Hello everyone!

I think I'm a slow reader, though I've never timed myself. Back in high school I was always the only person to ask my teacher to leave the blackboard for a few seconds.

I wanted to know, how long should it take to read a novel that is about 200 pages long?

the reading speed always depends on the date of the exam

Omg that's hillarious!

LOL!
the story of my life

It's a trade-off. The faster you read, the more likely you are to miss nuances in what you're reading. I don't think there's such a thing as a "best" reading speed--just go with what works best for you. If that means going slower than some other people, that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Edit: And like the guy said above, reading speed tends to be relative. I marathoned Kafka on the Shore (656 pages, apparently) in about 24 hours because I wanted to get it over with, but it can take me an hour to read 5 pages of another book. I don't think there's a set time that it "should take" to read anything.

Reading speeds are all over the map. I used to read twice as fast as I do now, but I found I didn't retain things as well. So I've slowed down. I generally read about a page a minute. So that novel would take me around 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 hours. I know many people that read far faster than this and I also know many that read far slower.

Wow, thanks for the replies!

I'm not so embarrassed about my reading speed anymore. I remember back in high school there was this one guy who could read a page in a couple seconds. He was also a genius, so that probably has a lot to do with it.

depends on what you are reading, sometime i skim through some chapters that are not important to me and sometime i slow down to enjoy every moment of the book, and some book i just throw away and read the plot summary in wiki

It depends on the book. Now I read Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith which is a harder book to read than The Shallows by Carr Nichols, a book I read one month ago, but an easier one than Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. Sterne's book was a translation from 1800s (yes, Amazon is selling that), and as I'm not a native Italian, it was very hard to read so I quit reading it (probably Italian natives would have a hard time reading it).

Some authors are easier to read than others. I read Clavell's books in probably less than a month (I read only 1 to 2 hours in the morning and before bed).

There's also the subject, if a book is boring, I find my thoughts flying away very often.

Lol! I didn't expect someone to reply something as funny as this on this thread.

It depends on the book, whether it is interesting or not, as well as if it's in another language different than your native. And yes, just like everyone said, it's not bad that you read slower, I've noticed that whenever I study and read quite fast, I remember stuff a lot harder and have to reread it, whereas if I read it one idea slower, I would remember everything from the first time. It honestly depends on the person, so there's nothing to worry about.

I don't think there are standards one has to keep up with. Heck, there are books I finish in several weeks and ones I need several months for despite a similar word count, either due to differences in how enjoyable there are or how much time I find to just sit down and grab a book (read: how often I have to take a dump).

Edit: Correction: some books I finish in several days, happened in case of one Witcher book more recently. It's been ages since I finished a "regular" novel in a single sitting, though.

I don't know. I can't read.

Well, a brief stumble through the internet brought me this, which is quite interesting. I assume you have read similar articles: http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-the-Average-Reading-Speed-and-the-Best-Rate-of-Reading?&id=2298503

Statistically speaking, the average person reads at around 200 words per minute, averaging two minutes or so per page. So a 200-page novel should take between six and seven hours of reading,

Of course, what's most important is that you enjoy what you're reading, enough to remember it when you're done.