# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/61 "2004-06-16T21:04:53Z")
> [@The Man With The Golden Gun](#): > > Jesus on a pogo stick some of you people are fast readers. I can’t even imagine myself finishing any book longer than your average Dr. Seuss in a day. Then again, I tend not to read for long periods of time (an hour at most), and I read at a snail’s pace. Probably because I’ve only got about 2 years of experience doing it. I average about 10 days for a 200 page book. You may always be an average reader (speed-wise) and there’s no shame in that. The fact that you enjoy reading and are proud of reading is far more important. However, I believe that very often, the more you read, the faster you get. So don’t be surprised if you start to pick up speed over the years. > [@](#): > > But some of the stuff in this thread, you people have talent. Eh, well, I tend to think that some of us read so damned much that we’ve gotten naturally fast! But, I suppose that with some of the scary-fast ones, it’s talent too. Oh, I guess that reading all the damned time is a talent too! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/62 "2004-06-16T22:17:28Z")
I remember starting The Hobbit on a Saturday morning at 9am and finishing the end of ROTK by 10pm that same day. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/63 "2004-06-16T23:31:42Z")
I always read at night and in three installments. Regardless of the length of the book, I divide in into thirds (more or less, whatever chapter falls closest to the mark) and read it over three nights. This generally works out to between 100 and 150 pages a day. That’s now and pleasure reading, though. Back in highschool, I could finish a less-than-enthralling book in a couple hours. Granted, at times my “reading” was more like glorified skimming, but that was enough. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/64 "2004-06-17T04:44:37Z")
I read the first four Harry potter books in two days, _The order of the Phoenix_ in about 8-10 hours [60-100 pph] The average Clive Cussler is done in 6 hours. Most David Eddings, David Weber, or Lois McMaster Bujold books are done in a single sitting and Tom Clancy books take no more than two days. I’m a single University Student (can you tell?) -DF ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/65 "2004-06-17T05:07:22Z")
> [@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. Working with Harry Potter’s OOTP word length of 255,000, that works out to about 1400 words per minute. Most speed reading courses will get you in the range of 800-1200 words per minute, so **dwalin** ’s claims are reasonable. I sure as hell can’t do it. OOTP took me around 8-10 hours to finish, and I thought that was fast… ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/66 "2004-06-17T05:35:22Z")
Back in high school, my best friend and I - on a lark - decided to five-finger discount copies of _And I Don’t Want To Live This Life_ be Deborah Spungen - Nancy’s mother from “Sid and Nancy” of Sex Pistols fame. On another lark, we decided to see which one could finish it first… took me about 5 hours. I’ve read the last three Tom Clancy fiction books in about 2 days (each) and I can read most of Bernard Cornwell’s “Richard Sharpe” series in an evening, easy. In college I took a WWII class. I read then entire textbook (1200 pages of _just text_ - that doesn’t include the notes, bibliography or index) in 2 days, but then again that was reading for about 14 hours straight both days. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513/67 "2004-06-17T06:21:41Z")
You know, this whole reading speed thing has intrigued me, so I started looking for some more online speed reading tests. I’ve discovered that I read between 500-700 wpm. (One test had me at about 500, but all the other tests had me at 600-700, so go figure.) Anyway, I found this [article](http://slate.msn.com/id/74766/) that basically says that speed reading is bunk, and that few people are really capable of reading faster than 400 wpm and comprehending much (well, that’s me paraphrasing—read the article yourself). I don’t believe this article is entirely accurate. I mean, sure, I believe that many people read an average of 250-400 and that’s normal, and there’s nothing wrong with that (other than perhaps some of these people would like to finish books faster). But when I took these tests (and I took several—probably half a dozen), I found that when I _tried_ to read “faster” I sometimes slowed down (believe it or not) and when I _tried_ to relax and read at my “normal, comfortable” pace, I sped up. Or at least wasn’t wasn’t that much slower. I just can’t read slower than I can read. Does that make any sense? It’s _comfortable_ for me to read at that speed, and my comprehension is fine. (Probably not 100%, but fine.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-fastest-youve-ever-finished-a-book/250513.md?page=3)