If you’re anything like us, you probably found yourself wondering at some point in your life how many pages can you read in an hour or how long does it take to read 100 pages?
Well, because we know a simple statistic is not going to cut it for you, we started looking into the matter a bit more in-depth and things are not as simple as they seem. Many factors come into play and the results vary significantly from one individual to another.
How long does it take to read a page?
Most statistics consider a page to contain roughly 300 words. Taking into account that an average reader can go through around 300 words in a minute, the short answer is obviously that on average a page takes roughly 1 minute to be read.
The type of book from which the page is taken can have a major impact on how long it takes to read that page. On top of this, the reader plays a very important role in the time spent on reading a page can vary from less than a minute to more than two just depending on the level of training the person has. The more you practice, the easier it will be for you to go through the written information, regardless of its type and the quicker it will become for you to understand what you’re reading.
Believe it or not, the year the book was written plays a role as well. You will find that it is a lot easier and it takes you a lot less time to read a page from a contemporary book than it would from a book written in the 1700s. That is because of the difference in language and tone of the text.
How many pages can you read in an hour?
While a slow reader will only get through 30 pages per hour, the average person can read around 40 pages per hour.
Statistics show that quick readers can even go through 50 or 60 pages in one hour. Again, statistics reflect a generalized average, but results may differ considerably from one person to another and they can also depend on the material that is being leafed through.
For example, going through a novel or a storybook with an easy-to-follow storyline will take a lot less than reading a technical manual or an academic textbook.
The purpose of the reading is another factor that greatly influences the reading time. To get into reading for pleasure and reading for learning are two completely different things and our brains operate differently in each scenario.
While leafing through a fun book with an easy to follow storyline can easily be done at a speed of 50-60 pages per hour, going over an academic textbook where the reader constantly needs to go back and peruse certain paragraphs several times in order to understand the content can get down to 15-20 pages per hour or even less.
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How long does it take to read 100 pages?
The average time to read 100 pages is a personal matter which depends on each particular individual and several other factors. As we mentioned earlier, statistics say that an average reader can go through around 300 words per minute. This average was calculated by comparing the speed of normal literate people who can read and understand text at a normal speed.
Using simple math, taking into account the average number of words on a page, we can quickly reach the conclusion that the average time to read 100 pages is roughly 2 hours and 45 minutes.
The table below shows you how long it takes to read a given number of pages.
| Number of pages | Slow (150 wpm) | Average (300 wpm) | Fast (450 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 page | 3.3 minutes | 1.7 minutes | 1.1 minutes |
| 10 pages | 33.3 minutes | 16.7 minutes | 11.1 minutes |
| 100 pages | 5.6 hours | 2.8 hours | 1.9 hours |
| 500 pages | 1.2 days | 13.9 hours | 9.3 hours |
| 1000 pages | 2.3 days | 1.2 days | 18.5 hours |
How long does it take to read a book?
Let me answer that question with another question: what book? Again, there are so many factors that come into play here that statistics are rendered meaningless. Books have different numbers of pages, different numbers of words on each page, and authors use different types of language and different tones. On top of this, as we mentioned earlier, each reader has their own speed. There are just too many variables in this equation, so an exact answer is almost impossible to provide.
What we can do instead is set ourselves certain thresholds. For example, let’s say we take an average reader and give her a 300-page book. According to statistics, it will take her a little over 8 hours to finish leafing through the book. That is of course just an estimation. In reality, most of us won’t be able to go through a book in 8 hours without taking a break or without life getting in the way and interrupting us.
Let’s take some classic titles and find out how long it would take an average reader to go over them.
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
With a number of 505 pages and an estimated word count of 150,995, it will take an average (300 words per minute) reader 9 hours and 22 minutes to finish the book.
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
This book has 324 pages, with an estimated word count of 96,876. It will take an average reader 6 hours and 17 minutes to go through the entire book.
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
With 279 pages and an estimated word count of 83,421 the average reader will manage to leaf through it in 5 hours and 56 minutes
As you can see, just by taking three classic books and comparing the results we can conclude that the reading time varies considerably from one title to another.
How do I track minutes spent reading and how many pages I read?
Well, that’s an easy one. You can either time yourself manually and keep a written log of the time you spent reading and the number of pages you went through like in the olden days, or you can use Basmo.
Basmo is the ultimate tool for avid readers and comes packed with a series of great features right at your fingertips. You can install the app on your mobile device and you will see how helpful it is.
With Basmo, you can track reading time in real time with a simple tap, you get amazing reading statistics based on your data (number of pages you read, how many minutes you spent reading). You can track your progress in reading 3 books simultaneously, you can add reminders about books you want to read and the app is incredibly easy to use.
To start tracking your reading time for example, all you have to do is:
- Simply tap on any book in any collection.
- Then tap the Start session button if it’s a new book or the Continue from page X if it’s a book you’ve already started. This will start the counter.
- As soon as you tap End session the statistics will appear on your dashboard.
On top of this, you can add notes about your reading session, you can use emoticons to describe how you feel about what you just read. Once you finish the book, you can mark it as complete and it will be added to the list of finished books in your collection.
The app also allows you to set daily goals to achieve the reading levels you want and it will remind you to pick up a book whenever you are about to miss your daily goals. Statistics are a few taps away as well.
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Conclusion
To conclude, the answers to the questions “how many pages can you read in an hour” and “how long does it take to read 100 pages” can vary greatly depending on a number of factors, but the short answer is that the average person can read around 40 pages in 1 hour, and reading 100 pages can be achieved in about 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Whether you can do it quicker or slower is a matter of training, ability and other external factors.
