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Well this is a first for me... :-)

cog on 2004-12-06T23:22:05

I bought three books today... and already read one of them!!! :-) In the train, from Lisbon to Aveiro (about two hours and a half, and I wasn't always reading).

Anyway, the book is Terry Pratchett's "Mort - The Play".

Right, "The Play"... I know it is probably easier to read and has less text in it, but nevertheless, I read a book in less than a day. My previous record (ever since I started noting these things down) was of six days: Bladerunner, by Philip Dick.

Hurray for me! :-)

What?

Oh, the book is nice, yes :-)

Hurray! :-)

Normally I take about half an hour...

ambs on 2004-12-07T08:18:33

to read Asterix O:-)

The Hobbit in Eight Hours

ajt on 2004-12-07T10:28:30

Once I couldn't sleep, so I read "The Hobbit" overnight. While ill in hospital once, I had nothing to do all day, so I read "The Lord of the Rings" in about five days. If I have the time, then I can read a shorter Pratchett book in less than one day.

While I can read some things very quickly, it does not mean that I take it all in, but I do have a sufficiently usable facsimile of the book in memory.

When I was younger I had near photographic memory, these days it's not so good, as my better half constantly reminds me...

Re:The Hobbit in Eight Hours

cog on 2004-12-07T10:36:18

Now I remember... once, in the hospital, I read the autobiography of Gichin Funakoshi in less than a day, too.

Re:The Hobbit in Eight Hours

ajt on 2004-12-07T12:06:58

It's amazing what you can read when you are stuck.

Re:The Hobbit in Eight Hours

jmm on 2004-12-07T18:23:33

The first time I read Lord of the Rings, I started on a Friday evening and finshed the entire set just before Sunday breakfast (which I ate and then went for a much-delayed sleep - I had been awake for about 48 hours, including about 36 hours reading the series with occassional stops for food).

At the other extreme, when I read it to my son as a bedtime story, it took about a year and a half to get through the series, since it was at most a few pages per night.

Re:The Hobbit in Eight Hours

ajt on 2004-12-07T19:11:14

That is quite impressive! Did you cheat and skip the songs and poems, or read it all?

Thesdays I only get to read when I'm ill and I can't think of anything better to do...

I must read faster than that...

btilly on 2004-12-10T01:05:04

I've read a book in a bath before. Admittedly, a very long bath. But it was also a fairly long book - 800 pages or so.

My mother couldn't believe that I'd really read it. So I had her flip to a random page and start reading until I figured out where it was and then tell her the plot at that point in the book. After doing this 3-4 times with me figuring it out within a paragraph or two, my mother believed me.

We wound up estimating my reading speed at something like 900 WPM. My reading speed has varied over the years (when I read lots of technical material, it drops, fantasy and sci-fi raise it), but I don't think it has ever been better than that.