Again, it’s a struggle. I have so many books, and I keep acquiring so many books, that I just want to read all of them all at the same time. Like seriously. I want to read about fifteen books at the same time just to say I’ve read them. But then I’d confuse worlds and characters and not really enjoy or follow what’s going on in the story.

Anyway, I think I got off track a little. The thing is, I’m a slow reader by some peoples’ standards. It can take me days to finish a book that is 300-500 pages where it can take some people only several hours over the course of one day.

But hey, we’re all different, right? We can’t all read at the same speed.

I do compare my own reading habits to others on Booktube and the reading community, I will admit that. Some people can read twelve or more books in a month, and I’m struggling just trying to finish four. And I really, really want to finish all the books I list on my TBR, but sometimes I just really don’t want to read or I really do and I just can’t get into the book or something.

These past two months since the new year started I’ve listed at least six books per month for my TBRs, but so far I’m discovering I’m only able to read an average of four per month. That’s not a horrible feat, really, and in retrospect it’s fantastic considering I just got back into reading last year. But the thing about reading slowly or slower than others is that I’m not able to accomplish certain goals I may set for myself in a month or even a year. I’m trying, though.

If I’m really into a book, though, I can fly through it. Like when I read “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, I literally flew through it in seven hours. That’s the fastest I’ve read a novel in a long, long time. (I think the time before that, the fastest I read a novel was in ten hours and that was when I first read “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” when I got it for my 20th birthday.)

On average, for a 300-500 page book, I think that it takes me well over 10-15 hours to read over a span of days, unless I’m really into the book, as I said. But I have been noticing I average 40-50 pages for every hour I read. On occasion I can get in about 75 pages in that time, but not often. So if it’s a 500 page book and I read 50 pages per hour, then I’ll finish it in ten hours. That’s not bad, but I typically don’t have ten hours to a day where I can just read and read, and oftentimes I find myself wanting to do other things a lot more than just reading.

That’s not necessarily bad, but I do want to improve and read more. I have a crap ton of books on my TBR that I want to get through, and reading slowly can hinder that.

But by reading slowly I’m also able to take in more of the world and characters that I’m reading about. That’s one of the perks I like to reading. If I read too fast I feel like I’m not getting anything out of the book and I’m just reading it to read it. But other times I feel like I read too slow and I still don’t get a lot out of it. Finding the right speed is key, but the world and story and characters also have to draw me in, too.

It’s a push-pull, but I’ll find the balance eventually.

Are you a slow reader? On average, how long does it take you to finish a book? How many books are you able to read per month?