Let’s face it, sometimes you see a book and get intimidated by the number of pages it has. The thought of reading every page makes you feel lazy to even begin.
This is a truth about reading and why most people don’t generally read. It’s not that they don’t like consuming information, it’s that reading as a way to consume it, makes it less desirable for them.
One question I saw that made me want to write this article is: “How long does it take to read a 300 page book?”.
This got me thinking and i therefore decided to come up with this entire article addressing that one question and other things surrounding it.
With that said, How long does it take to read a 300 page book?
Reading a 300 page book can take anywhere between 8 to 25 hours if it’s done continuously without factoring in things that would interrupt or interfere in the process.
If you’re reading casually on the other hand, it can take you around 4 to 7 days to finish a 300 page book.
With all this said, the average reader reads one book a month. This should be another consideration for someone looking for a time frame in which they would averagely finish a book that long.
How you can read a 300 page book faster
Below are some techniques you can use to get through a 300 page book faster.
Figure out the total number of pages
Well the very first thing you have to do is understand and figure out what you’re up against. Never go into a book without knowing this.
So, step 1 is to figure out just how many pages the book you’re trying to read has. For the purpose of this post, we are looking at something around 300 pages.
Factor in blank pages, preface pages, acknowledgements, dedications etc.
After doing so, see how many pages you have left after you subract the irrelevant or less important pages from the total pages in the overall book.
This is necessary for the next step because, you’re going to need to be surgical and technical to pull off a full-proof strategy to read 300 pages.
Figure out how quickly you have to finish the book
Now that we are done with the first step, we basically have a good idea of the actual number of pages that have to be read.
In this case we can now gladly go to the second step which is involves you figuring out how fast you need to finish the book.
Reading is not always pleasure reading or casual.
At times it is necessary/important reading for either work, school and other things. With this in mind, how much time you need to spend on a book has to be in accordance with how much time you can afford to the reading itself.
For example, if you’re reading for work purposes or for school you’ll in most cases be tied to a deadline.
So you won’t have that much time to spend on reading.
If its casual reading however, you can afford to spend as much time as you need on a book.
So let’s take the theme of this article and say you have to read 300 pages.
Knowing how much time you need to spend reading that many pages is very crucial because it will have a lot to do with you coming up with a formula for your reading.
which brings me to the next step.
Read for an hour
Now that we have two steps done I.e. we have the actual number of pages present in the book as well as the amount of time that we have to spend on reading.
We can move forward and start testing things.
What you have to do here is basically read for an hour.
I advise you to do so with no distractions. If you have a feeling you’re going to get distracted then try and split your hour into two 30 minute reading sessions.
Once you do this, you can now move on to the next step.
See how many pages you read within the hour
Reading for an hour can of course be a challenge especially if you’re not used to frequent reading.
But don’t let that discourage you, it can be done.
All you need to do is just try and maintain some focus and follow the plan I’m giving to you here.
With that said, see how many pages you read within the hour.
At most it will be a couple of pages, but you still need to take account of the number it is very useful in determining your reading speed.
Knowing your particular reading speed is important because it will be helpful in determining and coming up with your formula.
Make the formula
Now that you have all the above mentioned information, you can go ahead and come up with a formula.
First things first, by now you should have read for an hour and figured out how many pages you read within that hour.
With that you can determine the number of pages you can read in an hour.
For example if you read 60 pages you can easily do the math:
Pages read ÷ Time spent reading = Number of pages per hour.
60 pages ÷ 60 minutes = 1 Page per minute.
This can be helpful for the next step.
Schedule times to read
Once you know how many pages you can read in an hour or minutes. You can easily figure out how much time it would take you to read and finish say, 300 pages.
Using the math above, we can easily determine that reading 300 pages would take around 5 hours if you’re able to read 60 pages in an hour.
Once you have this information you can easily come up with a way to read strategically to achieve your objectives or meet your deadlines.
What to consider
Reading 300 pages of a book is no easy challenge and it primarily depends on a number of things.
These various things have to be considered to ensure that reading is done in line with them.
So let’s get into each of these factors.
The complexity of the material
Not all books are the same. Some will take a lot more effort to read than others, this in itself is the reason why reading 300 pages would seem like an easy thing with an easy book or something extremely difficult with a more complex book.
Reading simpler material will of course be easier for you while complex material will be more difficult to handle. It takes a certain level of skill to read certain material.
All in all, there’s no magic pill to reading a book. It takes effort, your one job is figuring out just how much effort you need for any book that you intend to read.
Your schedule
Your schedule is another thing that will impact how long it takes you to read a 300 page book.
Not everyone has the time to make reading a huge part of their day. Very few people factor it into their schedules, especially those with busy lives.
Therefore, while it may take 10 hours to finish reading 300 pages for one person, it may just as easily take a month for others.
Therefore, like I said in the beginning of this article, there are a lot of things to factor in before we can confidently figure out how long it would take to read 300 pages of a book.
Deadline or no deadline
Another thing that matters with most reading is deadlines.
If you’re working under a deadline and you have to read a book so you can effectively carry out whatever it is you’re working on.
It may be easier to get through 300 pages pretty easily.
Deadlines have a unique effect on people and in most cases people work the hardest when they face a deadline.
So that’s another factor we have to take into consideration.
The goal
One of the questions you have to ask yourself any time you attempt to read a book is; “what do I want to gain from this book?”
Sometimes you’ll read for pleasure, other times you’ll read for work and knowing this from the get go is helpful in figuring out how much time to spend on a book.
For example, if you’re looking to learn something new and practical through reading likeexample computer programming.
It’s obviously going to take you a lot of time to get through your material because you’ll most likely read and take some action like get on your computer to try what you just read.
With this example we can easily figure out that the goal of reading is important in figuring out how much time will be spent on reading.
Final Thoughts
Reading a 300 page book can take anywhere between 8 to 25 hours if it’s done continuously without factoring in things that would otherwise interrupt or interfere in the process.
If you’re basically reading casually on the other hand, it can take you around 4 to 7 days or longer to finish a 300 page book.
Additional Articles You Should Read
How Long Should You Read A Day?
How Much Smarter Does Reading 100 books In 1 Year Actually Make You?
Can I Say I Read A Book If I Listened To It?
Helpful Resources
How Long Does It Take to Read 300 Pages? – Capitalize My Title
How Long Does It Take to Read 300 Pages of a Book? – The Art Of Living
Reading non-stop, how long does it take you to read a 300 page book – Goodreads
