About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

If I'm reading for information, I can tear through some reading material like nobody's business.

However, if I'm reading for enjoyment, I take my time with books and read quite slowly so that I don't gloss over anything.

I'd say that, for me, reading here and there, before bedtime, on weekend afternoons, etc., it usually takes a few weeks to finish an average-sized book. If I really, really devote myself to it, I can knock one out in about a week, but those occasions are rare and usually only happen when I'm on vacation.

So how long does it take YOU to read an average-length book, when reading for pleasure?

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

I’m a very slow reader, so rarely do so anymore. Iirc, the typical mass market paperback size book page takes me a bit more than a minute. I knew people who read 3 times that fast, and was quite jealous.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

A little more than a page per minute on average (45-50 pages in an hour). Books with lots of dialog and/or short paragraphs and chapters may go faster than that. I like imagining the voices of characters in my head, and how action scenes would play out as if it was a movie. Speed reading can let me pick out the information but with losing much of the enjoyment I get out of reading. I remember taking speed reading classes in junior high. I could get through books double to triple the speed and do well on tests and essays, but I didn't enjoy the process.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

I’m the same and it’s why I rarely read books anymore either. At my pace reading feels like a chore.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

Indefinitely (or "infinity").

Most of my pleasure reading are books with a lot of equations and hard to understand explanations. If I don't really understand something, I'll work out some of the missing technical details (or logic) with pencil and paper.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

It's far too dependent on what's happening in my life any more. Back before I had kids and other obligations, I could tear through a book pretty quickly. I used to read every night before bed, every weekend morning for an hour or so, and if nothing was going on, I'd continue reading throughout the day. Now I generally only get 15-30 minutes before bed, and maybe an hour every other weekend. If I'm tired enough, I'll only get through a "page" before giving up and going to sleep. Since I read on the kindle, I don't really know what constitutes a page any more. Once the kindle gets a stable reading estimate for me, a standard novel generally tells me it will be about 15 hours to finish.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

A standard, fiction, hard cover page takes me about 1.5 minutes. That means the book I'm currently reading will take just over 18 hours start to finish. When I was in college I'd do that in a week or less. These days it's about 3-4 weeks depending on how much time I devote to reading.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

This is me, and it's frustrating. I WANT to be an avid reader, but I read so slowly and it takes such concentration that I end up not enjoying it and give up, feeling like it's taking too much time and energy. The exception being when I find that rare book that totally draws me in and I can't put it down. But that hardly ever happens. I own way too many books now that are 1/2 read.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

Normal sized book, I average about a book a week, plus some other stuff like novellas, short stories, graphic novels. I read a bit over 23,000 pages last year according to Goodreads. I'm on my 8th book this year, partly because I had a bunch come in at once at the library so I've been reading pretty fast. I also end up reading a ton between announcing the Hugo nominees, and voting deadline (about 3 months or so) because I like to vote for them (even though what I vote for never wins) so I have to at least try to read them all (or in the case of the series, I'll read a book or two unless I love the series).

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

I read so rarely, I could probably come close to a rough listing of every book I’ve read since college. This doesn’t count comics and magazines, which I average a few a day.

Watership Down, ~6 times
The Hobbit, ~3 times
Star Trek novels, ~30
mainstream novels like Clancy or King, ~20
books about religion, ~40
misc book, ~10
the Bible, ~10 times

So around 100 books in 33 years, with at least 30 of those years 0-2 books read. Yeah, saying I never read (prose books) isn’t much of a stretch.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

Depends on how interesting the plot of the book is and whether I have a lot of free time. I'm usually a fast reader as I tend to gloss over the small details and focus only on the main plot or the parts that pique my interest. So, I would guess that a book with 400+ pages would take me about 2-3 days if I'm really interested in it and I read it during my free time (minus toilet breaks, food intake, family time, shopping, errands, etc.).

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

I like to take my time. I'm generally a chapter a day (unless the chapters are REALLY short, like, say, a James Patterson book) and I tend to read at the same pace I could say things out loud, although I can read much faster - I just like to savor a good book. But sometimes I'm reading three or four things at a time - so that's three to four chapters a day...just different books. My job also involves me reading all day...so between that and movies, my eyes are pretty much shot. ;)

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

This thread made me realize that I really should read a bit more. I decided to start a Star Trek novel I got a long time ago for either a birthday or Christmas gift. Pretty good so far. Still going fairly slow but at least I’m trying with it. I’ve read a few chapters a day a couple days. It’s not all that long either (I think 280 pages).

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

I can read, but personally for me I don't enjoy it. It' a chore for me and I'm a horrendously slow reader. When I was in High School, I had to freaking read from start to finish Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky and that was fucking torture. Our class was being tested on it, so I had to sit there and read it and it took 2 days and 10+ hours to do it. If anyone is familiar with that book it's a monstronsity

I can't just casually sit on a couch with the TV on and people moving around. I have to be locked in a room with no noise and it takes so much concentration to do it.

Years ago, a friend asked me to read a screenplay she wrote for a movie she was developing. I did, but again it was a chore to read and also her screenplay wasn't good either.

Re: About how long does it take you to read a book, if you're reading for pleasure?
 

I’m much the same way. When I read it needs to be a quiet room with no distractions. TV has to be off, minimal noise, I don’t like people around, etc.