Why Reading A Book In One Day Isn’t Worth It

So I know that a lot of people, book readers in general and book reviewers specifically want to be able to read a book in a day, preferably for a lot of days, maybe in a row. Like, a book a day for 3 months, or maybe more?

And I know that there are people out there who do devour a book a day, repeatedly, over and over, because they have the ‘commitment’ (see lack of responsibility) to do so. They just ‘love reading’ and I guess the rest of us don’t…? Like it’s a competition?

Am I bitter?

I thought I was.

I thought that since I work full time, study part time, and care for someone with a range of physical and mental disabilities, I would LOVE to have a whole day to myself where I could just read.

Recently I had that. I took holiday leave from my day job because I had a university assignment due around the same time as my birthday, so I wanted to be able to take time off and chill a bit around writing my essay.

It turned out I did have a whole day free to just read.

So I did.

I read Danielle Binks’ The Monster of Her Age (review coming soon!).

It was amazing.

I read it in one day. An afternoon, to be precise.

I have only read a handful of books in one sitting before. It’s not something I normally do.

However, I really regret reading TMOHA in one day.

• Even though it was a really good book.
• Even though I enjoyed every aspect of it.
• Even though I had the time to read it in one sitting, and
• Even though I wanted to keep going.

Why Reading A Book In One Day Is Not The Best

When I was studying English Literature at University, my professor advised the class that we shoul read our assigned classic one chapter at a time.

Pfft, I thought. Only losers read slowly! I am a BOOKWORM. It is my right, nay, my RESPONSIBILITY to read as many books as quickly as I can!

However, I decided to listen to my professor when I read Jane Eyre.

I read it one chapter at a time.

And in doing so, in taking that time to breathe and think about what I’d read, and digest, and all that other wonderful head stuff readers do, I found myself enjoying it, understanding it, and most importantly taking my time.

I did not read Jane Eyre in one day. I read it over several weeks, and I still remember that experience.

It was wonderful.

Reading TMOHA was also an amazing experience. I cried 3 times.

However, it’s less than 300 pages, so it all ended way too soon. I only got an afternoon with Ellie, and I want more. I want so much more.

And yes, I could re-read TMOHA, but I am a book reviewer and I feel that it is my responsibility to keep creating new content, not re-reading. It’s not an efficient use of my time. I only really have enough time to read and review one book a week.

The only way to spent more time with Ellie would be to read not necessarily more slowly, but to take my time, to put it down at the end of each chapter and really think about everything that was happening, like I did with Garth Nix’s The Left Handed Booksellers of London. I took weeks to read that, because I was only reading it during my lunch breaks at work, so I got to spend so much time with Susan and Merlin, not just while reading but also while not reading, and I got to think about their adventure, and dream about it, and wonder what is coming next. To look forward to spending more time with them.

That’s an experience I missed with TMOHA.

I feel that it is important to point out that I rated TMOHA 5 stars and TLHBOL 4 stars, because I do feel that one is the better book, so my reading TMOHA in one day didn’t diminish the reading experience for me.

Neither do I think that the experience was better because I read it one day.

I just think the experience was different, and that has led me to believe that I personally prefer not reading books in one sitting.

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