Ever read an entire book in one day?

Bodhidharma

I'm out of work due to illness since Tuesday, and as you can imagine, its fairly boring. Yesterday i watched DVDs for the day, but i'd already seen them before so it was a pointless waste of time.

Today i decided i wanted to do something i'd never done before. Read an entire book in one sitting. I went down to the library and picked up Haruki Murakami's "A Wild Sheep Chase". Its 300 pages and his writing style is very easy going and relaxing, so its the perfect choice.

After two hours reading i realised that reading all of it in one sitting is unrealistic, i decided a day would be sufficient. So i'm now on page 200, i will finish it later.

Just wondering if anyone has read a book in one sitting, or if not, perhyaps one day?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

I was recommended by an english teacher years ago to do it. He said it was very satisfying, but i've never tried it myself, nor do i know anyone that has.

Plenty, but short ones like maybe a Steinbeck or The Little Prince.

arbeitsscheuer

*Sigh* I read the Da Vinci Code in 6 hours.


I want those 6 hours back. Terribly written book. Quite spectacularly over-rated.

But meh, at least I didn't spend too much time on it.

BossArky

-The Little Prince.

-That Discworld book where Vimes goes to Uberwald with lots of werewolfs, dwarfts and vampires around the place.

- Ann and Barry do Dublin.

Tar.Aldarion

Oh yes...a lot.
I used to go through eight books on average every three weeks growing up.
I read last two books of the Black Magician Trilogy in one day a few months back and the first one the day before.


Very satisfying, but I hate when a book is finished.

motrocco

Loads of books read a day.

I would agree with Seb, felt let down!

SebtheBum wrote:

*Sigh* I read the Da Vinci Code in 6 hours.
I want those 6 hours back. Terribly written book. Quite spectacularly over-rated.

matrim

I've done it a good few times.
When I first read The Wheel of Time, I went through 4 of the books in 3 days.
I was in school at the time aswell so only got to read at night.
I think I ended up only getting about 2 hours sleep a night while I was reading them.

Tar.Aldarion

Oh how I remember the sleepless nights in school.
Great memories. Ruined my eyes though.

Merrick

I'll admit that I read the 6th Harry Potter in a matter of hours.
Ditto the Da Vinci Code.
I could have wasted time in a much better way but no...

humbert

Most recently read "The curious incident of the dog in the night" in a day, and the "Da Vinci Code" it's not a good book, simply it has all the properties of a hollywood movie, simple and shallow but fast paced and entertaining, it is over rated but it's far from the worst book out there.

Tree

used to have more time to do it before but its a great way to read a brilliant book. most of the booksd i read before i turned sixteen were in a single sitting, then work started to get in the way so it now only happens if im sick or travellling long distances (not by car)

John

On holidays I think my rate is 1.3 books a day. I ran out of books and spent the last day calculating!

simu

It's certainly possible with certain styles of writing or if it's a very short book, obviously! I try to have a mix of fast and slow reads to keep my book costs down, though!

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Blush_01

As a kid I had a 5 or 6 books a weekend turnover. I used my two tickets and my mother's four in the library. The librarian would refuse to stamp my books until I was actually leaving because I'd sit in the library and read through my pile of books and have to get new ones checked out by the time I was leaving, which made more work for her.

It's immensely satisfying.

tbh

I've done it loads as well, most usually with popular fiction - DVC, the curious incident, any of the Ross O'carrol-kelly books, true crime books etc. My g'fs dad has a good library, and whenever I go there, I start a book on sat and finish it before we come home on Sunday. The first adult book I ever read in one day was "Wiseguy" which was made into the move Goodfellas. I read "The Pillars Of the Earth" in about 5 days, but I was up till 3am every night reading it.

Procrastinator

Anyone read the Kid's book Holes?
A friend lent it to me and its terrific. I couldn't put it down and it has some fantastic twists.
I heard that it's also been made into a movie with Sigourney Weaver as the lead. I'd love to see it. Anyone had the pleasure?

Faerie

I almost always finish books in a day! I read the last three Harry Potter books in a few hours. If a book is good I just don't like to put it down- I have a slightly obsessive personality! Although if I'm reading a book for a second, third, hundredth time then I normally spread it out over a couple of days.

BMH

Procrastinator wrote:

Anyone read the Kid's book Holes?
A friend lent it to me and its terrific. I couldn't put it down and it has some fantastic twists.
I heard that it's also been made into a movie with Sigourney Weaver as the lead. I'd love to see it. Anyone had the pleasure?

I read it too but haven't seen the movie either. None of Sachar's other books are as good, but are still worth a read as they're quite different.

goo

Yeah it's brilliant, day feels like it melts by it's brilliant. I'd only do it when I was off school/college/work though because even if it doesn't literally take the whole day for me it feels like it's a day's worth of doing things.

amp

I read Neal Stephensons Confusion (part 2 of The Baroque Cycle) in a day. It was about 16 hours but it's my favourite.

impr0v

I read Francis Fukuyama's latest book in 4 hours, as I was giving it to a friend as a present that evening.

Sarky

Yesterday I read Fool On The Hill by Matt Ruff (interesting book, worth a read) in 4-5 hours. I've managed to read book one of the Wheel Of Time in a single sitting, and one or two others I can't recall right now (I go through infrequent bouts of feverish reading).

It is quite satisfying to do. I'm going to start on the Malazan Books soon and see just how quickly I can get my way through them...

Dudess

Early one morning when I was 15 and sick in bed with a throat infection, I decided to do something I'd been putting off for quite a while because I had been too scared – read Nineteen Eighty-Four. I finished it around 12.30 that night. I think "life-changing" is the term one would use to describe that particular experience.
The only other book I've read in one day (actually a few hours in this case) was by the same author - Animal Farm.

Dudess

Early one morning when I was 15 and sick in bed with a throat infection, I decided to do something I'd been putting off for quite a while because I had been too scared – read Nineteen Eighty-Four. I finished it around 12.30 that night. I think "life-changing" is the term one would use to describe that particular experience.
The only other book I've read in one day (actually a few hours in this case) was by the same author - Animal Farm.

Earthhorse

Is that doublespeak?

perfidiousmonk

Any of the Discworld books is possible to read in a siiting or a day, as the mood takes you, and one could quite possibly read any number of short stories etc. quickly, but I think that it depends on the book.
I've read some of Pratchetts novels at unbeleivable rates, some of them up to and including 300 pages, but at least one passage of Lonesome traveller by Kerouac took me a few days, and it was only about 10 pages.
Reason was the torturous sentences, and the time it took to completely understand what he was saying, but basically the more complex the writing or the subject matter, the more inevitable it is that the book is going to take up a large amount of time.
I have also read that book, Holes, and I think it is fantastic.

arbeitsscheuer

All of Matthew Reilly's efforts. Although his last one was absolute cr*p.
Ice Station and Contest were good fun though.

Dudess

Earthhorse wrote:

Is that doublespeak?

Saintly

I've often read books in a day - I try not to. now Much prefer to savour a book, allow the story seep in and all that.

Saintly