How long does it take you to read a novel?

You're not alone. I'm amazed at people who can breeze through books. It takes me weeks to read a novel. And I've been an avid reader since 1st grade.

I'm a slow reader, OP. To me, anything worth reading is worth reading closely, and well. I'm a sucker for a well-written sentence.

Because I read for my job, essentially, I only read between 1-2 hours a day for pleasure. It takes me weeks to finish a novel of decent length (300+ pages). On vacations, when I can spend hours a day reading, I can finish a book in under a week.

The fastest I ever finished a book was on a cross-country Amtrak trip. The book was Sybil Exposed, and I finished it less than a day while sitting in the observation car. Truly riveting.

I'm a slow reader too, especially with fiction. 300 pages probably takes me over a week on average. In college I used to stay up all night to finish reading novels for class, but now my eyes get tired and I don't have the energy. I still prefer print to ebooks because I flip back so frequently to clarify and reread, and paper has no glare.

It depends on how engaging I find the novel. I read books that I like faster than books that I'm lukewarm towards, though I read for the same number of hours per week.

I’ve started a book in the evening and stayed up until 3ish to finish it. I would consider myself a fast reader - but I’ve noticed lately that my mind wanders while I’m reading. It’s like ADD hit me in my 30’s. I get to the end of a page and realize I don’t remember what I read because I’ve been thinking of something else.

Depends on the book. I can finish a Grisham or Patterson in two evenings. Something that requires more attention, like Faulkner, may take 4-5 evenings. I learned to read quickly in law school, but that's a different kind of reading.

It takes me 8 hours to read 300 pages of something that I'm interested in. If I'm not interested, I can't read it

After I finish a novel, a year later I can't remember anything about it.

I have a terrible compulsion and once i startreading i can not put the book down. I usually finish an average novel in a day. Larger ones a day and half , if i can stop myself from staying up all hours to read it. It pisses me off but i can not seem to stop .

R8, I do that with many movies.

I prefer too read biographies and true crime books and it does take me a while to finish one. Last one I read was Wrong Turn about Conrad Black and his shenanigans and it took me three weeks cover to cover.

[quote] I've always wanted to be the kind of person who can polish off a book in a day.

Why? Comprehension is preferable to speed.

[quote] I’ve started a book in the evening and stayed up until 3ish to finish it. I would consider myself a fast reader - but I’ve noticed lately that my mind wanders while I’m reading

That is disastrous! Throw the book away because you are doing a disservice to the author and yourself.

When I'm hooked, I can do a book in a day or two. I think I read Sarah Waters "Fingersmith" in two, because it was such an engaging plot. When I am not all that interested, I falter. I used to be voracious at reading, now I'm even bad at finishing books.

Trying to work on this as a resolution. I use my phone too damn much on silly things and the time would be better spent reading. Reading a real book, no e-reading.

I started reading " My Pet Goat" in 2001 and have yet to finish.

I’m a fast reader who likes to read mysteries. It’s more about killing time than anything else, especially these past two years, and I often finish a book in two days.

I start something in the afternoon, and read until I fall asleep, then finish the next day. I’m old, and somewhat tired a lot of the time.

Amazon tells me I read 100+ books during 2021, but that includes a number of books I put down 30-50 pages in. I take nearly everything out on Kindle via the library.