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How Long Does It Take For You To Read a Book? (BE HONEST)

How long does it take for you to read a boooook?

  • One Day

    Votes: 13 27.7%

  • One Week

    Votes: 16 34.0%

  • Two Weeks

    Votes: 7 14.9%

  • Three Weeks

    Votes: 3 6.4%

  • One Month

    Votes: 3 6.4%

  • I Don't Read

    Votes: 5 10.6%
  • Total voters
    47
HappyDude20

HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
1,479
Los Angeles, Ca
Simple question, this thread is poll oriented. I'm wondering on average how long it takes for you to read a book. I don't mean accumalated hours of actual reading itself but rather from the time you crack open that book from page one to when you finish reading the last page of the book.

Personally I used to finish a book about once every 3 weeks. I'd open the book and return to it every other day amidst daily distractions. On average. I'm talking books such as ones you get from Barnes & Nobles, Borders or the library; not textbooks.

Recently upon my venture to read more i've been reading a book about once every week, though would like to up the ante. Anyways, i'm all ears.

(My friends dad would always read a new book in one sitting. Their house has an extensive book collection and it was common for me to see his dad in the common room reading a book. I approached him about this and he told me he usually goes to sleep around 3am-4am staying up to read and finish whichever book he is currently on.

Edit: I feel I could read a lot more if I didn't spend so much time web browsing, this forum included. Beginning in the morning i'm always checking my email, this forum, Digg and my RSS reader. Then i'll proactively return to them numerous times during the day. It's like the laptop is the modern age TV, as I always see my dad slouching off in front of it.

:]
 
There is one option missing in your poll: "less than one week".

I once read a three hundred pages book in one night, others in two days, others in three, and one or three in a week. There was even one, Solaris, which took me over a month, because I couldn't get into it. But I tried and tried, and I finally succeeded and it was well worth it.

But there are also other books which took me quite some time, but I never finished them.
 
Depends how I'm consuming the book. Traditional paper usually takes me the longest since I can't be bothered to hold it open, plus it's uncomfortable most of the time.

I use to never read but this last summer I started reading a lot for some reason. But now I find books so much better than movies. Plus I read in 3 different ways - paper, ebook, audio.

What I've read lately:

- 1984 (1 Week)
- A brave New Work (2 Weeks)
- Animal Farm (2 Days)
- Under the Dome (More than a month)
- Dune (Never finished it, but I got about 1 quarter in 2 weeks)
- Slaughter House Five (1 Week)
- Hitch Hickers Guide to the Galaxy (1 Week)
- Restaurant at the End of the Universe (3ish Days)

I'm currently reading The Stand (Extended Edition) and I'm about 1/3rd through but it's soooooo long. Really good though.
 
NathanCH said:
Depends how I'm consuming the book. Traditional paper usually takes me the longest since I can't be bothered to hold it open, plus it's uncomfortable most of the time.

I use to never read but this last summer I started reading a lot for some reason. But now I find books so much better than movies.

- A brave New Work (2 Weeks)
Click to expand...

Brave New Work? Not World? Hmm.

I agree that there is so much crap on TV thats just dulling to the mind as opposed to an interesting book.

Finally, what do you mean you can't be bothered to hold it open? You don't like holding a book? So you prefer reading an e-book off your computer screen? Is that right?
 
HappyDude20 said:
Brave New Work? Not World? Hmm.

I agree that there is so much crap on TV thats just dulling to the mind as opposed to an interesting book.

Finally, what do you mean you can't be bothered to hold it open? You don't like holding a book? So you prefer reading an e-book off your computer screen? Is that right?
Click to expand...

Typo..

Reading off a computer screen? It's not 1999 :p There are these new things out called the Amazon Kindle or Barnes and Noble Nook. I hear they're popular and must more convenient than a traditional paper back book.
 
It really does depend on the type of book. I can go through an average sized light fiction book pretty quickly, usually a week or so if I get enough time to actually sit down and read. The 800+ page history of the 82nd Airborne I'm currently reading is taking a bit longer. I don't read nearly as fast as I did when I was in college and studying for my history degree, but I can still move through a book pretty quickly if I'm interested.
 
It really depends on the type of book, and how interested I am in said book.

If I like, I can go through a book in a day or two (400 page fictional novel), if I'm interested enough to start reading at around 4 PM and reading into the night. Most of the time, three days or so. I read Ender's Game in a day, but that book wasn't very big, nor was the reading level that high.
 
NathanCH said:
Typo..

Reading off a computer screen? It's not 1999 :p There are these new things out called the Amazon Kindle or Barnes and Noble Nook. I hear they're popular and must more convenient than a traditional paper back book.
Click to expand...

Which one do you have? Do they support epub and PDF files?

I have tons of PDF e-books on my Mac. I've tried reading them on my mbp screen but hate reading off a bright screen. Which makes me not want to consider the iPad.
 
Can't read text on paper thanks to eye floaters. I've got too many of the buggers.
 
It depends on if I enjoy the book; I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a single day, while a much shorter reading assignment can take me much longer.
 
I can finish a 300-400 page in a single day, about 4-6 hours of reading.

I remember most of it and can hold a conversation about it. However if its for an assignment I slow down to 2-3 days.
 
Depends on how engaging the book is. Most take me 2 to 3 weeks if the plot and story line is decent (I don't speed read I prefer to consume a story at a comprehensible pace and continue to enjoy it for years after I read it) , I have run through a couple 500 pagers in under 3 days because I couldn't put them down, others took me months to read. so far in my entire life I have only put one book down and not read it through because I was bored by the 2nd chapter and it took me a month to get that far. Stephen Kings Under the Dome is a total turd--which is sad for me to say because I like his work.
 
Ttownbeast said:
Depends on how engaging the book is. Most take me 2 to 3 weeks if the plot and story line is decent (I don't speed read I prefer to consume a story at a comprehensible pace and continue to enjoy it for years after I read it) , I have run through a couple 500 pagers in under 3 days because I couldn't put them down, others took me months to read. so far in my entire life I have only put one book down and not read it through because I was bored by the 2nd chapter and it took me a month to get that far. Stephen Kings Under the Dome is a total turd--which is sad for me to say because I like his work.
Click to expand...

Umm.. I read it and by the 2nd chapter you put it down? Didn't even give it a chance. That's pretty lame. 2 chapters in an 1100 page book...
 
NathanCH said:
Umm.. I read it and by the 2nd chapter you put it down? Didn't even give it a chance. That's pretty lame. 2 chapters in an 1100 page book...
Click to expand...

3 words and I am quoting South Park here when I say this: "Simpsons did it" King had a Butters moment and laid a turd sorry you disagree.

And I even finished the entire Gunslinger series even though King kinda went and started getting a little deep into the whole vampire craze of the times with his last books when they were nearly absent in earlier writings from the series--I know he had a pre existing vampire story with Salems Lot and managed to tie it in to the Dark Tower but on its own Under the Dome just flopped it seemed more like it had similar literary plot tools to Tommyknockers which basically as a story meant that eventually it was a town where outsiders could not enter and insiders could not leave.
 
Right now I'm alternating between Clear And Present Danger and The Shining. I'll probably have them both finished by this weekend (of course, I am re-reading both for the I-dunno-how-many-th time.)
 
Depends on the book. If I have the time to read, I can read a book in a few days. If it's a busy time for me, I'll read at the same pace, with random breaks in between that can be up to a week between reading sessions.
 
It seems as if the vote on this topic is overwhelmingly for the old peoples diapers.

"Depends" wins by a write in vote
 
Depends entirely on the book and my interest level.

I got through the last Harry Potter in a 22 hour shot, while others that mildly interest me have taken anywhere from a few days to two weeks depending on what I'm doing.
 
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