How Fast Do You Read?

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staples reading appHow fast do you read?  I read a lot, and I can read fast, which came in handy when I was in college.  Now that I mostly read for pleasure, I’ve slowed my speed down.  When I heard about a new app at Staples that measures your reading speed, I was interested to give it a try.  With the What Speed Do You Read app, you read a page from a classic novel (War of the Worlds, Alice in Wonderland, or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), then answer questions about what you’ve read.  The app then determines your speed and compares you to other readers.  I scored 490 words/minute reading the page from War and Peace and answered all three questions correctly, so I could finish the book in 19 hours, 59 minutes at that speed.  The app also tells me how many average-length books I could read on various ebook readers before I’d need to charge it again.  At that speed, I could finish 6.5 books before needing to recharge my Sony PRS-T1 reader.  How fast do you read?

6 thoughts on “How Fast Do You Read?”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. A very silly app, as anyone’s reading speed will vary depending on content. If I am reading a code of laws or a case I must digest in preparation for a client meeting or court appearance, I read slower than if I am reading Harlen Coben. The results of such a test are, for me at any rate, meaningless.

  3. Janet Cloninger

    @Phillipe Radley Of course reading speeds are situational. This app seems to me, at least, just a fun little exercise to measure your leisure reading speed. It also seems to be a little plug for eReaders, because they find a way to mention many of the current popular devices.

  4. 888 words per minute for me… Would have been faster, but I fumbled with the “finished” button.

    Yeah… reading a single page is kind of hokey. Read for 15 minutes, see how far you get, then get questioned on the material you finished. THATS they way to do it.

  5. I got 298 wpm, but that text was hard for me to understand… It felt disjointed and out of place. I tend to read a lot of scifi and fantasy so being able to visualize the story in my head is something I like. I also read technical manuals for work, were ire-read the same passage for comprehension. This passage had me jumping between the two modes of reading actually making me read it slower than normal for either… I still like reading though :-). iPad & nook FTW!

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