Ebook fans who read slowly

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

I am a pretty fast reader (about 100 average sized pages per hour), but I think the secret for reading a lot is much more simple: Cut back on the TV consumption. I have been cutting my TV time to daily news and the occasional movie I am specifically interested in, Result: It takes me only about two to three days to finish an average sized book.

For me, you would need to substitute "Internet" for "TV". I do have a TV but I don't spend much time watching it. My big chunk of TV time is while I'm working out which is time I can't really read anyway. I have a job that takes over 40 hours a week, a husband, friends and family, the menagerie (my pets, fosters, strays, TNR work) and some volunteer work. It's so hard to get a long, delicious bit of time where I can lose myself in a story. I hate diving in for ten or fifteen minutes just to have to drag myself out again. The Internet is easier for those little chunks of free time I have. Sadly, I think it encourages the trend towards shortened attention spans in our culture at least as much as television does.

[Sweetpea]

It depends on my mood, on the situation I'm in and on the book in my case.

There are books I will finish in two days, if the mood is on me and I have the time to do it (which isn't your average work day, as I only have about an hour to read then).

Take my last holiday, I finished one book I was already reading, read three complete books completely and started a fifth before the holiday was over. And that was one week. In comparison, that fifth book took me about three weeks.

There are times when I just want to read, won't watch tv, don't sit behind my pc, and only read, wherever I can. And there are times when I hardly read one page on a day, because there are so many other things to do or I just don't feel like reading.

[HappyMartin]

It depends on the book and my life. If my life is interesting and full I read less and if the book is great I read more. When things are really tough in life I read loads and quickly. The most I ever read was the 3 weeks before going into the military. The more I read the faster I read, understandable I think.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Some folks here read a book a day! Maybe I can do that when I retire but that's a fair ways off still.

I'm a slow reader; and I'm usually surprised to see how short unabridged audio readings are.

E.g. a James Patterson novel is 8-9 hours as an unabridged reading. I must read faster than speaking pace (surely! ), so that would be considerably less reading time for me.
Achievable in a day of dedicated reading - but such days are hard to find .

[ruskie]

Hmm if it's from *Herbert then it can take up to two months to read. But things like Discworld I can gobble up in a few hours.

So yeah it depends on the style of writing and so on.

And yeah if a book is really good read I've been known to read straight through the night and so on until I've read through the book.

[kwjones]

So, what's considered fast? For fantasy/sci-fi, I average close to 75 pages an hour on a standard mass market paperback.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by ruskie

Hmm if it's from *Herbert then it can take up to two months to read. But things like Discworld I can gobble up in a few hours.

I don't have that with one author... It only depends on the book.

House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Corinno I finished within a week, after finally finishing Chapter House Dune and I continued on to The Butlerian Jihad, which took me about a month...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by kwjones

So, what's considered fast? For fantasy/sci-fi, I average close to 75 pages an hour on a standard mass market paperback.

I think around 60 pager per hour is common among science fiction fan at least. I would consider 100 pages per hour or more to be fast. Then I am talking about reading so you can for example appreciate the language.

[Mrraow]

I just wanted to be slightly contrarian.
When reading fiction, I'm about 100 pages per hour for your average book - not much faster than the average poster - and I roll every word across the tongue. I spend two hours commuting a day, so that's beween two and five books a week, depending on the page count.

When reading non-fiction, I frequently speed read; if I'm looking for specific information, I can just skim through a page in a couple of seconds, and stop at the information I'm after.

I have, however, noticed an odd thing with translations. My reading speed drops waay down. For example, The Name of The Rose took me around a month; about the equivalent of 4,000 pages of trashy SF.

[Elsi]

Lots of interesting comments. Alisa says, "I envy people who can read as fast as he does and absorb everything." Since I *don't* absorb everything, I can finish a book in a fairly short period. Note, I don't absorb everything when watching a movie either. (How many people caught on to the "red" clue in The Sixth Sense?) Reading for pleasure is much like a movie for me -- absorb enough of the milieu to understand the setting, enjoy the characters, and follow the plot. I'm not looking for deeper insights.

That's not to say that I never read a book with more attention. I have and occasionally do. And sometimes, when just reading along and enjoying the story, something will jump out at me and get the "Whoa!" reaction. I may spin out then and take a closer look or I might make a note to come back to it later.

As regards finding time to read, I live at least 30 minutes from anywhere and more like 1 hour away. So when we leave the house to go shopping, eat out, or head to the airport, I know I'll have 30-75 minutes during which I can read while hubby takes care of the driving. Add to that the time I spend on airplanes, and you can see how it is relatively easy for me to average 2.5 books per week.

[kevindorsey]

MY GF reads very slowly, but she says its a developed habbit because of reading scientific papers all the time.

[eBookNerd]

I can finish an average sized pb book in about 8-10 hours. I usually try to get all cooking, housework, and laundry chores finished up around 9pm and I read from 9pm-12am pretty much every night except if we're going out. Working from home allows for late hours - I can usually sleep until 7 or 8am. If a book is taking a longer time to read, I take a break and read another one and go back to it.

[joblack]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

I'm constantly amazed at the rate at which MobileRead members devour books. I mean, 20 books a year seems almost hard to believe. But some people here reach the impressive rates of something like a book every day or two, and I think that a book a week (>50 per year) is not uncommon.

Surely there are a few readers out there that can't read that fast (like me). Some of us don't have that much time to spend on reading. In fact, I do most of my reading on technical materials, often not done cover to cover anyway.

I'm pretty darn slow when it comes to pleasure reading, like novels, biographies, history, sci-fi, etc. If it's an all-consuming "page-turner" then maybe I'll finish it in as little as a week. Even a weekend in an extreme case. But the average book takes me about a month or so, and that's only if I am reading on most days.

Even when it comes to each page. I think I take a whole minute or more per page on a good book, so I don't exactly burn through pages either. My mind doesn't really work that fast, and I also tend to daydream and think about other stuff when I'm reading for fun. If I find myself skimming a book or having to re-read all the time because my mind wandered, I usually just go find another book that's more fun to read.

As far as I'm concerned, the worst kind of book is one that makes me really want to know what happens next, but hate reading the pages in-between. Especially, if the event's that I care about are sort of subtly hidden amongst hundreds of uninteresting words. Then it becomes like a "where's Waldo" game while I hunt for the plot events while trying to avoid actually reading the text!

So am I a strange creature when it comes to reading? Is there anyone else out there who really loves to read, but who reads for pleasure in a more leisurely fashion, finishing only a handful of books each year? Tell me I'm not alone in the snail's pace!

You have books where you can read pretty fast and some books are of pure pleasure where you enjoy every word.

You can actually learn to read faster but that is only suggested if you have to learn something.

If you know a lot of content already it's easy to browse through an e-book pretty fast (as I'm on some Java books).

George Bush was, at least after his reputation, a fast reader. That doesn't mean he got the content or implemented it.

For instance, if you can read fast through

The Art of Computer Programming

you are either a genius or you have written the book yourself =) ...

[halljames]

If I am into reading, I can generaly get through 3 - 4 books a month, but quite often, I get side tracked by playing on my PSP, or even writing, so then do not have as much time to read. If I am focused though, It has been known for me to read a book a week. But I am certainly not a very fast reader, my girlfriend always seems to out do me.

I did once ready Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 1 and a half days. We were camping and we both bought a copy, it was nice and sunny and I started reading it first. The next day, she started it and I was about 100 pages in. I remember we spent the whole day reading, and it was 1:00 am on the night she had finished and I still had about 60 pages to go. I was reading by torchlight in the tent and I just couldnt put it down.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Elsi

Lots of interesting comments. Alisa says, "I envy people who can read as fast as he does and absorb everything." Since I *don't* absorb everything, I can finish a book in a fairly short period. Note, I don't absorb everything when watching a movie either. (How many people caught on to the "red" clue in The Sixth Sense?) Reading for pleasure is much like a movie for me -- absorb enough of the milieu to understand the setting, enjoy the characters, and follow the plot. I'm not looking for deeper insights.

It sees to be a difference between absorbing in the sense that you read everything and remember everything until you finish the book and really think about things and draw non-obvious conclusions.