and **understood** it) in three hours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513.md?page=3)