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

[Offred2]

I often see claims like this in the blurb on the cover of books or in book reviews. And every time I wonder - is this the truth? Is it even possible?

I’d say I’m an average speed reader and I read approx 25 pages an hour. So let’s be very generous and say someone can read twice as fast as me, so 50 pages an hour. I saw this claim on a novel that is 400 pages long. That would equate to 8 hours of solid reading time. Is that really possible in one sitting, even getting through it in one day works be a push wouldn’t it? Plus I think your reading speed would slow down over the course of that many hours.

Probably I’m being overly pedantic and it’s just an easy way of expressing how much you loved reading a book, but for some reason it always irks me! Anyone else ever thought this?

I also think the internet has reduced my capabilities in sustained reading and I have been inspired by the 50 book challenge thread to improve matters.

The books I'd been reading had been taking me weeks to get through though. That's how I ended up with a blockbuster from the library!

I can do a novel in a day, easily. Was always a really fast reader - I'm like @Prequelle - I see the sentence and know it. I can go quicker but thats only useful for skimming. I skim work stuff, notes, etc Trouble is I rarely get time to do it for pleasure now :(

My slower reading has made me a lot more fussy. I'm no longer willing to finish a book for the sake of it.

Another positive from having less chance of or desire for sustained reading with young children about was that I discovered I liked poetry.

Did anyone LEARN to read quickly? Or is it always natural? Or maybe it's witchcraft

Clutching at straws here! I would love to read quickly. Is there a method? A course? A three year retreat? There should be government funding dammit!

I read the catcher in the rye in one sitting when I was in bed with glandular fever...other than that no chance! Life tends to get in the way!

I do find it harder to absorb an audiobook. It's very slow moving compared to reading and so I don't get as wrapped up in it and lose concentration. When an audiobook works best IMO is when it's first person, so an autobiography or similar. Or I listened to a sci-fi book that was told in the first person and it was so well told that I bought the next two books in the series also in audio format (We are Legion (We are Bob), in case anyone is interested).

I can't read graphic novels at all, my eye tends to skitter across the written bits and I miss most of the drawn information unless I force myself to really slow down.

Oh dear, maybe I need to amend my original post to say that I am a very slow reader, and not an average speed one as I initially thought!

Although it’s interesting to see that quite a few of you fast readers do sometimes re-read books and feel as though you get something new from them. As a slower speed reader I hardly ever have any desire to re-read a book, I sort of feel that I’ve absorbed everything I’m going to get from it from a first (slow!) reading if you see what I mean.

I’m a super fast reader. It’s not really that great or useful a skill. It’s like I can’t not read the words as soon as I see them I know what it says. Does that make sense? Whereas my husband says he has to read to know what it says.
I would take around 2-3 hours to read a novel. I used to always take a few books to my long hospital appointments - even with a drug induced 2 hour sleep I’d read at least a whole book in my day there. The other patients used to find it so funny I’d read a whole book in the time they’d do a magazine and some puzzles.

Sorry OP, I'm a fast reader too, and can get through an average paperback in a day, easily. It's like my eyes aren't really there and my brain is connecting directly with the book. I'm not even aware of hearing the words in my head.

And despite what you might think, I don't skim. The only books I reread (and not that often) are series like the Patrick O'Brien ones, and that's because what happens in later books can throw a whole new light on earlier parts.

You're better than me @Offred2. I read slowly and STILL don't absorb it. Maybe I have a problem with retaining information or something.

Come to think of it, I'm the type of person who gets three quarters of the way through a film and suddenly announces 'Oh, I've seen this before!'

I can't do audio books. They aren't fast paced enough and I can't focus. I find I've been listening for an hour but got distracted by many thing and have no idea what I've listened to. However i still retain information from books if i read and fold the laundry at the same time for example. I haven't read a paper book for ages though, and it does take me longer when I do.

I can't do audio books. They aren't fast paced enough and I can't focus. I find I've been listening for an hour but got distracted by many thing and have no idea what I've listened to. However i still retain information from books if i read and fold the laundry at the same time for example. I haven't read a paper book for ages though, and it does take me longer when I do.

@Ginnylamb I learn best with written stuff too. I remember when I worked being sent on training courses where it was all hands on learning or presentations because the majority of people learn best that way - I always used to wish they'd give me a book and let me tuck myself away and just read it all myself. No such luck though.

@ClinkyMonkey I didn't learn to do it deliberately I've just always been able to read well and quickly as far as I can recall. I read very early too. I was the sort of child who'd read the back of the cereal box when it was put on the table at breakfast. My mum tells me that when my uncle was very unwell and bedbound I used to read his stocks and shares information out of the paper to him, I can't have been more than about five as he died when I was seven and was in hospital for most of the last year of his life.

I'm not unusually academic, just normal (in fact I'm woeful with maths/numbers) but have always found anything relating to language comes easily and naturally. As a child my mother was asked to take me to a public library because my reading level far exceeded what was in the primary school library. She went out and bought me the complete works of Jane Austen, that kept me busy for a while. I've still got that book, it's an enormous tome. It did take me longer than usual because of the way it was written (I'd have to ask what unusual words meant etc) but I got through it all in a few months. I was 11.

I used to smoosh a towl under the door gap of my bedroom as a teenager so my parents couldnt see the light on, and finish a book overnight. It can be done.

I also read about 100 pages an hour- I wonder if there is a reason that seems to be a common "fast" speed. I also find audio books too slow (although am okay with podcasts) and struggle with graphic novels as I don't read the pictures! When a film or programme has subtitles I have to force myself not to read them instead of watching! I do reread but only to repeat the pleasure of a book I have enjoyed - I usually remember books well, often better than real life!

You can use word runner on some kindles to help you read faster if you want to. I'm really enjoying being able to read again now my children are over four.

I also struggle with audiobooks. I can listen to non-fiction, while I'm cooking or walking or driving etc but I couldn't just sit there and listen and I basically can't deal with fiction at all because it's like going at a snails pace.

I do need to read more and internet less as well, though I've been getting better over the past few months.

I hate audio books and I hate being read to. I always did, as a child. The voice gets between me and the story in my head and it makes my brain itch. I can't bear to listen to someone explaining anything (Youtube video, for example) - I just think, 'oh give me it written down and I'll get it'.

I completely get where you’re coming from - I’ve tried to get into Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 etc and it’s never gelled with me.

I really want to read Queenie by Candace Clary Williams (?) and it was on R4 last week. Knowing that I know I’ll like it but getting bugged by the readers voice was frustrating.

Weirdly, read something on Twitter this morning that many people listen to podcasts at 2 x the speed. I get that completely. I rarely switch the audio on for YouTube or learning videos - just get to the point.

But fiction is, sometimes (for me), about just being lost in the reading and the mood.

Another fast reader here who’s absolutely sick of being told “you can’t have read that” - usually when looking at a student’s work - I can honestly just cast my eyes down a page and judge if it’s of the right standard or not in a second! Of course in depth marking takes much longer but for a snap judgement it takes no time and I am very accurate too. But they never believe I’ve read it.

I hate YouTube videos and how fucking long they take waffling about explaining stuff, and yes that audiobooks are too slow. I don’t mind podcasts as it’s more of a conversation but some audiobook readers are truly glacial. And I don’t like listening to something for days on end and finding I’m a third of the way through!

I also don’t buy many books as if I like them
I read them in one go and I feel it’s a waste of money. And the ultimate torture in life was sharing a textbook at school and having to wait for my partner to finish reading the page before I could turn over. I’d have read it three times over and every poster on the wall before I got to the next page.

I can read documents and articles quickly and that is reading down and getting the gist. But with books I think I don't feel I've read it if I've not read it - good books, that is.

I'm the opposite. I read fiction fast, but am not particularly fast at absorbing or good at retaining factual information. I'm another one who can't bear audiobooks or being read to. It's too slow. I hated lectures at university too - was much happier reading about the subject than hearing about it.

lazy that’s me to a T. I’m doing my masters at the moment and it involves reading long winding legal cases and it takes me forever to read them as I often have to do it two or three times for the information to sink in. Yet a light summer read on the beach I can do in an hour or two and be able to give you full plot lines etc.

DH calls me ‘Johnny 5’ from short circuit for my reading ability and at times it seems to genuinely irritate him how quickly I read. He’s long given up accusing me of ‘not being possibly able to read that quickly’ after I’d give him chapter and verse of whatever chick lit I’d blasted through on the sun lounger 😂

I read Kate Atkinson’s Transcription yesterday: it was a proper page turner. I really enjoy the luxury of being able to read all day.