Here's another question that sprang from a random query on the SBTB Facebook page: What's the longest period of time you've ever spent reading, nonstop?
I think my record is 6 hours. I've been on longer flights, but I think I made myself sleep. What's your record? And what were you reading?
What's the longest stretch you've ever read nonstop?
No more than 4 hours non-stop 🙁 After that I’m either hungry or sleepy.
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I too had marathon, all night reading sessions when HP books came… I just HAD to finish them… good thing I worked in banking admin then, hiding behind my computer all the next day so no one could see my bleary eyes…
I can speed-read if I have to/want to (HP 5 in just over three hours), but my normal, comfortable, remember everything pace is probably around 100-150 pages an hour. I’ve always been a reader, though, started aged four and never stopped. Weak distance eyesight (that nobody caught until I was getting my driver’s license because I’m really good at guesstimating letters) made my precious paper friends even more precious- I could bring them as close as I wanted without seeming weird.
My longest reading binge? Uninterrupted reading time was 23 hours, then I was nabbed from my room by power-of-roomie and forced to take a food break. I was reading the entire Sword of Truth series, just one after the other, and finished all of them in a long weekend. Didn’t sleep a lot, ate less, was happily off in book la-la-land. Now my job tends to interfere with my reading time- but every commute is an opportunity to lose myself in the pages of my (Kindle)books.
48 hours, but that was a long time ago with a Leon Uris and a Frank Yerby back-to-back, both tombstone size books. I was on uni holidays and lived on cookies and chocolate milk. These days my eyes give up after about 12 hours.
I still remember it being 3 am, and me sitting at the dining room table 8 1/2 months pregnant and Knowing I had to get some sleep but I had to know what happened in The Passage. Yeah, that was a good one.
I choose 4-6, but now I’m not sure; maybe I’ve gone longer.
Most recently I read like 300-400 pages of A Dace with Dragons a day for a few days, and that was pretty much nonstop. But I’m sure I read some Harry Potter books in long sittings as well. (And I would have read Kristin Cashore’s newest, Bitterblue, in one or two sittings if I’d had time—what an awesome book!)
Depends on the author and if u count audiobooks as a book.
I was a weird kid and spent my summers from the time I was 8 or 9 until I graduated high school doing nothing but reading. My neighbor from Brazil got to calling me a “vampire” (this was before vampires were cool) because I was so pale from spending my days indoors reading for 10 or 12 hours a day…..man I miss that time in my life, or at least having that much freedom to do what I want with my time…….
I have a confession… I am a binge-reader *sob*
I have enjoyed reading all these comments. Makes you feel like you are not alone in the world! Although I have to say I am very happy that I passed along the love of reading to my children, I get a little exasperated with my adult daughter when she tells me she was up all hours of the night reading, when she has to work the next day, LOL. Another reading marathon for me was The Thorn Birds. I was 20, living alone and had the flu. I had no TV, so in between Nyquil naps I was reading that book nonstop. But in later years I discovered that when you have husband and kids, no one is going to leave you alone for that long even if you are sick. 😉
I’m a very fast reader, so my marathons only work if I’ve got a big stack of books waiting. The longest I’ve gone nonstop is 12ish hours, and that wasn’t longer because I was made to put the book down for a family dinner. The rest of the time has been 10 or so hours because I ran out of books to read. 🙂
When I was a kid, I checked out 40 or 50 books a week from the library during the summer. I’d complain of headaches to my mom and she’d shake her head because I’d been inside reading all day. Her response was that I needed to get some fresh air and give my eyes a break. I compromised by taking my books outside and sitting on the playhouse roof to read in the sun.
When I was in high school, I read Jennifer Roberson’s Lady of the Forest overnight during the summer. I think I logged 10-12 hours in that sitting.
Like many others, it was an HP fest for me, the last book. Started around 5pm-ish the day it was delivered, finished about 5-ish the following morning.
The next book-a-thon was the day before my then pre-teen kid traveled with his dad (we’re divorced) to PR. I’ve got this terror of flying (thank God for Xanax) and was wigging out about him going. Anyway, a book from his favorite series had just come out, so I read it aloud to him – took me about 8 hours. I was pretty hoarse by bedtime, but it was totally worth it. 🙂
Smiling at all the Harry Potter marathoners! I did the same thing…as much as I could, since I had a little one at the time. I picked 6-8 hours, but I can’t do that very much anymore, since the kid was born. Sometimes I put him to bed at 8 and read until 2 or 3 am, but of course I pay for it the next day. I’m like one of the above commenters. It’s more like, how long can I go withOUT reading?
I remember buying three or four m/m romances at Borders early one afternoon back in 2009—one most notably being “Faith and Fidelity” by Tere Michaels—and being completely unable to stop reading them. I went back and reread passages several times in F&F—probably why it took me much longer than normal to finish it. : P
When I was of the tween age (before we called it “tween”) I would stay up with my besties Trixie Belden, Robin Kane and then once I found them/was allowed to read them Emilie Loring, Betty Neels, graduating to The Flame and the Flower, and whatever else was in my price range at the UBS. After college, before husband and kids, there were many nights where I would read all night. In recent times, though, I pulled about a seven-hour marathon with Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments. It seemed so fresh, so different. I read it through once and immediately started a reread. Now I also binge listen to books. I have Overdrive and Audible and joined FLP. I listen at least two hours a day, working out, commuting. When I go to sleep now instead of falling asleep to the TV, I bookmark where I am in an audiobook, hit the 15- or 30-minute sleep button on the Audible/Overdrive program and fall asleep. I am a court reporter, so I am reading constantly. Workwise I have done 11- to 14-hours a day more than a few times a month.
A weekend. Friday night to Sunday midnight.
The last Harry Potter book. I got it at midnight (and started reading right away) and read straight through, finishing it at 10am. This gave me the dubious distinction of being the first to post my thoughts about it among all my friends on LiveJournal.
ummm….wow.
I put 2-4 hours. And even that has only happened on flights.
I rarely read more than an hour at once.
The latest book I read is the series, Hunger Games and I am telling you, I got so hooked to the story. My parents scolded me because I read almost all day, about 8-10 hours.
George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire. I remember the third book in particular because I literally sat down in my dad’s armchair for about fourteen hours to finish it—one or two bathroom and/or food breaks, but even with the food, I just read while I ate.
Hunger Games would have done that, except that I was working and reading it on my commute (not a good idea when you’re likely to miss your train stop!).
Every time Jean M. Auel releases a new book, I call in sick .. and read till I am done. Can be up to 18 hours.
I voted in as 8 but my reading marathons are really my beach vacations. Before eBooks made it easier I would bring half a dozen books down in my suitcase and another 3 or four in my hand luggage. I’d install myself in a nice lounger on the beach, crack open the first book and start reading. When I finish one book, I immediately start the next. I break for swims, alcohol, food and sleep but that’s about it for six days in a row. I am blessed with a husband who understands my need for a shut-down-and reboot vacation.
Like several people here, it was a Harry Potter book – the last one. 11.5 hours with quick breaks for going to the bathroom and meals.
I read regularly 3 hours a night, but on the weekend I can do 4-6 hrs in a day. The 10 – 12 hrs I have sat up reading that I voted for in the poll was when I was reading the Devlin Group series by Shannon Stacey.