How Fast Do You Read?

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I read between 550-600...and English is not even my native language! I surprised myself! Typing is probably really bad, and because I feel quite content now, I'm not going to try it :P

Eva van Rein (Gaia1981), Saturday, 22 October 2005 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link

I read slower (350wpm-ish) these days than I used to. I think it's like I developed ADD sometime, I get distracted more easily in noisy places or in the car (I used to knock books out in the car with no problem), and I read more right before I go to sleep and thus don't read as much.

Are You Nomar? (miloaukerman), Saturday, 22 October 2005 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

600 - 650 though english is my third language.

Fred (Fred), Saturday, 22 October 2005 20:57 (eighteen years ago) link

350wpm for me, I used to devour book but I like the slower pace. 43wpm on the typing test, even though I used to touch type. I'm quicker when I'm not copying, which is something I rarely do in the age of Ctrl+V.

I feel similar to Nomar, I feel I am getting worse at devouring novels, and sometimes get distracted when I'm trying to concentrate on reading.

Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Saturday, 22 October 2005 22:33 (eighteen years ago) link

300-350. My problem isn't the speed at which I read, but the amount of time I have for reading. I drive to work, so no time then. Tea and lunch breaks are taken up with the newspaper. I'm happy if I get half an hour in before I go to sleep. My favourite time to read, though, is between 8am and 10am at the weekend because I'm not fighting dipping eyelids and I'm not in a rush to go anywhere.

Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 10:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Slowly, still.

the pinefox, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Problem with this test is that I speed up my reading quite considerably once I warm up. If I pick up a novel I'll be reading it much faster once it takes hold, which will be within a minute or two if it's an easy read or but longer if the style takes getting used to. At least that's how it's always felt to me. If my subjective impression is right I read quite a lot faster after ten minutes or so than when I'm faced with something cold.

frankiemachine, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 13:12 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm at 400-450.

Those of you reading at 800 plus, were you always that fast or have you just gotten gradually faster and faster because you read a ton? Also, can you really absorb what you're reading at that rate?

Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link

300 - 350

But I sometimes come across books where the prose acts like a speed ramp. For example, Updike's 'Seek My Face' completely jarred my usual reading spead because of its incredibly long sentences.

Recently I've also been experimenting with reading aloud to try to strengthen my voice, which makes my reading speed really slow.

Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:15 (eighteen years ago) link

fifteen years pass...

Just heard that people who visualize what they read more are more slower than readers with strong aphantasia. Maybe that's an additional reason why I'm so slow.

Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 20 March 2021 22:17 (three years ago) link

I cannot visualise anything and I read too fast, so I dunno

Bastard Lakes (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 20 March 2021 22:19 (three years ago) link

the times on the kobo website always feel very optimistic to me

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/bleak-house-46

1200+ pages in 30 hours?

koogs, Saturday, 20 March 2021 22:40 (three years ago) link

I'm a moderately slow reader, or I assume so. I've never measured my rate or compared it to the median rate so that's just my impression.

Judge Roi Behan (Aimless), Saturday, 20 March 2021 22:48 (three years ago) link

It really depends on what I'm reading. The slower the better ime.

pomenitul, Saturday, 20 March 2021 22:50 (three years ago) link

soooooooo slow.

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 20 March 2021 22:57 (three years ago) link

wish I could slow down and retain more, just too impatient

Bastard Lakes (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 20 March 2021 23:00 (three years ago) link

have pretty much never been able to read more than abt 35 pages/hour and it truly drives me up fuckin the wall. used to try different tricks and techniques to speed up but nothing ever sat well, gave up trying years ago.

nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Sunday, 21 March 2021 17:05 (three years ago) link

i'm a subvocalizer, which i always thought was how everyone read but apparently not. i've tried to break the habit but reading without 'hearing' the words is very strange to me, and it feels like i'm not absorbing anything or even reading at all.

, Sunday, 21 March 2021 18:43 (three years ago) link

Until about 1800 or thereabouts silent reading was almost unknown.

Judge Roi Behan (Aimless), Sunday, 21 March 2021 18:47 (three years ago) link

About 80-100 pages an hour, faster itf it's a bio and other non-fic.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 21 March 2021 18:50 (three years ago) link

About the same,

Ignore the neighsayers: grow a lemon tree (ledge), Sunday, 21 March 2021 18:58 (three years ago) link

(oops)... don't think I'm faster for non fic though. I subvocalise (wouldn't know how to stop) and visualise.

Ignore the neighsayers: grow a lemon tree (ledge), Sunday, 21 March 2021 18:59 (three years ago) link

I probably don't achieve the giddy heights of 80wpm with e.g. Henry James.

Ignore the neighsayers: grow a lemon tree (ledge), Sunday, 21 March 2021 19:19 (three years ago) link

wpm? ppm.

Ignore the neighsayers: grow a lemon tree (ledge), Sunday, 21 March 2021 19:22 (three years ago) link

Yes that's 80 posts per minute trying to correct my own idiotic mistakes. Pph.

Ignore the neighsayers: grow a lemon tree (ledge), Sunday, 21 March 2021 19:24 (three years ago) link

I thinkit was comfortably about a page a minute if I was relaxing. Did get a bit faster overa summer in 2003 when I was just reading books at top speed. about a book a day. Not sure what i retained from it, think I read acouple of thigs a couple of times. Was just working through a whole load of books from teh University library.
Could possibly do with rereading a couple of them. I remember reading a book on Rimbaud and his time in Africa which I wish i could remember teh contenst of better. Also I think KIng Leopold's Ghost was taht summer.
Did I read Korzibski then too?

Anyway think about a page a minute comfortably .

Stevolende, Sunday, 21 March 2021 20:01 (three years ago) link

I've been stuck at 6 pages per hour for YEARS, it's fucking hell

Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 21 March 2021 21:15 (three years ago) link

i'm a subvocalizer, which i always thought was how everyone read but apparently not. i've tried to break the habit but reading without 'hearing' the words is very strange to me, and it feels like i'm not absorbing anything or even reading at all.

Cosign. I am relieved to hear from Wired, of all places, that there are no magic tricks I can use to increase my abysmally average reading speed besides just reading more and harder things.

eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Sunday, 21 March 2021 21:26 (three years ago) link

I cannot visualise anything and I read too fast, so I dunno

― Bastard Lakes (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 20 March 2021 22:19 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Same. I used to think it was cool to read 2-3 books in a day and now I think it sucks.

Bignefs Proportionable (seandalai), Monday, 22 March 2021 22:48 (three years ago) link

I'm increasingly slow and it pains me - probably 40 pages an hour, but I genuinely can't remember the last time I had an unbroken hour of reading.

Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Tuesday, 23 March 2021 10:54 (three years ago) link


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