Amol B
Work it out for your book
Enter the page count, pick the kind of book, and say how many minutes a day you actually read. The calculator gives the total reading time and the calendar days to finish.
Reading time calculator
How long does it take to read 100, 200, 300 or 500 pages?
| Pages | Novel (45 pp/h) | Dense non-fiction (28 pp/h) | At 30 min a night, novel | At 60 min a night, novel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 2.2 hours | 3.6 hours | 5 days | 3 days |
| 200 | 4.4 hours | 7.1 hours | 9 days | 5 days |
| 300 | 6.7 hours | 10.7 hours | 14 days | 7 days |
| 400 | 8.9 hours | 14.3 hours | 18 days | 9 days |
| 500 | 11.1 hours | 17.9 hours | 23 days | 12 days |
| 800 | 17.8 hours | 28.6 hours | 36 days | 18 days |
Calendar days assume six reading days a week. Seven-day readers finish about 14% sooner; five-day readers take about 20% longer.
Why do estimates vary so much?
Because "a page" is not a unit. A mass-market paperback packs 350 words on a page; a hardback with generous margins carries 250; an academic text carries 450 and demands rereading. The same 300 pages can be five hours or fifteen. That is why the calculator asks what kind of book it is, and why minutes-a-day is a fairer unit for goals than pages-a-day. If you want your own numbers, the five-minute reading speed test gives you a pages-per-hour figure for the books you actually read.
How long does it take to read a book a week?
For 300-page books, about an hour a day. For 200-page books, forty minutes. Most people who read a book a week do it with two anchors — a commute and a bedtime slot — rather than one long session, and they mix lengths so a doorstop is followed by something short. The 52-books-a-year guide does the arithmetic properly.
What about audiobooks?
Narration runs at about 150–160 words a minute, so a 300-page book is nine to ten hours of audio at normal speed, six to seven at 1.5x. Listening is slower than reading for most people, which surprises them; the advantage is that listening fits into time reading cannot — the commute, the kitchen, the walk.
Common questions
How long does it take to read 300 pages?
About six to seven hours for a novel, ten or more for dense non-fiction. At half an hour a night, roughly two weeks.
How long does it take to read a 200-page book?
Around four and a half hours for ordinary prose — about nine evenings at half an hour, or five at an hour.
How many hours a day should I read to finish a book a week?
About an hour a day for 300-page books, less for shorter ones. Two half-hour anchors work better than one hour block for most people.
How long is a 300-page audiobook?
Nine to ten hours at normal speed; six to seven at 1.5x. Narration is slower than most people's silent reading.
Why does the same book take me longer than the estimate?
Words per page, rereading and tiredness. Dense books and small type roughly double the time; reading at 11pm after a long day adds more. Measure your own pace on the kind of book you read.
How can I read a book faster?
Read more often rather than faster. Speed-reading techniques trade comprehension for pace; two twenty-minute sessions a day finish more books than any technique.
