“I read it in one sitting” ...really?!

Yes easily - especially on holiday. I am a very fast reader though and I can easily do 8-9 hours with only brief pauses for food!
I usually get through 5-6 novels on a weeks holiday (it is just me and DH though so I can sit and read uninterrupted).
About to have DC1 though so that'll all stop!

I have very occasionally done this, but less often (and possibly not at all) since becoming a parent. I remember doing it with The Secret History - I began it on a flight home from Spain and then carried on reading when I came through the front door even though I should have been getting on with unpacking and so on. I also remember doing it with Frankenstein when I was a student, but that's quite short. When I was a kid I used to do it quite often but those were the days when I had aeons of free time.

Yep I do this if I'm really enjoying a book!

I am a fast reader and have read many a book in one sitting, pre-children. But @Oblomov19 that simply can’t be true. You would have to read over 400 words a minute for every minute in an entire 24 hours to read War and Peace in one sitting. Unless it was abridged.

I have listened to some quite long audiobooks in one go… I remember I listen to when the mountains echoed in one day, and a few others.

I should add, that’s if it’s fiction. When I was an academic, I’d average 10-15 pages an hour if making notes at the same time, and thought I’d had a great day if I managed to read three scholarly articles in one day (History).

I can do 60 pages an hour, more if I’m really into the book. Or if the print is relatively large! So if I have a few hours to spare and a good book I can easily do it in one sitting. Saying that, I rarely get the opportunity these days as I have a demanding four year old!

Last week i got really into a book and read the second half of it between mid afternoon and bedtime. That was also while making tea and with breaks to do the bedtime routine. If i'd have been on holiday and engrossed from the start i easily could have read it in a day.

I'm a strict DNFer too. If i'm not enjoying it by 100 pages it goes. A crap book can put me off my stride for weeks!

Pre DC I used to regularly read books in one sitting. It would take me between 5 and 7 hours depending on the length and complexity of the book. A bit longer if I wasn't reading a book in English

I do this all the time. I read a book a week though so my reading muscle is strong.

I've done it only a few times. I'm a fast reader and I've done it with books that are modern fiction, so will be faster reading than older novels, and probably more like 300 pages or less.

And I've curled up in a comfy chair on a rainy day, with a break for afternoon tea with a pile of cucumber sandwiches.

@user1469530553 that's amazing!

And I’m very much slower reading for my MSc

@originofspecies Yes, I really did. It wasn’t literature, and I skimmed any slower bits, but I finished in 45 minutes.

My reading slows when I don't like the reading matter.

Im so fascinated by this thread.

A question for really fast readers - does your reading slow down with a book that you're not particularly enjoying and/or is quite difficult? Or does the material not matter?

For me (a slow to average reader), I read faster for plot-driven "page turners" and slow down for descriptive passages. For a book that I'm struggling to get into or not particularly enjoying, my speed slows right down and I find it difficult to pick the book up again.

@user1469530553 Did you really read a 400 page book in 45 minutes? That's like having a superpower.

If it's engrossing enough I will happily read in one sitting bit like others I'm a speedy reader, my 10 yr Old is the same and will often read a book in one sitting.

I've never been a speedy reader and generally do 30-50 pages an hour I reckon (bit quicker if it's a page-turner thriller with big type).

As a teenager I could read a novel in a day but it would take all day.

I think I read more quickly now though, because I have less time now I have DD and no train commute (that was my reading time!)

My best friend at school was ultra fast and could easily read a full size novel in a couple of hours, I think she reads more for plot whereas I like to savour the language. But she is definitely reading 'properly' and takes it all in.

See, I don’t know how you can read 25 pages a day and still remember what is happening when you go back to it. It would be like watching a film five minutes at a time.

No, a film is much shorter than a book, more like a short story. Reading 25 pages a day is like watching an episode a week of The Jewel in the Crown in 1984. Or, for a more recent example, watching an episode a week of Fleabag and having the time between viewings to discuss and speculate on what will happen next.

Have done this for every Harry Potter book except the first because I didn't realise back then how much I would love it!

One of them I put up a tent in the garden, set up a little camp in there and read it all.

Parents brought me food a couple of times but I don't think I looked away from the page at all. What a little brat!

Still waiting for my letter from Hogwarts. I'm 32. YES IT COULD HAPPEN.

“What a shame then to speed read the work and probably miss some of the deeper interpretations of characters etc.”

I don’t speed read though... as in, it’s not a conscious thing that I’m doing on purpose, my reading speed is just fast... I’m not rushing.

If I need to read fast, then I can read faster...if I’m in a meeting and I’m handed a document and I need to understand what’s on it but the fine detail doesn’t matter then I can speed up, but yes I’d only pay attention to relevant facts not anything else - so on online tests I can do about 900 words a minute before I drop below 100% on comprehension because it’s straightforward questions not thinking about the use of language.

So reading a book in a couple of hours is slower than that... I’m not missing bits, I’m - I’ve got an English degree, I’ve been in book clubs - so I’ve got comparisons about what I’ve got from reading things so I’m pretty sure I’m not.

People just read at different speeds, it doesn’t mean they’re not doing it “properly”.

I once had an overnight stop in a uk city for work. Mooched around and came upon the library. I sat there for 45 minutes and read a paperback, then went to dinner. It was A Simple Plan about a group of men that discovered a crashed plane and a load of money, which they stole.

I must say one thing about reading fast and that it seems a shame not to savour some of the good literature that is available. I always picture the author mulling over different phrases, sentences etc and putting enormous effort into their work. What a shame then to speed read the work and probably miss some of the deeper interpretations of characters etc. Or are speed readers able to do so and I am mistaken. I am thinking especially of great literature.

I think you need to be on holiday to do that.

No way I could fit in a solid session to read that intensively when I have work.

The last time I read a book in one setting I bought in Avignon train station in the morning and finished when I got to Leeds train station, 12 hours and three changes later!