Ever read an entire book in one day?

Bodhidharma · 11-05-2006 03:54PM #1

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 · 11-05-2006 03:56PM

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.

11-05-2006 05:10PM

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

arbeitsscheuer · 11-05-2006 05:14PM

*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 · 11-05-2006 05:14PM

-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 · 11-05-2006 05:15PM

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 · 11-05-2006 05:23PM

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 · 11-05-2006 08:15PM

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 · 11-05-2006 08:24PM

Oh how I remember the sleepless nights in school.

Great memories. Ruined my eyes though.

Merrick · 11-05-2006 08:32PM

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 · 11-05-2006 10:08PM

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 · 11-05-2006 10:17PM

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 · 11-05-2006 11:35PM

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

simu · 11-05-2006 11:37PM

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 · 11-05-2006 11:39PM

This post has been deleted.

Blush_01 · 12-05-2006 01:53AM

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 · 12-05-2006 08:31AM

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 · 12-05-2006 04:36PM

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 · 13-05-2006 02:07PM

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 · 13-05-2006 02:22PM

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 · 13-05-2006 04:08PM

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 · 16-05-2006 09:45AM

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 · 21-05-2006 03:06PM

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

Sarky · 21-05-2006 03:23PM

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 · 22-05-2006 06:51PM

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 · 22-05-2006 07:00PM

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 · 23-05-2006 08:39AM

Is that doublespeak?

perfidiousmonk · 24-05-2006 01:20PM

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 · 24-05-2006 02:17PM

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

Dudess · 24-05-2006 03:55PM

Earthhorse wrote:

Is that doublespeak?

Saintly · 24-05-2006 07:09PM

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

Blush_01 · 24-05-2006 09:36PM

I read a book yesterday and it was the most disappointingly crap book I ever read. What a waste of a day.

Although I did also get The Cripple of Inishmaan in too. Conor McPherson writes fantastic tragi-comedic stage Irishness.

Hermione* · 24-05-2006 09:42PM

All the time as a child; more recently, I can't remember. I did read HP6 in twenty-six hours, including the hours when I fell asleep on top of it (I was one of those people who bought it at midnight :rolleyes:).

Haven't read a 'normal' book in months, due to exams. Most of my Christmas pressie books are gathering dust.

arctic lemur · 24-05-2006 09:48PM

I fly through books in hours i always start and finish one on the train from cork to Dub at weekends. I have way too many though! It so satisfying curling up with a book, lost in your own little world for hours on end!

r3nu4l · 31-05-2006 02:49PM

As a kid I used to read two or three famous five books in a day

As a teenager I used to read one Hardy Boys book in a day

It's been a while since I've done this as an adult but I did read the Prisoner of Azkaban in one day. Also a book called "The Zero game" by Brad Meltzer.

Some books are just impossible to read in a day and entirely take it all in, Dickens is an example!

My mate once gave me back my copy of the Lord of the Rings having read it in two days. After a bit of quizzing I realised that he had definitely read the book but most of it had passed through his eyes but not reached his brain!! The funniest thing was when I asked him what he thought of the character Aragorn and he said "Who?" :rolleyes:

arctic lemur · 31-05-2006 05:15PM

Read Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult in one day and lucy sullivan is getting married by marian keyes

Hendrixcat · 03-06-2006 03:01PM

I read Douglas Adam's Restaurant at the end of the Universe is three hours while in a GP's waiting room. Granted, I was trapped and surrounded by moany old women who resented that a young peson should have the audacity to attend a doctor when they needed their piles poking back in and it was far preferable to stick my head in the book rather than risk eye contact with them.....

Tree · 07-06-2006 02:48PM

finished a wild sheep chase while curled up in bed w/ food poisoining yesterday. one of the few advantages of being sick

Oobie · 09-06-2006 01:52PM

I usually get through 2 or 3 books a week but finished Angels and Demons and Deception Point over 2 days.

odhran · 09-06-2006 03:56PM

On the way to finishing "fight Club" at the moment... Only thirty pages to go!

scojones · 09-06-2006 09:57PM

I read Catch Me If You Can on my flight from Shannon to Malaga last week. We were just preparing for landing when I was finished it, just a little over two hours. The book was only fair.

helles belles · 15-06-2006 12:24PM

ive never left a book and picked it back up later. i always read a book in one sitting.
my proudest achievement was reading all the narnia chronicles in 24 hrs.
i spent all the next day sleeping though.

NADA · 16-06-2006 11:06PM

I think I read A goosebumps book when I was a kid in one sitting. Ghost Camp or something. I know that's nothign but not bad for a 10 year old.

pixielady · 23-06-2006 11:54PM

i read most books in a day i like intense reading the best marathon i ever did was easily all of lotr in five days with sleep

Hercule_Poirot · 24-06-2006 01:47AM

Yes, I can read georgette heyer's novels and agatha christie mysteries in one sitting. They are compulsive reads.

crackity_jones · 26-06-2006 02:38PM

According to "How To Read A Book" the only way to read a novel is in one sitting. Only then will the reader fully appreciate the story being told and form a proper picture of the characters involved and the world they inhabite. Ok, these days most people rarely find the time to work through a book in the one sitting but spending 2-3 weeks reading a typical novel is considered a bit of a waste of time.

"How To Read A Book" is well worth a read itself (that's a funny statement in itself, don't you think

) and outlines how the reader should approach all kinds of reading material. It's written by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. Yes, THAT Charles Van Doren. I'm sure many of your will have seen the film _Guiz Show_ which was out some years back. After he was kicked out of teaching for cheating on the show he made quite a career for himself with the Encyclopædia Britannica among other things.

Only ever read a few books myself in one sitting. I read the first Harry Potter book in one sitting just to see what all the fuss was about. I haven't returned to the series since. And a couple of the Pratchett books of course. Read a few of Iain Bank's Culture books too which are excellent.

CJ

r3nu4l · 26-06-2006 02:43PM

Hercule_Poirot wrote:

Yes, I can read georgette heyer's novels and agatha christie mysteries in one sitting. They are compulsive reads.

Anyone see the "Agatha Christie code" on TV the other day? Computational and neuro-linguistic analysis of her books suggest that either conciously ir sub-conciously Christie employed hypnosis techniques in her books to force the reader to continue reading and induce adrenaline rushes to compel the reader to rush towards the end, controlling even the speed at which the reader reads paragraphs!

It was quite compelling and as a scientist I could see that a lot of what they presented on the program was more than just the usual conjecture from this kind of "documentary".

Perhaps that is why it's easily possible to read a Christie novel in one day and not so easy to read others. Ever notice how after reading some books you feel tired? As if it was heavy-going? Makes you think

Attractive Nun · 28-06-2006 11:55PM

One day readings are the best. Most recently, I read Life of Pi in a day I think. I've never read a 200+ pager in one sitting though, I should try some day.

gracehopper · 29-06-2006 01:04PM

the life of pi is an excellent book.

I've read "Of mice and men" and "crucible of fools" both in one sitting.

pbsuxok1znja4r · 30-06-2006 01:18AM

I tend not to bother much with the tripey kind of books that get read in a day, but one good book which I read in one sitting was "The Old Man And The Sea" by Hemingway.

I read "Out Of The Silent Planet" in less than a day, too.

The Bollox · 30-06-2006 01:27AM

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

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

I know exactly what you mean, you want to re-read it but know that it will be pointless as all plot twists are fresh in your memory.

I could read the first 3 Harry Potter books in a day, I am not that fast a reader as I like to think about what I'm reading, developing the characters in my head visually, giving them all voices. I feel it heightens the experience

Ever read an entire book in one day?

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