How long does it take to read a book? Worked out properly

A typical 300-page book takes the average adult about five to six hours of reading time: roughly 5 hours 47 minutes for non-fiction and 5 hours 17 minutes for fiction. A 200-page book takes around four hours; a 400-page one around seven to eight.

The figures come from two numbers: how many words the book holds and how many words a minute you read. Both vary, so treat these as a starting point. For a quick estimate of a particular book, the reading time calculator does it in one step.

How do you work out how long a book will take?

Divide the number of words in the book by your reading speed in words per minute. That gives you minutes; divide by sixty for hours.

If you do not know the word count, estimate it from the pages. A typical printed page holds roughly 250 to 300 words; 275 is a reasonable middle. For your speed, the best published average comes from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis in the Journal of Memory and Language, covering 190 studies and around 18,500 participants: about 238 words a minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction, for adults reading silently.

Worked through for a 300-page book:

• Words: 300 pages × 275 words = 82,500 words.
• Non-fiction: 82,500 ÷ 238 ≈ 347 minutes, or about 5 hours 47 minutes.
• Fiction: 82,500 ÷ 260 ≈ 317 minutes, or about 5 hours 17 minutes.

How long do common book lengths take?

Using 275 words a page and the average speeds above:

• 100 pages (27,500 words): about 1 hour 56 minutes for non-fiction, 1 hour 46 minutes for fiction.
• 200 pages (55,000 words): about 3 hours 51 minutes for non-fiction, 3 hours 32 minutes for fiction.
• 300 pages (82,500 words): about 5 hours 47 minutes for non-fiction, 5 hours 17 minutes for fiction.
• 400 pages (110,000 words): about 7 hours 42 minutes for non-fiction, 7 hours 3 minutes for fiction.
• 500 pages (137,500 words): about 9 hours 38 minutes for non-fiction, 8 hours 49 minutes for fiction.

Page counts are only a proxy. The same text can run to 250 pages in one edition and 350 in another, depending on the type size, margins and trim. If you can find the word count, use it; if you only have pages, words to pages shows how much the layout can shift the figure.

How long does it take to read a novel?

A typical novel runs 70,000 to 100,000 words. At the fiction average of 260 words a minute:

• 70,000 words: about 269 minutes, or 4 hours 29 minutes.
• 80,000 words: about 308 minutes, or 5 hours 8 minutes.
• 100,000 words: about 385 minutes, or 6 hours 25 minutes.

So most novels sit between four and a half and six and a half hours of reading. Long literary novels and fantasy series often run far past 100,000 words, and the estimate scales in a straight line: double the words, double the time.

How long does a short book take?

Short books are where the arithmetic is most encouraging. A 150-page book at 275 words a page is 41,250 words. At 238 words a minute that is about 173 minutes, or 2 hours 53 minutes; at the fiction pace of 260, about 159 minutes, or 2 hours 39 minutes.

That is two or three evenings, or a single long train journey. It is also the length at which most people still remember the opening chapter when they reach the last one, which matters more than it sounds for any book you intend to use rather than simply finish. Many of the most useful books ever written are short, because their authors had one idea and stopped when it was said.

If your reading list is mostly long books you keep meaning to start, it can help to put one short one at the top. Finishing something resets the habit more reliably than resolving to read more.

Why does a book take me longer than the estimate?

Usually for one of a few ordinary reasons, none of which means you read badly.

• Your speed differs from the average. Averages hide a wide spread. The reading speed test gives you your own figure in about three minutes; put that into the calculation instead of 238.
• The text is dense. Technical, philosophical or unfamiliar material reads more slowly than average, and should. The meta-analysis numbers are for ordinary prose.
• You re-read. Going back over a paragraph you drifted through is the single biggest hidden cost in most reading sessions.
• You stop to think or take notes. That is not lost time; it is often the point. But it does not show up in a words-per-minute estimate.
• The format is fighting you. Small type, a fixed page on a phone screen or long lines all slow reading down. See PDF vs EPUB for which format suits which screen.

Can you read a book in a day?

Physically, yes: a 300-page book at an average pace is under six hours, which fits into a quiet Saturday. Whether it is a good idea depends on the book. A novel read in one long sitting can be a wonderful experience. A book of ideas read the same way tends to blur, because there is no time between chapters for anything to settle.

For practical non-fiction, several shorter sessions usually beat one long one. You read, you try something, you come back. We set out a way of doing that in How to actually use a self-help book.

Would reading faster make much difference?

Less than you might hope. Going from 238 to 300 words a minute on an 82,500-word book takes the reading time from about 5 hours 47 minutes to 4 hours 35 minutes, saving about an hour and twelve minutes. A worthwhile gain, but one that a single extra reading session would match.

Speed-reading courses promise far more, and the research does not back them; the evidence is set out in How to read faster. For a whole-year view of how reading minutes turn into finished books, see How many books can you read in a year?.

How do you plan reading time for a book?

1. Find the word count if you can, or multiply pages by 275.
2. Use your own speed, not the average, if you have measured it.
3. Divide to get total minutes, then by your usual session length to get the number of sittings.
4. Add a margin of a fifth or so for re-reading, slow starts and the evenings that do not happen.
5. Put the sittings in the calendar, or set a daily figure with the reading goal planner.

For example: a 250-page book at 275 words a page is 68,750 words. At 238 words a minute that is about 289 minutes. In thirty-minute sittings that is ten sessions; with a fifth added for the usual slippage, about twelve. Two weeks of weekday evenings, comfortably.

If the honest number for the book on your bedside table is longer than you have, a shorter book is a perfectly good answer. The ones on this site are written that way on purpose: short, personal and built from how you answer twenty-one scenes at /personalise, so the hours you give them are spent on pages that are about you.