Thought it would be a cool question, and I'm interested in finding out. It doesn't have to be exact, though I would like it to be as accurate as possible. This isn't a competition, there is no set time or quantity metric, you might have finished a novel in a couple of hours or an encyclopedia in a fortnight. That said, I think you'll struggle to beat me... I read about 80% of "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet in a single day. I didn't even start in the morning, it was after lunch in fact when I was bored and saw the book on the shelf. I became so engrossed, I couldn't put it dow for the rest of the day, I would highly recommend the book to anyone who likes epic stories and has spare time. Probably could have finished it within the day had I started earlier. Apparently it's very, very long in terms of English published novels, at 402,000 words, I estimate I read about 320,000 that day. For reference, the first Harry Potter book was not quite 77,000 words, Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" (*shudder*) is less than 100,000, Tolkien's "Return of the King" was about 131,000 and "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin is less than 300,000. Another time I had to read two very long history texts (Citizens by Schama and A People's Tragedy by Figes) as well as two shorter ones for an exam, I estimate about one million words in total. All in the space of about eight days, six of which were normal school days, and throughout the period I had homework for other subjects to do as well.
Well I read a 300 page book on the fall of rome in 3 days. I read "Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam" in 1 day.
It may not be the fastest I've done, but I read most of the first ten books of the WOT series in one week each.
That reminds me, an associate of mine who is a teacher once told me that some of her high school students bragged about having never read a book in their lives.
I would, but I just don't have time actually I need to organize myself better. O.k get home 3:30 so until 6, I should read and or watch that Napoleon movie. then eat, and all the other stuff then forums/homework.
We must tell the Guiness Book of World Records! Nobody shall surpass the feat of reading a single forum post.
I have to read Dostoevsky's crime and punishment, and Im starting on a Philosophy of religion based of psychology and history.
While I wouldn't exactly say it is a lot of reading, it is the most painfully slow reading possible: I had to read "Amusing Ourselves to Death" once. I didn't read another book for a year. If you value your sanity, avoid Neil Postman. You're likely to get a better read out of these guys. Do you mean one of your teachers?
