Speedy Gonzalez or Tortoise Speed?

Claire · Post by **Claire** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:20 pm

I want to know how fast you lot read. i know we like reading and some of us do so prodigiously, but how quickly????

A girl on the radio was talking about having read HP in 5 hours. i would say if she's read it properly i.e. not skim read in any way, that this is impossible. it's 607 pages long so we'd be talking well over 100 pages an hour. now call me slow, but reading was my stock in trade for my degree, and i read very thoroughly, but my average is about 40 pages an hour, rising if it's Rowling/Dahl, falling if it's Dickens/Eliot/Hardy etc...what say you?

Post by **Mike** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:18 am

Well it is difficult to judge. I would say that I read HP in about 12 hours which equates to about 50 pages an hour. When I am reading Crime and Punishment it requires significantly more brain power and concentration and it slows to about 10-20 pages an hour but this is also a reflection that the text size is soooo much smaller too!

mr_e · Post by **mr_e** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:12 pm

If it's a non-factual book it's a slightly fast speaking speed, actually pronouncing the words in my head, which means I get much more out of the books than if I skim-read them. It gives the characters more of a voice during written speech, but I'll likely speed up a little for the descriptive parts, whilst still trying to visualise them.

In short, imagine a movie of the book: that's the pace I try to read at.

John Knight · Post by **John Knight** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:47 pm

I'm not a natural reader.

Can draw like a demon on speed tho!

BarcelonAl · Post by **BarcelonAl** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:04 pm

I'm reasonably quick in general, but it all depends on the context and the type of language being used. Articles for work I can normally read quite quick and pick up the salient points, whereas Lord of the Rings took me an absolute age to get through.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:54 pm

Something like Harry Potter I read very quickly. I think it took me about 12-15 hours because I was packing inbetween and kept on being disturbed. I read Peter Kay's autobiography in about 7 hours and that is 350 pages long (but fairly huge print) and well worth it because it is funny.

The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick took me longer because it is a much more challenging book to understand.