Am I a slow reader? How fast can you read?

[Lou]

Last time I read a book I ended up reading its 400 pages, which were about 5 x 8 in long, with about 12 pt. font, in about 5 days (~ 6-8 hours/day). I believe this is on the slow side of the reading speed scale, certainly when compared to the reading speed of the 10-year-old gilrs we saw on TV the day after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released sharing their insights on and reactions to this book... I've even heard of people who can read 100 pages per hour, average page size and font I suppose, although I think these might be very extreme cases.

Being such a slow reader myself I guess that's why I don't read books that often (I read a non-school related book perhaps every 2-3 years). Is my lack of reading skills a good excuse for not reading books or does it sound like I lack intellectual curiosity? I don't think the latter is the case, but I understand why those who read books on a regular basis would think that is the case.

 

[Ikerous]

Last time I read a book I ended up reading its 400 pages, which were about 5 x 8 in long, with aboujt 12 pt. font, in about 5 days, about 6-8 hours/day.

According to my calculations you have a reading scale of 46.3
Mine is about 52

 

[Skaadi]

400 pages? Thats not too bad, I would have had that done in about 5 hours or so.

I think the best I've ever done is a 900 and something page book in 12 hours, and thats just with no breaks.

I think you're lack of reading skills come from not reading that often, the more the read, the faster you can read.

 

[NotATool]

I don't think it really matters, as a lot of people undermine understanding to achieve speed in their reading. Speed-reading can be an exceptional skill, or just laziness.

I took a reading test as part of a survey and scored an off the charts 400-some words per seconds (about 2.3 times the average reading speed). Then again, I often read my assignments twice in order to fully understand, while other slow yet pro-active readers can understand just as well with a single read-through.

Then again, reading twice fast may be just as good as reading once slowly, and even faster. I haven't taken the SATs yet, but I made only one error in the Critical Reading section of the PSATs (which is exactly the same). So I think you might want to look into that type of reading habit and see if you like it. It also means you can judge wether a second-read through is necessary or not.

 

[Lou]

400 pages? Thats not too bad, I would have had that done in about 5 hours or so.

I think the best I've ever done is a 900 and something page book in 12 hours, and thats just with no breaks.

You might think I am dumb.... which is fine And you might think I am a lazy bastard, which is also fine, but would you be reading books, for pleasure, if it took you the insane amount of time it takes me to read a book?

I think you're lack of reading skills come from not reading that often, the more the read, the faster you can read.

Perhaps it's the other way around... It's more like I never read books because I was never a very good reader to begin with. Some 9 year olds read 10 times faster than me.

 

[Glo-Boy]

I dunno, I read the DaVinci code in like 3 days but that was only reading like 3 or so hours a day.

 

[Skaadi]

You might think I am dumb.... which is fine And you might think I am a lazy bastard, which is also fine, but would you be reading books, for pleasure, if it took you the insane amount of time it takes me to read a book?



Perhaps it's the other way around... It's more like I never read books because I was never a very good reader to begin with. Some 9 year olds read 10 times faster than me.

No, no. I dont think you're dumb or lazy, not at all. Sorry if my post sounded rude or arrogant, I just didnt know how to put it.

You can improve, if you want to read more that is. Do you enjoy reading when you do read though?

 

[15357]

I normally read a hundred pages in about 40~50 minutes.

If its something like Math II, then 30 pages in a hour.

 

[Lou]

No, no. I dont think you're dumb or lazy, not at all. Sorry if my post sounded rude or arrogant, I just didnt know how to put it.

You can improve, if you want to read more that is. Do you enjoy reading when you do read though?

It depends on the material. If it's something that I am really interested in I would probably read it without complaining. If it's something that I should be reading just because everyone else is reading it (ie: DaVinci Code), it might be a bit of a pain in the ass in the sense that I would end up reading the same sentence over and over for minutes and minutes, while my mind is gone elsewhere...

 

[NotATool]

Sorry if my post sounded rude or arrogant, I just didnt know how to put it.

Compared to mine it sounded like an ode to humility ^_^.

I agree with Skaadi whole-heartedly: the more you read, the faster you read. In high-school and college, you have insane amounts of reading to do, and if you want to ever sleep in the next couple years of your life, get on it .

 

[dfc05]

It depends on the material. If it's something that I am really interested in I would probably read it without complaining. If it's something that I should be reading just because everyone else is reading it (ie: DaVinci Code), it might be a bit of a pain in the ass in the sense that I would end up reading the same sentence over and over for minutes and minutes, while my mind is gone elsewhere...

I do that all the time (the part about having to read the same sentence over and over again). It's tough. I read slow too, and I almost always need a second read-through to really understand the material. You get so much more out of it the second time around. But anyways, it ends up taking me a really long time to read for me to actually get anything meaningful out of it.

I think I'm the same with movies. There have been times when I've watched a film and completely lost the meaning, and the second time around, it's just like, "Ohhhh. So that's what it was about." I blame that one on short attention span though .

 

[Lou]

Compared to mine it sounded like an ode to humility ^_^.

I agree with Skaadi whole-heartedly: the more you read, the faster you read. In high-school and college, you have insane amounts of reading to do, and if you want to ever sleep in the next couple years of your life, get on it .

I completed college, and the amounts of reading were not that insane. But again, I <deliberately> majored in a quantitative subject and the school I attended is not exactly amongst the top 20 schools in the country. At one point I took a sociology class, just for laughs, where we had to read this 600 page textbook, which in my opinion was a shitload of reading.... but well, it would have taken you a day to read it. It might be lack of concentration. I dunno

 

[ktimekiller]

you guys actually take into account how many pages you read each hour? :0

 

[Jintor]

You don't really need to. Just do this complex maths instead!

Find average no. of words per line.

Find number of lines you read in a minute.

Multiply the two.

Congratulations, you've found your words per minute!


I think I read fast. I'm not sure though.

 

[nutcrackr]

I don't read many books, actually I haven't read a book in a long ass time. I find them boring and I have the tendency to miss a bit and it ruins the whole story. I'm not a fast reader :/

 

[Parlez]

It is not how fast you read its if you comprehend what you read. That is what makes you a good reader.

 

[Nat Turner]

I can read really fast if I want to (and understand it all), it depends how much I'm concentrating on the material at hand. Usually I'm lazy and just read at an above average speed.

 

[Steven]

I have such an intresting life that I went and calculated my reading scale.

 

[Evo]

Depends on the language used in the book, like Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate is a heavy book, takes a while to read. Les Miserables is even harder, full of text, with little dialogue :|

I try to read a fair bit, but i know i don't read enough

 

[Lou]

In high-school and college, you have insane amounts of reading to do, and if you want to ever sleep in the next couple years of your life, get on it .

It's funny that you mention that. What makes you assume I am a teenager? And why do you jump to the conclusion that in college people have insane amounts of reading to do? I didn't have insane amounts of reading to do. In fact, college is way overrated. Anyone who says college is tough is probably not overly smart -- or went to Harvard.

 

[CptStern]

never timed myself but I'm pretty good at speed reading and I'm pretty accurate

 

[Lou]

never timed myself but I'm pretty good at speed reading and I'm pretty accurate

And how did you become so good at speed reading? And why? I dunno, some people keep a mental list of the number of books they have read, films they have watched, places they have visited as some sort of score sheet to compare themselves to others. As a young boy, which is when I should have started reading books, I didn't give a shit about outdoing anyone.

 

[Uriel]

My ADD limits my reading a lil bit.

 

[CptStern]

And how did you become so good at speed reading? And why? I dunno, some people keep a mental list of the number of books they have visited, films they have watched, places they have visited as some sort of score sheet to compare themselves to others. As a young boy, which is when I should have started reading books, I didn't give a shit about outdoing anyone.

that's the problem right there ...I'm constantly reading anything I can get my hands on ...seriously if I'm sitting on the toilet and if I dont have anything to read, I'll read the toothpaste label

there's a few techniques to speed reading ..I use the one where you avoid descriptive language and just read the content ..it takes awhile to get used to

 

[Lou]

there's a few techniques to speed reading ..I use the one where you avoid descriptive language and just read the content ..it takes awhile to get used to

So they key to a speed reading technique is to skip the stuff that is irrelevant? You know, like when someone is telling you a story, and they meticulously describe every single thing they did and thought from the moment they put the bread in the toaster to the moment it was ready... Is that the type of stuff you would ignore?

 

[CptStern]

So they key to a speed reading technique is to skip the stuff that is irrelevant? You know, like when someone is telling you a story, and they meticulously describe every single thing they did and thought from the moment they put the bread in the toaster to the moment it was ready... Is that the type of stuff you would ignore?

yes ..you're reading for information ..all the other stuff is just padding


this is how you train yourself ...have someone read a short article ..then you speed read through and then explain to the first person what you read ..the faster you get the more information will be lost ..it's tricky but after awhile you get used to it ...I often read entire articles in a few minutes by just getting the pertinant details ..although sometimes you do miss out on some details

 

[basnerd]

I can read fast, but I don't choose to. I mean when I read fast I loose some information on the book. When I read slow then I can grasp all the info and actualley know whats going on in the book. Yes I can read fast but when I read slow then thats when I understand the book better.

 

[JNightshade]

I read fast. It's not a thing that I try to do, I just do. I comprehend perfectly and all, just faster. I mean, I read the last Harry Potter book in three hours. Didn't like it a ton (veeeeery over-rated, if you ask me) but still.

 

[OvA]

It depends on what I'm reading. If I'm reading a book on my own for pleasure or to pass time, I generally take my time, but I still end up finishing books faster than I'd like too.

If I'm just scanning a news article or something for school, I tend to skim over at a quick speed and still retain most of it.

It's a gift I guess

 

[Vegeta897]

My dad reas amazingly fast. It's scary. He reads books all the time. He can look at a page for 10 seconds and be done with it.
I showed him a random book of mine, turned to a random page, put it in front of him, then took it away in around 10-15 seconds, and he told me what happened. 0_0

 

[Lou]

JNightShade, OvA, and Vegeta are naturals. CptStern is a speed-reader wanna be Skimming over pointless paragraphs is cheating. The idea is to read =-everything=- faster.

 

[Vegeta897]

Uh... I said my dad was really fast at reading.

Not that I'm slow, I think I'm faster than average if I were to guess.

 

[Parlez]

Or you download this... http://www.readplease.com/english/downloads/#rp2003 , just copy and past and it will be read to you!

 

[JNightshade]

There's only one book I've ever not been able to read quickly: Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Not-so-coincidentally, it's one of the best books I've ever read. It was just so good that after like every page, I had to sit back and ponder how f*cking wonderful it is.

 

[Jintor]

Well, as a rule I read fiction way faster than non-fiction.