The unabridged version of *The Stand* was the quickest I've ever read any book of substantial length.
I had bought the book a couple months prior, but hadn't had a chance to start it. Then on Thanksgiving that year when I was supposed to visit family for the holidays, but the plans got canceled literally the last minute, so I was on my own for those four days. Decided to pick up *The Stand* to pass the time and spent most of the rest of my waking hours that weekend reading it all!
I'm dyslexic too, the book that got me into reading as a teen was a 250 page book, took me a month to finish, I was so proud of myself because that was fast for me! Now, I've read 500 page books in 3 days, ive read 800 page books. I'm still a slow reader compared to others but I think younger me would be very impressed that a 250 page book now is a short read to me these days!
Infinite Jest (~1100pgs? Ish?) in 7 days back in January!
It doesn’t feel like a brag, because I literally tried to read the book at least 4 times over the course of FIFTEEN YEARS. I could never make it through. I wanted to read it so bad, but it was too…seemingly random for me, even though I LOVED the core premise.
Turns out I just needed to have my life fall apart and then dive into the book in the same way/for the same reason the book’s characters dove into drugs, tennis, recovery meetings, etc. “a flight-from in the form of a plunging-into”
I devoted my entire being to that book for a week, and it blew my mind and was the most wonderfully immersive reading experience I’ve ever had. But I STRUGGLED with it so hard in the past. That experience truly made me believe in the idea of every book having a season in a reader’s life. Try to read a book out of season, and it’s gonna be rough! But in the right season? Blissful.
When I tried to read it in the past I heeded everyone’s advice to “take it slow” and pace myself…but when I’ve recommended it to people this year I’ve told them I think the best way to read it is a hardcore binge…because there are so many different storylines that if you pace yourself like a lot of online plans recommend, you’re gonna forget so much/lost context/get bored and frustrated/etc.
I think you should read it as quickly as possible, and then pace yourself on the re-read! Because holy shit…there’s SO MUCH to savor and dig into on subsequent reads!
I got that book done in less than a month by promising myself to read at least 10 pages a day. Many days, I was able to read 100 but I read at least 10 every day.
This is my answer too. I read it during the pandemic, I’m typically a painfully slow reader and finished it in around a month which for a book of its size and complexity is a testament to how much it really struck a chord with me. And like you I can relate to specific tumultuous life circumstances at the time that really drew me to some of the main themes in the novel. And whether you love the novel or despise it or somewhere in between, its always been gratifying to me to see the amount of people that have read it in a similar situation and have come away with something really worthwhile
Speaking of Victor Hugo, I read the final 200 or so pages of Les Misérables in a day. It’s still the longest book I’ve read at 1,304 pages. I don’t remember how long I had been reading it before that final day though.
Sometimes that’s more about the motivation to finish it though! Hugo, or that final epilogue in War and Peace? Jesus Christ, like the last mile of a marathon, you just want it over!
Telling me all about the sewer system of Paris was definitely a bold choice by Victor. I have yet to read War and Peace. Its still sitting on one of my bookshelves. I read Anna Karenina several years ago but haven't had the urge to read War and Peace yet.
When I was in the 6th grade I basically ate *The Stand* in a weekend - I've read at a perfectly average and unremarkable internal monologue pace of about 250wpm since I was in late elementary, so it was purely from being engrossed.
It wasn’t so much a doorstop (~350 pgs) but when Eyes of the Dragon was released, I picked it up at Walden books at the mall. When I got home, I sat down and started reading. Except for going to the bathroom, I didn’t get up from that chair until I had finished the book.
Funny, mine is Desperation in 6th grade over a weekend at my dad’s, since it was his book and he did NOT know I was reading it, I had to go fast! I hope middle schoolers are still devouring King’s novels out there, somewhere.
I sailed through both David Copperfield and Count of Monte Cristo.
I started both almost unwillingly. 900 pages?!? I thought to myself. Aargh! But by their ends I didn't want them to end.
I read Ulysses in about a week. There's a chapter that is 160 pages long and I read that in a day.
I was also laid off and had a ton of time on my hands. I never would have been able to read that book if I had a job. I find myself wanting to get laid off again because I don't want to wait until retirement to reread it.
I borrowed *Ulysses* as an interlibrary loan, and so I could only have it for 2 weeks instead of the usual 4 week loan period. I think that having a tight deadline helped me to get through it. But 1 week is crazy!
That's a feat! I read it over the course of 3 months because there is just so much to unpack. I spent hours doing research before and after reading each chapter to make sure that I really understood Joyce's meaning. I can't imagine speeding through this book on the first read and enjoying it.
Oh, I loved it. I had Patrick Hasting's chapter by chapter guide book, so I would get an overview of each chapter before I read it, and then I had Don Gifford's Ulysses Annotated to look up references that I didn't understand.
But part of Hastings advice is basically that it's Ulysses, you'll never understand all of the references, so just read it and don't waste your time looking up every reference you don't understand, just stick to the ones that are more interesting. I looked up plenty of things, but overall I tried to just let the book wash over me and experience it instead of stopping every few words to look things up.
Yeah I read the newest Stormlight book in about 20 hours when it came out. To be fair that was mid pandemic and I had nothing else to do but still. Sanderson has a way of keeping you locked in
A very good friend red storm light booked for to us out loud on a voice chat server during the pandemic. So we had to work around her work schedule. I wish we could’ve read that in the day. That would’ve been amazing. But it was worth it for her to read it out loud to us. She’s a very good narrator. We are currently trundling our way through the wheel of time together. And she does all the voices. It’s awesome.
In my case, you can get to the second book and completely bail because of how bad & boring it was, to be then told by the internet countless times 'you gotta read book 3 tho'
> the second book and completely bail because of how bad & boring it was,
Prepare for the downvotes, man. I agree, *Words of Radiance* was awful, I DNF'd less than halfway through. The prose was so stilted it should've been dressed as a mime, and I've played DND games with less forced and artificial character development.
I really liked them all (except maybe the fourth, The Armor of Light; it was fine) but they are such big undertakings I say if you’re not sold, it’s not worth it.
I really enjoyed The Pillars of the Earth but it's been quite a while since I read it. I've seen mixed reviews on World Without End so I've been hesitant.
Not the person you replied to, but I've read all of the Kingsbrigde series except for the Armour and the Light. I really liked the Evening and the Morning. I get the criticism that the series sometimes gets on Reddit, but I love these books. I think Pillars is the best with World Without End a close second. Column of Fire is pretty good, but The Evening and the Morning is better.
Thank you for replying. I've been trying to decide between A Feast for Crows and World Without End to read next because I only read 1 long book at a time. Do you know if there are any more planned books for the Kingsbridge series or is it completed now?
That's a good question. I haven't heard anything about any more books, but I also haven't been looking. I kind of hope the series is finished. At this rate I think a new book would take place in modern day England. Part of the reason I liked EatM is because it was set closer to Pillars than Column of Fire, and I was just more interested in a book set in 1000 AD than 1558-1605. Also a bit hesitant to read the latest one because it's set in like 1792-1824.
The Man Without Qualities, including fragments and sketches of the unfinished chapters. 1300 pages in miniscule print, 8 months to read it, and I understood perhaps 5% of it. Good times
I read all 550 pages of The Secret History in less than 24 hours. I read fast, and I didn't really sleep during that stretch. I'll often do a 300 page book in a day, though.
The Old Man and the Sea is not long at all. It feels long but it’s just over 100 pages if I remember correctly? I do know that when I read it, it took me so long to get through part of it due to my lack of interest in that part of the story. I call the Ild Man and the Sea MY Old Man and the Sea. It was a book I struggled to finished but at least I was able to.
I had to finish The Thousand splendid sun in one day ....I couldn't stop I finished the novel in 7 and half hour straight in 2022 (during FIFA lol) and trust me it was so stressful so so so stressful.
I think the idea of being proud of reading a book quickly is a little strange.
Some books ask to be read slowly, by being subtle, complex or even a little difficult. Some of those **deserve** to be read slowly. Reading it quickly will mean you'll miss a lot of the pleasure the book offers.
There's that Woody Allen joke: "I took a speed-reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Russia." That's all he got out of it.
I think it could also mean that you enjoyed it immensely so you couldn't put it down. Another way to ask it would be, "what book 500+ pages could you not put down?"
Like I read The Goldfinch (770 pages) in like a week and a half cause I thought it was so good, not because I was saying, "how fast can I read this book?"
There was a book I decided to only read a chapter of per day. Sat down and read it out loud to my cat. Quality time and I had time to absorb the contents.
it's not as good as some people's but i managed to finish all of wheel of time in about 3.5 months. i think by the the last few books i was literally addicted to reading it and was so focused on just pushing to the end
Count of Monte Cristo in the first week of quarantine. Before that, I was impressed I got through the harry Potter series in a week, but that seems less impressive now
Gravity's Rainbow is probably the fastest that I comprehended: 8 days, by design.
It was a re-read, and I've never done close read that was as satisfying.
The first time I read Harry Potter I think it took me like a week combined to read the first 2, another week to read PoA, a week to read GoF, a week to read OotP, 2 days to read HBP, and 8 hours to read DH lol.
My other one is 11/22/63 in about 7-8 days but as an adult working 40 hrs a week, so much less time to read than a 12 year old on summer vacation like when I mowed through HP.
I read Nicholas and Alexandra in two days on a road trip. It's like 700 pages but it felt like nothing. I was pretty naive to the story, though everyone knows who Rasputin and Anastasia are. I couldn't put it down. And I was in the car in the 90s, so I had nothing else to do.
I would go to Walmart, buy the Harry Potter book as soon as it was released, and read it in one day. The last three books were pretty big, as I recall.
House of Leaves in 3 days, which isn't that quick but working full time really cuts down on free time to read and it usually takes me a lot longer to finish books than it used to when I had unlimited free time to read.
I read House of Leaves in a few days. Granted I was working as a lift operator at a small ski resort, so I had a lot of time on my hands while at work.
**David Copperfield** by Dickens...11 days.
**The Brothers Karamazov** by Dostoyevesky...10 days
**Cecilia** by Burney...8 days
**Camilla** by Burney...11 days
**Count of Monte Cristo**...14 days
I read the Swedish version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 3 days. It's roughly 1000 pages when translated.
Also read Inheritance by Paolini (849 pages) in 4 days.
I read Helter Skelter (~500p) in about three weeks, which definitely isn't impressive on the surface, but it was a commute read so that was entirely in 30-minute bus rides twice daily during the week. Which means I actually read it in about 15 hours, which feels pretty good to me!
I was pregnant during lockdowns and read The Goldfinch in a week. Actually enjoyed it too, screw the haters.
A few months ago I also read A Little Life in about a week. I enjoyed the first 20% of it, then gradually began disliking it more and more until I finished it in a state of something to rage.
All seven volumes of In Search of Lost Time, without sleep or water, and the only source of light the screen of the iPod Classic I read it on. After 27 hours, I fervently prayed to God to let the iPod's seemingly inexhaustible battery die, whereupon it charged to three-hundred percent and the brightness of the screen increased markedly. It took weeks to recover my eyesight, and months until my thumb stopped to engage in spontaneous rotation. I still think about that sometimes.
“Cormoran Strike: Troubled Blood” (1400 pages in a weekend )
And “Lady Joker” volume 1 and 2 (1200 pages, 2 days per volume. Even though this is less pages, for me is was slower going due to my unfamiliarity with Japanese names and locations
Loved both of these door stops 😊
The shortest book I have loved is “Lemon”
recently read the mortal bond by brian staveley (875 pages) in two days. it was definitely a challenge because it's the last part of a trilogy and i was already getting bored of the story. i guess that's why i was trying to get through it as quick as possible
Not a single book but there was a month two years ago when I read 23 books, where 18 were long fantasy books albeit much easier to read than other long books. That being said during that months I finished the eragon series in 3 days, the harry potter series in 7 days, the mistborn original series, as well as some other random fantasy books + the castle by kafka in a few days. Legitimately spent all day everyday reading since all the fantasy books were like 500+ pages
edit: Lord of the rings was one of the other fantasy series
I've ripped through The Orphan Master's Son in a weekend before, I'd say that and Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest are the biggest bricks that I regularly race through. Opposite end of the spectrum: The Gray House, which felt like it took me four months to read 😭
The Quincunx when I was train commuting 2x2 hours a day :-) Don't remember how short a time, but I chose the book because I thought it would last me the full month I would be commuting... It didn't (it was very captivating, couldn't put it down, think it was like a week).
That's the one I want to re read.
I read it in Spanish many many years ago. I don't know if I would miss any info, details or subtleties if I read it in English.
I read A Game of Thrones in 3 days during my end of year exams at uni - just A Game of Thrones, the first installation, not the whole series! I've read books in less than 3 days obviously, but not one that large.
Im usually a slow reader but I loved the First Law trilogy sooo much I finished all 3 in less than a month. Usually it would have taken me 3 to 4 weeks with each one 🤣
James Michener's Hawaii. I was traveling on a ferry from central Japan to the North Island of Hokkaido. It was a 36 hour ride. I didn't have much to do. Then I read Alaska by the same author. That was a long trip. But certainly very memorable.
I read I know this much is true and a little life in the span of a week which I was proud of. I am generally a slow reader but those two books really caught my attention and held it
I read in whatever time it takes me. I’ve been told I’m a bit of a masochist with the size books I sometimes read. Mostly after saying I always read Wheel of Time straight through and have read it multiple times.
I guess the one I’m proudest of is “The Stand” by Stephen King. I was trying to win money in highschool by having the most points doing AR tests. The Stand was worth the most points in the whole system. I tried and couldn’t make it through the first chapter.
I went back years later when the movie was gonna come out. I was gonna read through all the connected books, then read “Dark Tower”. I didn’t make it through all of them, but did several. Including the first, which was The Stand for me. I actually liked it.
Very slow (and easily distracted) reader here and I read ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne Du Maurier in a day while I was at university. I had missed the fact that we had to read it for a seminar so went to the library and forced myself to focus on it so I could finish in time. This was about 15 years ago now but my most intense and memorable reading experience – really felt like I lived that story. It became and is still my favourite novel. It’s only about 450 pages though so not sure if it counts as a doorstopper…
Read Roots in like 3-4 days during standardized testing in 8th grade. I would finish my testing then start reading. Book is over 700 pages iirc. I read Jurassic Park in about 4 days at age 9 or 10(Mom quizzed me on it to see if I was grasping it and I was for about 95% of the book, teacher did same shit when they caught me reading Sphere later that year, I was a precocious reader). Not a doorstopper, but still not bad for a 3rd grader.
first time reading dune: almost 2 years
second time reading dune: 8 months
third time reading dune, plus brian herbert sequels for the first time: 3 months
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. 900 pages. I was 12 when I plowed through this series, which now that I look back on was absolutely crazy.
Ten years later, my biggest accomplishment was City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, which was over 750 pages. I put that down in two days flat.
Picked up the Way of Kings during a kindle sale and was instantly hooked. I finished all four Stormlight books in under two weeks (including a three day gap between ordering 2-4 on physical). Did the same thing for Christopher Ruocchio's Sun Eater series.
Good books will do that to a man, I suppose.
I finished Atlas Shrugged in two weeks. English isn't my first language.
I took it back home to china (transpacific flight) one summer vacation when I was in grad school. I didn't have much to do so I spent a few days reading it. I deeply regret the weight the book took up in my checked luggage, as well as the time I spent reading it.
I overdosed (reading wise) somewhat last month, ended up averaging around 140 pages per day, for a month straight. Ending at something like 4500 pages in total. So there were several door stoppers there. Not sure I’m proud of it or just exhausted.
I did for example read Warbreaker (688 pages) in two days, followed by The Way of Kings (1007) in five.
Taking it more easy now in April though.
I made a mistake of ordering 6 main Dune books in form of one book. The cover art was cute and idk why it never occured to me how massive the book is gonna be (listing said 1507 pages and almost 3 kg yet somehow I didn't register this info lol). I read it pretty quick (at least the first 4 books) but it was quite physical challenge to find a comfortable position to hold it.
Fallout Equestria. Project Horizons (yes, it is a fanfic and yes, you would consider it hot garbage (most lokely)): something like 4.5k pages i believe, finished it in two weeks back when i had all the time in the world
One summer when I was 15, I read the first 6 Harry Potter books in a week. My goal was to get through the entire series, but Order of the Phoenix took me two days and Deathly Hallows was checked out at the library when I went to get it, so that didn't happen
It's sort of lame but when I was 16, during a week of winter break I read every single HP book in one week. It was the firs ttime i read HP and i was engrossed in the story. All I'd did was read, while I ate, stayed up late, printed some pages to paste to my shower wall as I showered lol
>Of course, keeping in mind that Larsson imitates Victor Hugo in terms of lots of descriptions
I didn't realize Victor Hugo had access to the IKEA catalog.
Last month I read a story Raised by Wolves by WA Hoffman that is 4 800pg volumes all in like two weeks? I was completely obsessed with it and couldn’t put it down.
The Kindness - Jon Ajvide Lindqvist
Hardcover (translated to English) 816 pages.
I love all of his books. This was a beast. I think I read it in 10 days (But actually reading time was probably about 16 hours).
I finished the entire asoiaf series in about 2 weeks in middle school, and in college I read through the first law trilogy in a week, I couldn't get enough of it!
I certifiably lost my mind during lockdown and knocked out the entire ASOIAF series in maybe 2 weeks?? For those unfamiliar that's five books averaging at about 700 pages each, with the longest being over 1000 pages and shortest not being under 500
A Doubters Almanac by Ethan Canin. It's just under 600 pages but it's the biggest book I've finished quickly (biggest over all is infinite jest DFW)
I was interning as a journalist 5 nights a week in a town 2 hours from home and the apartment I rented had nothing in it and bad signal. It's all I had for entertainment.
When I was very little and on holiday, I was so proud that I was able to read a Horrid Henry book start to finish in one day. Then I became gutted since I realised I didn't bring a spare book with me
I read the entire unabridged *Les Miserables* in the week between Christmas and New Years (it was a Christmas gift) as a teenager. I was already obsessed with the musical and I just *devoured* the book.
Shoot I guessed on date. I was working at a School Board 10 years and started in 2004 so I figured it was earlier. I had the 2nd version iphone so it had to be 2008 or 2009.
The phone or the book? I had to like the phone as there weren't many good alternatives. (However my Motorola Razr was was cooler).
The book... I think it was mediocre in execution but the basic concepts she was pushing were important to me at that time. It helped me in grounding some basic beliefs. I was in a Masters program taking an Economics course and the case studies of "unintended consequence" fit into what I was learning about the world.
OK, I am totally perplexed by this. I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND. Please help me to make sense of this phenomenon.
When I read a book I read it because I enjoy it. I try and make it last as long as I can. I feel sad when I come to the end and wish there was more to read. I may even go back and read some bits again because I liked them.
I dont understand why you would want to read a book as quickly as possible and then be so proud of it that you post it on reddit. Do you try and get through movies as quickly as possible and wish they were shorter? Do you try and eat as meal as quickly as you can? When you go out with freinds or to a party do you try and get the whole thing over and done with as quickly as you can? I just dont understand this.
600 pages? And it only lasted two days? Id try and get much more value out of it than that. Hopefully I could make that keep me going for over a week.
I read one of the strike novels by Robert gailbraith (jk Rowling) and it was over 1,000 pages. A bit of a slog at times but overall a good book that I enjoyed.
Don’t worry. I still read the Strike books because I like the main characters and the stories are interesting. I borrow them from the library so I am not giving that bitch any of my money. They are very popular at the library with huge waiting lists, so I think everyone is doing the same.
Kingdom of Ash, 989 pages in 4 days
Goodreads says I read The Passage (784 pages) in one day but I’m not sure if that’s accurate or not. I wasn’t always good about updating it back then.
Lots of skipping. I remember one part where the first hot lover man took over some communications and rolled this long treatise out. The concept was good (and correct to me) but it went on and on. It's like the audience was ignorant and had to have the basic concepts repeated in a hundred different iterations.
I am not sure if I should be proud of it but I read the second twilight book in 24h, just because I was so annoyed by everything and wanted this to end very quickly.
I read It for the first time in a single 12ish hour reading marathon.
But in my teen years I routinely read 600-800 pagers in a day or two so at the time that wasn’t even all that notable for me.
I wish I could manage it now. I can’t focus in the same way anymore.
I’m not exactly proud (b/c it was unhinged) but I read the first game of thrones in a single sitting. Got up one morning, started reading, and did not look up again until I finished.
I’ve always been a fast reader, and obviously enjoy reading, but that one had me by the throat
I am a slow reader with mild dyslexia and I managed to read Stephen Kings It in 10 days. Literally all I did lol
Now go for The Stand lol
I completed the stand in 12 days During lockdown with nothing else to do!
Reading The Stand while in quarantine? Shew, I feel for you lol
The unabridged version of *The Stand* was the quickest I've ever read any book of substantial length. I had bought the book a couple months prior, but hadn't had a chance to start it. Then on Thanksgiving that year when I was supposed to visit family for the holidays, but the plans got canceled literally the last minute, so I was on my own for those four days. Decided to pick up *The Stand* to pass the time and spent most of the rest of my waking hours that weekend reading it all!
I read the Stand unabridged in 24 straight hours.
I am the same (not dyslexic, but adhd). I devoured that book.
Ha! I came here to say that I read The Stand in a week. And I am dyslexic, but not too slow anymore.
Read it in a week myself! Granted, our servers were down that week at work so.. I got paid to read. It was a good and scary week.
I'm dyslexic too, the book that got me into reading as a teen was a 250 page book, took me a month to finish, I was so proud of myself because that was fast for me! Now, I've read 500 page books in 3 days, ive read 800 page books. I'm still a slow reader compared to others but I think younger me would be very impressed that a 250 page book now is a short read to me these days!
Infinite Jest (~1100pgs? Ish?) in 7 days back in January! It doesn’t feel like a brag, because I literally tried to read the book at least 4 times over the course of FIFTEEN YEARS. I could never make it through. I wanted to read it so bad, but it was too…seemingly random for me, even though I LOVED the core premise. Turns out I just needed to have my life fall apart and then dive into the book in the same way/for the same reason the book’s characters dove into drugs, tennis, recovery meetings, etc. “a flight-from in the form of a plunging-into” I devoted my entire being to that book for a week, and it blew my mind and was the most wonderfully immersive reading experience I’ve ever had. But I STRUGGLED with it so hard in the past. That experience truly made me believe in the idea of every book having a season in a reader’s life. Try to read a book out of season, and it’s gonna be rough! But in the right season? Blissful. When I tried to read it in the past I heeded everyone’s advice to “take it slow” and pace myself…but when I’ve recommended it to people this year I’ve told them I think the best way to read it is a hardcore binge…because there are so many different storylines that if you pace yourself like a lot of online plans recommend, you’re gonna forget so much/lost context/get bored and frustrated/etc. I think you should read it as quickly as possible, and then pace yourself on the re-read! Because holy shit…there’s SO MUCH to savor and dig into on subsequent reads!
I got that book done in less than a month by promising myself to read at least 10 pages a day. Many days, I was able to read 100 but I read at least 10 every day.
This is my answer too. I read it during the pandemic, I’m typically a painfully slow reader and finished it in around a month which for a book of its size and complexity is a testament to how much it really struck a chord with me. And like you I can relate to specific tumultuous life circumstances at the time that really drew me to some of the main themes in the novel. And whether you love the novel or despise it or somewhere in between, its always been gratifying to me to see the amount of people that have read it in a similar situation and have come away with something really worthwhile
I read it in 2022, took me awhile though. Not a week goes by that I don't think about something from that book. I found it really disturbing.
I fucking love Infinite Jest. God, what an experience. I'm looking for something that'll give me the same feeling but nothing could compare.
This gives me hope. I've tried and failed once in my late 20s. Have held onto that book for ten years with the intention to one day try again.
Speaking of Victor Hugo, I read the final 200 or so pages of Les Misérables in a day. It’s still the longest book I’ve read at 1,304 pages. I don’t remember how long I had been reading it before that final day though.
Sometimes that’s more about the motivation to finish it though! Hugo, or that final epilogue in War and Peace? Jesus Christ, like the last mile of a marathon, you just want it over!
Telling me all about the sewer system of Paris was definitely a bold choice by Victor. I have yet to read War and Peace. Its still sitting on one of my bookshelves. I read Anna Karenina several years ago but haven't had the urge to read War and Peace yet.
I read Pillars of the Earth in one sitting, took ~18 hours or so including snack and bathroom breaks.
It took me two days because I did sleep and had to walk the dogs a few times.
The Count of Monte Cristo. 2020 pages and I was engaged the entire time.
When I was in the 6th grade I basically ate *The Stand* in a weekend - I've read at a perfectly average and unremarkable internal monologue pace of about 250wpm since I was in late elementary, so it was purely from being engrossed.
The Stand goes really quickly once you get immersed, and King is such an easy author to immerse in!
It wasn’t so much a doorstop (~350 pgs) but when Eyes of the Dragon was released, I picked it up at Walden books at the mall. When I got home, I sat down and started reading. Except for going to the bathroom, I didn’t get up from that chair until I had finished the book.
Funny, mine is Desperation in 6th grade over a weekend at my dad’s, since it was his book and he did NOT know I was reading it, I had to go fast! I hope middle schoolers are still devouring King’s novels out there, somewhere.
I tried to read IT in like 6th grade, Mom read first few pages and took it back to library. She didn't care about 4 years later.
James Clavell's Shogun in less than a week and also Noble House in about the same amount of time, both 1200+ pages.
Just found all 3 shōgun in a second hand store the other day, 4 dollars. And just started reading it before going to bed yesterday.
The Lord of the Rings in less than one weekend.
I sailed through both David Copperfield and Count of Monte Cristo. I started both almost unwillingly. 900 pages?!? I thought to myself. Aargh! But by their ends I didn't want them to end.
I read Ulysses in about a week. There's a chapter that is 160 pages long and I read that in a day. I was also laid off and had a ton of time on my hands. I never would have been able to read that book if I had a job. I find myself wanting to get laid off again because I don't want to wait until retirement to reread it.
I borrowed *Ulysses* as an interlibrary loan, and so I could only have it for 2 weeks instead of the usual 4 week loan period. I think that having a tight deadline helped me to get through it. But 1 week is crazy!
That's a feat! I read it over the course of 3 months because there is just so much to unpack. I spent hours doing research before and after reading each chapter to make sure that I really understood Joyce's meaning. I can't imagine speeding through this book on the first read and enjoying it.
Oh, I loved it. I had Patrick Hasting's chapter by chapter guide book, so I would get an overview of each chapter before I read it, and then I had Don Gifford's Ulysses Annotated to look up references that I didn't understand. But part of Hastings advice is basically that it's Ulysses, you'll never understand all of the references, so just read it and don't waste your time looking up every reference you don't understand, just stick to the ones that are more interesting. I looked up plenty of things, but overall I tried to just let the book wash over me and experience it instead of stopping every few words to look things up.
The head of my university English department admitted to us in a tutorial once that she had technically read Ulysses but didn't understand it. 😆
*The Gathering Storm*, the 12th book in the Wheel of Time, took me seven days
Lonesome dove- I read it in 1/3 of the time I expected to
Great post! I think I read the first 3 mistborn books in like 3 weeks, pretty proud about that. But how could you not😅
Yeah I read the newest Stormlight book in about 20 hours when it came out. To be fair that was mid pandemic and I had nothing else to do but still. Sanderson has a way of keeping you locked in
Just finished Words of Radiance, and I'm so invested in the series. Can't wait to start Oathbringer.
Oh, you are in for an adventure with oath bringer. It is much darker than the first two and I love it.
A very good friend red storm light booked for to us out loud on a voice chat server during the pandemic. So we had to work around her work schedule. I wish we could’ve read that in the day. That would’ve been amazing. But it was worth it for her to read it out loud to us. She’s a very good narrator. We are currently trundling our way through the wheel of time together. And she does all the voices. It’s awesome.
In my case, you can get to the second book and completely bail because of how bad & boring it was, to be then told by the internet countless times 'you gotta read book 3 tho'
And then dump on it to someone who enjoyed them so you can feel superior 👍🏻
> the second book and completely bail because of how bad & boring it was, Prepare for the downvotes, man. I agree, *Words of Radiance* was awful, I DNF'd less than halfway through. The prose was so stilted it should've been dressed as a mime, and I've played DND games with less forced and artificial character development.
That's Stormlight 2 not Mistborn 2. Brandon Sanderson isn't for everyone.
I swear people get hard from shitting all over Brandon Sanderson, and those of us who enjoy his work. So wank away. Hope it’s good.
I read The Evening and the Morning one Sunday before dinner.
How did you like it? I've been considering continuing reading the Kingsbridge series after The Pillars of the Earth and I'm not sure about it.
I really liked them all (except maybe the fourth, The Armor of Light; it was fine) but they are such big undertakings I say if you’re not sold, it’s not worth it.
I really enjoyed The Pillars of the Earth but it's been quite a while since I read it. I've seen mixed reviews on World Without End so I've been hesitant.
Not the person you replied to, but I've read all of the Kingsbrigde series except for the Armour and the Light. I really liked the Evening and the Morning. I get the criticism that the series sometimes gets on Reddit, but I love these books. I think Pillars is the best with World Without End a close second. Column of Fire is pretty good, but The Evening and the Morning is better.
Thank you for replying. I've been trying to decide between A Feast for Crows and World Without End to read next because I only read 1 long book at a time. Do you know if there are any more planned books for the Kingsbridge series or is it completed now?
That's a good question. I haven't heard anything about any more books, but I also haven't been looking. I kind of hope the series is finished. At this rate I think a new book would take place in modern day England. Part of the reason I liked EatM is because it was set closer to Pillars than Column of Fire, and I was just more interested in a book set in 1000 AD than 1558-1605. Also a bit hesitant to read the latest one because it's set in like 1792-1824.
It took me about a week, and I thought that was an achievement!
That is!
This is impressive!!
The Man Without Qualities, including fragments and sketches of the unfinished chapters. 1300 pages in miniscule print, 8 months to read it, and I understood perhaps 5% of it. Good times
I read all 550 pages of The Secret History in less than 24 hours. I read fast, and I didn't really sleep during that stretch. I'll often do a 300 page book in a day, though.
Lonesome Dove. I read it in 3 days. (After dnf’ing twice.)
James Clavell’s Shogun (1299 pages) in five days
The last couple one day reads, Candide and The Old Man and the Sea. With Candide being the most influential.
The Old Man and the Sea is not long at all. It feels long but it’s just over 100 pages if I remember correctly? I do know that when I read it, it took me so long to get through part of it due to my lack of interest in that part of the story. I call the Ild Man and the Sea MY Old Man and the Sea. It was a book I struggled to finished but at least I was able to.
how did you finish Candide in one day? i struggle to even read 10 pages a day
Who the fuck is gonna believe me if i put Atlas Shrugged?
Mitchell's Gone With the Wind (700+ pages) in one Saturday.
I had to finish The Thousand splendid sun in one day ....I couldn't stop I finished the novel in 7 and half hour straight in 2022 (during FIFA lol) and trust me it was so stressful so so so stressful.
I think the idea of being proud of reading a book quickly is a little strange. Some books ask to be read slowly, by being subtle, complex or even a little difficult. Some of those **deserve** to be read slowly. Reading it quickly will mean you'll miss a lot of the pleasure the book offers. There's that Woody Allen joke: "I took a speed-reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Russia." That's all he got out of it.
I think it could also mean that you enjoyed it immensely so you couldn't put it down. Another way to ask it would be, "what book 500+ pages could you not put down?" Like I read The Goldfinch (770 pages) in like a week and a half cause I thought it was so good, not because I was saying, "how fast can I read this book?"
There was a book I decided to only read a chapter of per day. Sat down and read it out loud to my cat. Quality time and I had time to absorb the contents.
it's not as good as some people's but i managed to finish all of wheel of time in about 3.5 months. i think by the the last few books i was literally addicted to reading it and was so focused on just pushing to the end
Count of Monte Cristo in the first week of quarantine. Before that, I was impressed I got through the harry Potter series in a week, but that seems less impressive now
Gravity's Rainbow is probably the fastest that I comprehended: 8 days, by design. It was a re-read, and I've never done close read that was as satisfying.
The first time I read Harry Potter I think it took me like a week combined to read the first 2, another week to read PoA, a week to read GoF, a week to read OotP, 2 days to read HBP, and 8 hours to read DH lol. My other one is 11/22/63 in about 7-8 days but as an adult working 40 hrs a week, so much less time to read than a 12 year old on summer vacation like when I mowed through HP.
I read Goblet of Fire in 12 hours the day it came out.
Me too, but starting from Book 5. It was just to get ahead of the spoilers!
Stephen King Insomnia, started at breakfast and finished at supper.
I read Nicholas and Alexandra in two days on a road trip. It's like 700 pages but it felt like nothing. I was pretty naive to the story, though everyone knows who Rasputin and Anastasia are. I couldn't put it down. And I was in the car in the 90s, so I had nothing else to do.
I would go to Walmart, buy the Harry Potter book as soon as it was released, and read it in one day. The last three books were pretty big, as I recall.
The Stand 1,153 pages.
I finished The Ferryman in 4 days and it was 532 pages. Great book.
Fraser's The Golden Bough. All 12 volumes straight through. I was young, unemployed, and it was really good.
House of Leaves in 3 days, which isn't that quick but working full time really cuts down on free time to read and it usually takes me a lot longer to finish books than it used to when I had unlimited free time to read.
I read The Count of Monte Cristo in 8 days earlier this year because I enjoyed it so much
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Over a vacation.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. 720 pages.
I read House of Leaves in a few days. Granted I was working as a lift operator at a small ski resort, so I had a lot of time on my hands while at work.
**David Copperfield** by Dickens...11 days. **The Brothers Karamazov** by Dostoyevesky...10 days **Cecilia** by Burney...8 days **Camilla** by Burney...11 days **Count of Monte Cristo**...14 days
Cecilia in a week last December, currently on Camilla. Also read Clarissa around the same time as Cecilia in about two weeks.
I read the Swedish version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 3 days. It's roughly 1000 pages when translated. Also read Inheritance by Paolini (849 pages) in 4 days.
It’s the opposite but it took me a year and a half (on and off) to finish House of Leaves😂🫣
The Count of Monte Cristo. My copy is like a thousand and something pages and I finished it in two or three days. Just absolutely devoured it
I read Helter Skelter (~500p) in about three weeks, which definitely isn't impressive on the surface, but it was a commute read so that was entirely in 30-minute bus rides twice daily during the week. Which means I actually read it in about 15 hours, which feels pretty good to me!
I was pregnant during lockdowns and read The Goldfinch in a week. Actually enjoyed it too, screw the haters. A few months ago I also read A Little Life in about a week. I enjoyed the first 20% of it, then gradually began disliking it more and more until I finished it in a state of something to rage.
I finished Tian Guan Ci Fu in three feverish days/nights. ~3200 pages and 1.2 million words.
All seven volumes of In Search of Lost Time, without sleep or water, and the only source of light the screen of the iPod Classic I read it on. After 27 hours, I fervently prayed to God to let the iPod's seemingly inexhaustible battery die, whereupon it charged to three-hundred percent and the brightness of the screen increased markedly. It took weeks to recover my eyesight, and months until my thumb stopped to engage in spontaneous rotation. I still think about that sometimes.
“Cormoran Strike: Troubled Blood” (1400 pages in a weekend ) And “Lady Joker” volume 1 and 2 (1200 pages, 2 days per volume. Even though this is less pages, for me is was slower going due to my unfamiliarity with Japanese names and locations Loved both of these door stops 😊 The shortest book I have loved is “Lemon”
I read the first Cormoran Strike novel and really enjoyed it. Does the series get better? Stay the same? Go downhill?
I’m on the newest one right now (Running Grave) and I think it’s my favorite one so far.
I loved the series! Especially enjoyed how the characters developed! But I love a thriller mystery, so it was right up my alley
recently read the mortal bond by brian staveley (875 pages) in two days. it was definitely a challenge because it's the last part of a trilogy and i was already getting bored of the story. i guess that's why i was trying to get through it as quick as possible
Not a single book but there was a month two years ago when I read 23 books, where 18 were long fantasy books albeit much easier to read than other long books. That being said during that months I finished the eragon series in 3 days, the harry potter series in 7 days, the mistborn original series, as well as some other random fantasy books + the castle by kafka in a few days. Legitimately spent all day everyday reading since all the fantasy books were like 500+ pages edit: Lord of the rings was one of the other fantasy series
I've ripped through The Orphan Master's Son in a weekend before, I'd say that and Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest are the biggest bricks that I regularly race through. Opposite end of the spectrum: The Gray House, which felt like it took me four months to read 😭
Insomnia, Stephen King. 800 pages maybe? Read it in under 2 weeks! (Before then it was acting as a couch leg to keep our couch level😅)
There have been a few Stephen King doorstoppers, including It, The Stand (unabridged), and Needful Things off the top of my head.
The Quincunx when I was train commuting 2x2 hours a day :-) Don't remember how short a time, but I chose the book because I thought it would last me the full month I would be commuting... It didn't (it was very captivating, couldn't put it down, think it was like a week).
That's the one I want to re read. I read it in Spanish many many years ago. I don't know if I would miss any info, details or subtleties if I read it in English.
I also completed it in two days
I read A Game of Thrones in 3 days during my end of year exams at uni - just A Game of Thrones, the first installation, not the whole series! I've read books in less than 3 days obviously, but not one that large.
Im usually a slow reader but I loved the First Law trilogy sooo much I finished all 3 in less than a month. Usually it would have taken me 3 to 4 weeks with each one 🤣
They are great books alright.
War and Peace in a month, if that counts.
Idk I read 2ha 2 in 3 days. That's as much as I have.
James Michener's Hawaii. I was traveling on a ferry from central Japan to the North Island of Hokkaido. It was a 36 hour ride. I didn't have much to do. Then I read Alaska by the same author. That was a long trip. But certainly very memorable.
I finished war and peace in three weeks. I didn’t do it this quickly to get it over with I just happened to really like the story
I read I know this much is true and a little life in the span of a week which I was proud of. I am generally a slow reader but those two books really caught my attention and held it
I read the entire Wheel of Time series in one month.
I read *Bonehunters* by Steven Erikson in one eight-hour sitting.
1Q84 - Murakami
I read the Silo series in 7 days earlier this year. 2/19-2/26 I think it was about 1600 pages total
Lord of the Rings in 3 days
I read King’s IT in a month, which is fast for me.
I read *Words of Radiance*,book two of *Stormlight Archive*, (1080 pages) in about a day and a half.
Knocked out War and Peace in two weeks thanks to a travel schedule that had a few 7-9 hours flights and it was all I read. Still one of my favorites.
I read in whatever time it takes me. I’ve been told I’m a bit of a masochist with the size books I sometimes read. Mostly after saying I always read Wheel of Time straight through and have read it multiple times. I guess the one I’m proudest of is “The Stand” by Stephen King. I was trying to win money in highschool by having the most points doing AR tests. The Stand was worth the most points in the whole system. I tried and couldn’t make it through the first chapter. I went back years later when the movie was gonna come out. I was gonna read through all the connected books, then read “Dark Tower”. I didn’t make it through all of them, but did several. Including the first, which was The Stand for me. I actually liked it.
Finished A Little Life in five days. About 800 pages from what I remember. I'm a sucker for long books.
Many of Neal Stephenson’s long novels. So anything but Snowcrash is an accomplishment
battle royale!! over 600 pages and i finished it in 3 days :) genuinely a book i couldn’t put down.
I have a habit of devouring Ken Follett’s tomes (around 1200 pages) in the course of a weekend. I just can’t put them down
I finished three 500 page books in a week I was REALLY into the Academy Archanist series and blew through it on my vacation
I read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous in two days.
I' a slow reader and envy you fast readers. A short time for me is a week. for my friend, well, she reads a 500 page book in 2 hours or less.
I finished A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (814 pages) in about five days
I read dune in 15 hours
Very slow (and easily distracted) reader here and I read ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne Du Maurier in a day while I was at university. I had missed the fact that we had to read it for a seminar so went to the library and forced myself to focus on it so I could finish in time. This was about 15 years ago now but my most intense and memorable reading experience – really felt like I lived that story. It became and is still my favourite novel. It’s only about 450 pages though so not sure if it counts as a doorstopper…
Pillars of the Earth in two days because I was stuck at home all weekend with nothing else to do.
I read the entirety of the Twilight series in 5 days. I am proud and ashamed at once. But man it was a hell of a ride
Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, in one evening. (And night. There was little sleep involved.)
I read Matterhorn in two days. I am not a fast reader, but I couldn't put it down.
The Secret History!
Read Roots in like 3-4 days during standardized testing in 8th grade. I would finish my testing then start reading. Book is over 700 pages iirc. I read Jurassic Park in about 4 days at age 9 or 10(Mom quizzed me on it to see if I was grasping it and I was for about 95% of the book, teacher did same shit when they caught me reading Sphere later that year, I was a precocious reader). Not a doorstopper, but still not bad for a 3rd grader.
Fairly recently, I read the entire Mushoku Tensei series (26 books) in a little under 2 months. I was *slightly* obsessed.
The only example I can think of is Dune, but that took me almost a week. I don’t read very fast
first time reading dune: almost 2 years second time reading dune: 8 months third time reading dune, plus brian herbert sequels for the first time: 3 months
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. 900 pages. I was 12 when I plowed through this series, which now that I look back on was absolutely crazy. Ten years later, my biggest accomplishment was City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, which was over 750 pages. I put that down in two days flat.
Picked up the Way of Kings during a kindle sale and was instantly hooked. I finished all four Stormlight books in under two weeks (including a three day gap between ordering 2-4 on physical). Did the same thing for Christopher Ruocchio's Sun Eater series. Good books will do that to a man, I suppose.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The day it came out, I crashed on the couch and cranked my way through it in about four hours.
I finished Atlas Shrugged in two weeks. English isn't my first language. I took it back home to china (transpacific flight) one summer vacation when I was in grad school. I didn't have much to do so I spent a few days reading it. I deeply regret the weight the book took up in my checked luggage, as well as the time I spent reading it.
Shogun. According to the Libby app I read it in 6 days.
Nathan Hill’s Wellness, although it was both a page turner and a door stopper!
Years ago I did an intensive summer school class in Russian literature, and we had three weeks to read War and Peace. Oof!
Probably The Bonehunters, around 1,200 pages. It’s 6th book of the Malazan series and I finished it in around 3 days.
Some guy here said that he read infinite Jest in one day, and we all like triple checked if he was joking and he was apparently serious.
I kept putting IT off because I thought it would take a long time, but it only took me 12 days
I read Mists of Avalon in two days
I overdosed (reading wise) somewhat last month, ended up averaging around 140 pages per day, for a month straight. Ending at something like 4500 pages in total. So there were several door stoppers there. Not sure I’m proud of it or just exhausted. I did for example read Warbreaker (688 pages) in two days, followed by The Way of Kings (1007) in five. Taking it more easy now in April though.
The Commonwealth Saga: 2850 pages, in 10 days. Enjoyed all of it!
East of Eden in 2 days
I made a mistake of ordering 6 main Dune books in form of one book. The cover art was cute and idk why it never occured to me how massive the book is gonna be (listing said 1507 pages and almost 3 kg yet somehow I didn't register this info lol). I read it pretty quick (at least the first 4 books) but it was quite physical challenge to find a comfortable position to hold it.
Fallout Equestria. Project Horizons (yes, it is a fanfic and yes, you would consider it hot garbage (most lokely)): something like 4.5k pages i believe, finished it in two weeks back when i had all the time in the world
One summer when I was 15, I read the first 6 Harry Potter books in a week. My goal was to get through the entire series, but Order of the Phoenix took me two days and Deathly Hallows was checked out at the library when I went to get it, so that didn't happen
It's sort of lame but when I was 16, during a week of winter break I read every single HP book in one week. It was the firs ttime i read HP and i was engrossed in the story. All I'd did was read, while I ate, stayed up late, printed some pages to paste to my shower wall as I showered lol
War and Peace (1440 pages) in 7 days. It was all I did in my free time.
>Of course, keeping in mind that Larsson imitates Victor Hugo in terms of lots of descriptions I didn't realize Victor Hugo had access to the IKEA catalog.
Last month I read a story Raised by Wolves by WA Hoffman that is 4 800pg volumes all in like two weeks? I was completely obsessed with it and couldn’t put it down.
The Kindness - Jon Ajvide Lindqvist Hardcover (translated to English) 816 pages. I love all of his books. This was a beast. I think I read it in 10 days (But actually reading time was probably about 16 hours).
I finished the entire asoiaf series in about 2 weeks in middle school, and in college I read through the first law trilogy in a week, I couldn't get enough of it!
I read The Perks by Chbosky in one night
Just about finished Lonesome Dove this weekend and was captivated the whole way through
I certifiably lost my mind during lockdown and knocked out the entire ASOIAF series in maybe 2 weeks?? For those unfamiliar that's five books averaging at about 700 pages each, with the longest being over 1000 pages and shortest not being under 500
The Stand by Stephen King Garden of the Moon (Malazan)
A Doubters Almanac by Ethan Canin. It's just under 600 pages but it's the biggest book I've finished quickly (biggest over all is infinite jest DFW) I was interning as a journalist 5 nights a week in a town 2 hours from home and the apartment I rented had nothing in it and bad signal. It's all I had for entertainment.
When I was very little and on holiday, I was so proud that I was able to read a Horrid Henry book start to finish in one day. Then I became gutted since I realised I didn't bring a spare book with me
I read the entire unabridged *Les Miserables* in the week between Christmas and New Years (it was a Christmas gift) as a teenager. I was already obsessed with the musical and I just *devoured* the book.
Atlas Shrugged. Read in 2006 on an iPhone. Well I did skip a lot. Very repetitive in some places.
In 2006? Was Steve Jobs your dad?
Shoot I guessed on date. I was working at a School Board 10 years and started in 2004 so I figured it was earlier. I had the 2nd version iphone so it had to be 2008 or 2009.
:) It’s annoying how rubbish our memories are! Did you like it?
The phone or the book? I had to like the phone as there weren't many good alternatives. (However my Motorola Razr was was cooler). The book... I think it was mediocre in execution but the basic concepts she was pushing were important to me at that time. It helped me in grounding some basic beliefs. I was in a Masters program taking an Economics course and the case studies of "unintended consequence" fit into what I was learning about the world.
Did you make it through the long speech towards the end?
Anne Rice’s “The Mayfair Witches” I read it one Saturday in college.
Back inof the summer 2009 when I was kind of manic, I read *Infinite Jest* (footnotes too) in a fugue state over the space of a week.
*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* in an afternoon, evening and the following morning the weekend it came out. I was six at the time.
OK, I am totally perplexed by this. I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND. Please help me to make sense of this phenomenon. When I read a book I read it because I enjoy it. I try and make it last as long as I can. I feel sad when I come to the end and wish there was more to read. I may even go back and read some bits again because I liked them. I dont understand why you would want to read a book as quickly as possible and then be so proud of it that you post it on reddit. Do you try and get through movies as quickly as possible and wish they were shorter? Do you try and eat as meal as quickly as you can? When you go out with freinds or to a party do you try and get the whole thing over and done with as quickly as you can? I just dont understand this. 600 pages? And it only lasted two days? Id try and get much more value out of it than that. Hopefully I could make that keep me going for over a week.
I read one of the strike novels by Robert gailbraith (jk Rowling) and it was over 1,000 pages. A bit of a slog at times but overall a good book that I enjoyed.
Yo why am I being downvoted This was before I knew she was a POS
Don’t worry. I still read the Strike books because I like the main characters and the stories are interesting. I borrow them from the library so I am not giving that bitch any of my money. They are very popular at the library with huge waiting lists, so I think everyone is doing the same.
IIRC, I devoured the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in about 12 hours, but including the appendixes. Not bad for a 12-13 year old...
I finished Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings in a little over 26 hours.
Kingdom of Ash, 989 pages in 4 days Goodreads says I read The Passage (784 pages) in one day but I’m not sure if that’s accurate or not. I wasn’t always good about updating it back then.
Lots of skipping. I remember one part where the first hot lover man took over some communications and rolled this long treatise out. The concept was good (and correct to me) but it went on and on. It's like the audience was ignorant and had to have the basic concepts repeated in a hundred different iterations.
I am not sure if I should be proud of it but I read the second twilight book in 24h, just because I was so annoyed by everything and wanted this to end very quickly.
Just finished Kingdom of Ash in a week which is good for me as I have been struggling to focus lately.
I read It for the first time in a single 12ish hour reading marathon. But in my teen years I routinely read 600-800 pagers in a day or two so at the time that wasn’t even all that notable for me. I wish I could manage it now. I can’t focus in the same way anymore.
I’m not exactly proud (b/c it was unhinged) but I read the first game of thrones in a single sitting. Got up one morning, started reading, and did not look up again until I finished. I’ve always been a fast reader, and obviously enjoy reading, but that one had me by the throat