A question for the overachievers

[Noah]

Everyone whittles down their to-read stack at a different pace, but some people seem to do their whittling with a pocket knife, and others with a chainsaw.

Do those of you in the chainsaw crowd attribute your success to being fast readers, or do you think you are just more persistent?

I think I average about 100 pages an hour, but I'm also a single guy with few responsibilities, so I can read twelve hours a day if I feel like it.

[Andrew]

I tend to read a lot of shortish books, which can giv the impression that I'm getting through my to-read stack at a brisk lick. Every so often though I'll mix things up with a French novel or a Peter Hamilton doorstep book.

100 pages an hour is pretty impressive. I tend only to be able to read on public transport and before sleeping, so rarely achieve that kind of volume...

[Noah]

Good point on short books. My students want me to read the Goosebumps series, but I almost feel like including that in my Goodreads would be cheating.

[Serendi]

If I discover a series and I absolutely HAVE to read at least a bunch, I read every chance I get until I get through it or overdose. If I'm reading for relaxation I'm often re-reading, often the "good parts version".

However, my TBR stack is largely ignored, except that I'm more likely to read if something strikes my interest about it once it's in hand or if it's for a book discussion group like this one.

Examples: the Vaginal Fantasy group did the first Psy-Changeling novel, and within a month I'd read them all. I've now read them again.

But even though I *like* Moby-Dick, I've never gotten more than a fifth of the way in. (Started again recently because author Joe Hill was tweeting about it; he loved it all the way through.) That's been on my TBR off and on for decades. Still want to get back to it, but have something for a local book discussion club in the way, plus I'm rereading Bridge of Birds.

In other words, I read a lot, but it doesn't always make a dent in my TBR; books I hadn't planned to read but swallow whole never exactly make it to the list, and I figure rereads don't count.

[Noah]

Rereading does go a lot faster and even though it is reading I agree that it doesn't really "count".

I am also in the club of not finishing Moby Dick (dare I call us The Moby Dick-less)? I heard if you find a version with all the extraneous parts cut out it is a lot better.

[Otto]

I'm not in the questioned group anymore, but I used to be.
Back when I had time, and could focus, I tended to power through lots of books based primarily on tenacity. I'd curl up for four hours at a stretch, just reading, then get a snack and go back to reading.

Now... I'm lucky to read a book a month outside of audiobooks.

[Joël]

My husband and me are both avid readers and have no kids (yet.)We often spend evenings curled up against each other, reading.
And it helps that we don't have a TV.
Plus after work I often find myself lacking in energy to do something productive.

[Andrew]

Reading is always productive :)

[Reto]

I'm a fast Reader with 635 WordsPerMinutes (wpm) and i read mostly 1 book per day. That's during the week on public transport and on lunch breaks. On Weekends if the wather is bad or i don't meet my friends it go's up to 5 books.

[AndrewP]

I have a few books on my Goodreads TBR shelf, but I am more concerned about clearing through piles of physical books around my house. My problem is that when I buy something new I'm more inclined to read that than one than something that has been lying around for months/years.

Currently I am trying to clear off a number of very short books and novellas between the 500+ books.

[Noah]

I've had that problem too. The new books are more appealing for some reason. Since I'm halfway across the world from my physical library I feel less guilty for playing with my new reads.