“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 could easily get through a 400 page book in maybe 3 hours when I was a teenager and not quite so knackered as I am now and had far fewer demands on my time. This Christmas just gone I read probably half of Crazy Rich Asians in three hours before I fell asleep and that's a surprisingly long book.

The wonder of kindles has been great too, as I'm sure it has been for many other quick readers here. Before I had a kindle I could easily pack 7-10 books for a 14 day holiday and still have to borrow books from my parents' lot too.

DH put his foot down when we went to Spain with only hand luggage and most of mine was books, he bought me a kindle instead and I think I read 9 books in 7 days and we went on day trips too.

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.

This is interesting as I find I tend to retain less the quicker I read. Possibly due to needing time to process what I have read. As long as I don't leave too long a gap between picking up a book (ie no more than 2 or 3 days), then I can always remember what has happened, regardless of how few pages I have read in a sitting.

This thread is like another world! I probably read about 30 - 50 pages in an hour and only at bedtime (when I have time), about a book every week. I don’t think my brain would allow me to skip words let alone descriptive paragraph, anyway a lot of the time the plot is in these paragraphs. I read and picture it like a film in my head, sometimes I have to stop and change the actors of the characters, or just stop to think about something in the book. I remember the books lol films. So much of modern life is a rush it’s good to have something I can enjoy in my own time and savour. There is no point rushing reading, it really isn’t a race.

Yes, I've done this many times! Basically you start reading and just don't stop until you've finished it. There are some books that are too big to do this, but anything up to about 300 pages I can finish in a day, particularly if it's biggish type or double spacing. Definitely not though for a 'classic' type book with tiny type. A really engrossing thriller though, no problem!

Not everyone is rushing reading though, Sinister. I'm a fast reader but I'm not rushing. It's just my natural reading pace.

My question is is fast reading achieved by skimming down the page and is it quality reading? Also, does it depend on the content. So many good books deserve more attention. I have also read War and Peace twice but over a few days. Any faster and I would have missed the wonderful insights that Tolstoy has to offer into the state of war and family life in Russia at the time.

I’m a genuinely fast reader too (I have a job that requires lots of reading, and have developed a whole range of reading skills). I can read quickly and with accuracy.

I have read books in one sitting before. Mostly that involves staying up into the wee small hours to finish reading something I’m really enjoying. Once I went to a midnight launch of a Harry Potter book, then came home and read it all at once. And then I had a flight the next morning. I was exhausted. I spent the next couple of weeks reading it again, to DS1.

I have never consciously learned to speed read and would hate to. However, I don’t hear a voice in my head when I read. Apparently it slows you down if you do.

I did a speed reading session when doing my A levels and the instructor said this ^. I do hear a voice in my head and I don't know how to stop it! I read fast, but not as fast as I could if I didn't.

To completely hijack the thread what are these books that everyone has read in a day?

For me, it's lightweight stuff like Gone Girl, or anything marketed as holiday/beach reads like Kate Atkinson, JoJo Moyes, etc. Also, anything short (under 150 pages) I zoom through, just because it's short I think 'Oh this won't take me long' and so it doesn't. I read 150 pages of 'Tangerine' yesterday evening without even trying and will probably finish it today (ill DC so can't do much else).

To completely hijack the thread what are these books that everyone has read in a day?

Often YA drivel. 😂

But I have read several academic books in a working day. Tbh, I don’t usually read them cover to cover. But I have done so in one sitting. Not really hard going philosophy or anything, but lots of them are pretty quick reads (even reading them properly).

I read Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in one sitting, it was like swallowing it whole. Shorter books I prefer to read that way. It's total down time, like watching the whole of Killing Eve in one go or spending the whole day screen hopping in the cinema. I crave those days, not enough of them.

Since being inspired by this thread I have reread Lord of the Flies, A Kestrel for a Knave and Animal Farm in an evening each, and read Diary of a Bookseller in a day. They are all pretty short though. As I said on the 50 Books thread, it has given me a slightly different experience and a sense of achievement.

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!

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 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.

“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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

And I’m very much slower reading for my MSc