The short answer: there's no magic number. Ten pages a day is 3,650 pages a year. That's about twelve 300-page books, and for most adults it's somewhere around 10 to 15 minutes a day. Pick the number you can hit on your worst day, then let your book's length and the date you want to finish it set the rest.
Start with your worst day
Most reading goals are set on a good day. You're motivated, you've got a free evening, and 50 pages a day sounds easy. Then a long Tuesday happens, you miss it, and the whole thing falls apart.
So flip it. Ask yourself how many pages you could still read on a tired, busy, nothing-goes-right kind of day. That's your number. If it's five, great. Five pages every day beats a big goal you drop after a week.
You can always read more on a good day. The daily number is just the floor.
The math: pages a day to books a year
Here's what a daily page count adds up to over a year. To keep it simple, we've counted a book as 300 pages. Your books will be shorter or longer, so treat it as a rough guide.
| Pages a day | Pages a year | About this many 300-page books |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1,825 | 6 |
| 10 | 3,650 | 12 |
| 20 | 7,300 | 24 |
| 30 | 10,950 | 36 |
For a sense of scale, Gallup found Americans said they read an average of 12.6 books in 2021. That was lower than in any Gallup survey on the question going back to 1990. Ten pages a day puts you right around that average. Twenty puts you well past it.
How long does a page actually take?
You'll often hear "one page a minute". It's not a bad guess, but here's where the real numbers come from.
Marc Brysbaert, a researcher at Ghent University, reviewed 190 studies of reading speed with 18,573 participants. He estimated that adults reading silently in English average 238 words a minute for nonfiction and 260 words a minute for fiction. Most adults fall between 200 and 320 words a minute for fiction, and between 175 and 300 for nonfiction. Those numbers are lower than the ones often quoted.
The catch is that pages aren't all the same. Words per page change a lot with the font, the page size and the book. So any time per page is an estimate. Here's the math for two common-ish page sizes at the 260 words a minute fiction average:
- A 250-word page takes about a minute.
- A 300-word page takes about 70 seconds.
So ten pages of fiction is roughly 10 to 12 minutes at an average pace. A slower reader with fuller pages might take closer to 15. Nonfiction tends to take a little longer, because Brysbaert's average for it is lower.
Is 20 pages a day enough?
Yes. Twenty pages a day is 7,300 pages a year, or about two dozen 300-page books. At an average pace that's around 20 to 25 minutes a day. That's a real reading habit, not a token one.
It also finishes big books. Take East of Eden: it's 608 pages in the Penguin Classics paperback. At 20 pages a day, that's about a month.
Is 5 to 10 pages a day enough?
Yes, especially to start. Five pages a day is still about six books a year, which is six more than zero. Ten pages is around the national average Gallup found.
Small numbers are also easy to keep. And on a good day, nothing stops you reading past them. If you're coming back after a long break, start small on purpose. Our guide to getting back into reading has more on that.
Set it from a finish date instead
Here's the easiest way to pick a number. Take the pages left in your book and divide by the days until you want to finish.
- 300 pages in 30 days is 10 pages a day.
- 300 pages in 15 days is 20 pages a day.
- 608 pages in 30 days is about 20 pages a day.
If the number that comes out is bigger than your worst-day number, move the finish date out. It's better to finish a little later than to quit halfway.
When to read more
Once you've hit your number every day for a couple of weeks and keep reading past it, nudge it up by five pages. If you start missing days, drop back down. The number should feel almost too easy. That's what keeps it going.
What if you're not enjoying the book?
Then a page target won't save it. Librarian Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50, from a 2011 essay in The Globe and Mail, says: "Give a book 50 pages." If you're not really liking it by the bottom of page 50, put it down and find another. She adds a twist for readers 51 and over: subtract your age from 100, and that's how many pages to give a book.
For more ways to make reading the easy option, see how to read more books.
FAQ
How many pages should I read a day?
There's no magic number. Ten pages a day is 3,650 pages a year, about twelve 300-page books, and takes most adults around 10 to 15 minutes. Pick the amount you can manage on your worst day, then set it from your book's length and the date you want to finish.
Is reading 20 pages a day enough?
Yes. It's 7,300 pages a year, or about two dozen 300-page books, and roughly 20 to 25 minutes a day at an average pace.
I only read 5 to 10 pages a day. Is that not enough?
It's enough. Five pages a day is about six books a year, and ten is around twelve. What matters most is that you read most days.
How many pages a day do I need to read a book a month?
Divide the book's pages by 30. A 300-page book is 10 pages a day. A 450-page book is 15. A 600-page book is 20.
How long does it take to read 100 pages?
At an average fiction pace of about 260 words a minute, 100 pages takes roughly an hour and a half to two hours. That depends on how many words are on each page. Nonfiction usually takes longer.
Is reading 100 pages in an hour fast?
Yes, for most books. With 250 to 300 words a page, 100 pages in an hour means reading about 400 to 500 words a minute. That's well above the 200 to 320 words a minute range Brysbaert found for most adults reading fiction.
What is the 50 page rule?
It's librarian Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50: give a book 50 pages, and if you're not really liking it by then, stop and pick another. If you're 51 or older, she says to subtract your age from 100 and give the book that many pages.
Read First
If you'd rather not do the math, Read First lets you lock apps until you read. You add your book and the date you want to finish it, and it works out today's page count.