Time your reading.

Why time your reading at all?

Most people badly misjudge how much they read. A session that felt like an hour was twenty minutes, and the book that felt endless was four sittings. Timing removes the guesswork, and the number is almost always kinder than the guess.

It also makes a plan possible. Once you know you read about 30 pages an hour, a 300-page novel stops being a vague commitment and becomes ten hours, which is twenty minutes a day for a month. That is a decision you can actually make.

How long should a reading session be?

Long enough to get past the settling-in. Most readers need a few minutes before the room goes quiet and the page takes over, so a 10-minute session spends most of itself arriving. Twenty to thirty minutes is where a session starts to feel like reading rather than like starting to read.

Consistency beats length. Thirty minutes a day finishes roughly twelve average novels a year at an ordinary pace. One three-hour Sunday does not, because it rarely happens twice.

What a timer will not tell you

Time is not comprehension. You can sit with a book for forty minutes and take in nothing, and the timer will happily record forty minutes. If you want a number that accounts for how much you actually absorbed, a speed reading test that scores comprehension is the honest instrument.

It also will not make you read. A stopwatch is a measuring tool, not a reason. That part tends to come from other people, which is the problem ReadersGuild is built around.

How to use the reading timer

1. 1

   Start the timer

   Press start when you open the book. Nothing to install and no account needed. The timer keeps running if you switch tabs or close the laptop lid, because it reads the clock rather than counting while the page is awake.

2. 2

   Read

   Put the phone somewhere else. The running time stays visible in the browser tab title if you want to glance at it.

3. 3

   Pause and see your pace

   Press pause when you stop. Enter how many pages you got through and the timer works out your pages an hour and an estimated words a minute.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to read 100 pages?

About four and a half hours at an average adult pace of 250 words a minute, since 100 pages is roughly 27,500 words. A faster reader does it in under two hours. Timing a single session is the quickest way to find your own number rather than using an average.

How many pages an hour is normal?

Between 40 and 60 pages an hour for ordinary prose at an average pace, though it drops sharply for dense non-fiction and rises for dialogue-heavy fiction. Your own figure matters more than the average, which is what the timer is for.

Does the timer keep running if I switch tabs?

Yes. It records when you started and compares that to the clock, rather than counting up while the tab is awake, so backgrounding the tab or locking the screen does not lose time. It also survives a page refresh.

Do I need an account to use it?

No. The timer runs entirely in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. Your session is stored locally so a refresh does not lose it, and clearing your browser data clears it.

How long should I read each day?

Twenty to thirty minutes is a realistic daily target that still finishes around a book a month at an average pace. What matters more than the length is that it happens most days, because a shorter session you actually keep beats a longer one you plan and skip.