Does anyone here read 80+ pages per hour? If so, do you have any tips?

Why do you want to read that fast?

I’m a very fast reader. And it’s just plain practice. There’s nothing more complicated than that going on, and certainly no easier way to get to a fster reading speed.

i can read quite fast but i actively don’t because it feels like it lessens the experience..

Depending on the difficulty level of the writing I can read fast naturally. Unless I have a strong reason to finish a book quickly (like it is an ebook that is going to be returned soon or it is overdue from the library), I read at my natural, comfortable pace. I have noticed that by reading more difficult titles over the years (19th-century classics, history, philosophy) my reading speed has continued to increase, especially for “harder” books. I can really push myself to get through a book, but I don’t find it as enjoyable.

My solution to the dilemma of so many books to read and so little time? I am more selective about what I read. I would rather read 40 amazing, thought-provoking books per year (plus 10-12 fun/trashy/entertainment reads) than read 100+ books that I think are entertaining but not challenging. Also, if I really wanted to get through more books, I would focus on adding more reading time to my life instead of reading more quickly. A natural byproduct of reading more would likely be that my reading speed would continue to increase.

I’m a skimmer. Especially if I’m reading Stephan King. My comprehension definitely suffers a bit so I “turn it on” for some books and off for others.

I read for the experience. If I want to just read for knowledge, audiobooks at 1.5 speed.

It’s practice, as others have said, but it has its pros and cons. Reading that fast means that concepts often don’t have time to settle in — you’ve already moved on before you’ve truly understood what you just read, and you may have glossed over minutia that is critical to the story. You’ll get the gist, but you won’t get the full story.

There are books where the plot is good but not great — the kind of book you read before bed when you don’t want to stay up finishing the novel because you can’t put it down. If you’re reading it just to finish it, speed read. If you’re reading it because it’s fantastic and you want to know how it ends — slow down and savor it. The details will be sharper and the story richer.

It really, really, depends on the book. I clocked myself the other day on *A Curse So Dark and Lonely* and I was getting through about 100 pages in 45 minutes. No, I wasn’t “skimming” and I could certainly recount for you what happened and give my review of it.

The bottom line is that your reading speed/comprehension is directly tied to *how familiar you are with the material,* probably more so than any other factor, even sentence complexity. I read history, botany and philosophy faster than I read math or physics.

Your brain has a tendency to anticipate outcomes and information. Many people who read a lot of books tend to stick to specific genres like romance or mystery, and the reason you can read those so quickly is not because the writing is just extremely dumbed down, it’s because those types of stories are heavily reliant on tropes. Each book just adds tiny variations to the same trope. *A Curse so Dark and Lonely* is a Beauty and the Beast retelling. At a certain point you expect a ballroom dance scene and the turning point in the romance. Did ACDL deliver? Yep. The variation here was dancing alone at the edge of a cliff, specifically just outside of a tavern/inn of the usual pseudo-medieval type in a generic harbor town. Neither the town nor the tavern were heavily described because, again, many details are things that the reader fits into preexisting expectations. You’re still reading each word, but you process it differently because you’re looking for pattern breaks instead of establishing a pattern.

Someone here did the math for me and figured out I read about 90-100 pages an hour. To be honest, I suspect reading speed is something kind of fixed by the time you’re an adult. I grew up in a REALLY book-focused household where everyone was always reading, we owned tons of books, and went to the library constantly. I was also reading before I started school, and read pretty massive amounts from basically age 4 onwards.

Two big factors that can hammer my speed are outside distractions (especially anything involving human voices), and the writing style/density.

Some people read faster than others. Nothing wrong with that. I think 80 pages per hour is a lot. But if someone tells me that’s their reading speed I’ll believe them. I think reading a lot will automatically make you a faster reader. But for some 80 pages within an hour will never be possible. Nothing wrong with that either. Some people will naturally be faster runners than others. But even if you’re not a natural fast runner you can still become faster if you practice. But practice doesn’t mean it will make you as fast as professional atletes.

It depends on what I’m reading, honestly, and whether or not I’m annotating. American modernism and post-modernism is what I’m most familiar with; depending on author and density of the novel, I can hit 80-100pp/hr if I’m not taking notes or doing a deep analysis, and 60-80 if I am annotating or doing a specific analysis. For comprehension/enjoyment reasons, however, I try and read no more than 70pp/hr. If I’m branching out into other areas I’m less familiar with, it’s around 50-70pp/hr depending on complexity of the subject or style, and I try and keep it around 60.

As far as advice, it honestly is just practice and reading more/being more conscious of how you’re reading (sub vocalizing vs not). I read slower when I was younger but, after spending five years getting a literature degree, I just kind of naturally started reading faster. My advice: focus on comprehension before reading speed. Speeding up is rarely worth it if you’re not retaining the information.

Side note: I do think pages/hour is a tricky metric, however, because of word density and page breaks. Words/minute is, imo, a better way to gauge proficiency.

(Edited to better answer OP and for brevity)

I used to be a fast reader, but years ago I deliberately slowed down to your pace and I ended up enjoying novels more… and reading more.

Please consider not turning your reading experience into a competition or a chore. The pleasure should be in the reading itself, not say the achievement of reading 100 books in a year.

As many others have said, it’s just practice.

I used to read 300-360 books per year. About 10 years ago, I was in a car accident: since then, I might have read 5 books altogether. I’ve re-read old favourites (*The Cat Who* series, early Tom Clancy, Regency Cathleen Coulter), but I struggle with new books.

I currently have 2 or 3 books on the go, but I haven’t looked at them since last summer. I have a couple of DNF books given away, as well. Which is weird; I was a “finish entirely every book” I picked up.

But reading quickly is just practice. *You can’t read all day if you don’t start in the morning.* Good luck.

My advice is DON’T. When I was reading that fast, I got through books faster, but I didn’t actually get nearly as much enjoyment out of them. Slowing down and absorbing things more slowly had led to enjoying my reading greatly more.