How this instrument works
This is the reverse of a simple reading-speed lookup: instead of asking 'how much will I read in X minutes,' it starts from a fixed book length and a deadline, and works backward to a daily reading target. Total reading time comes first — book length in pages, times words per page, divided by your reading speed in words per minute — and everything else (daily minutes needed, pages per day) follows from splitting that total evenly across your target number of days.
This calculator's default reading speed, 238 words per minute, is the same peer-reviewed average used on this site's Reading Speed Calculator — Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of English nonfiction reading rates — so a total-time estimate here and a words-per-day estimate there are built on the same consistent figure, rather than two different guesses that might disagree with each other.
The daily-minutes and pages-per-day figures assume even, consistent daily reading with no days skipped — a genuinely useful planning number, but one that gets thrown off if you actually read in irregular bursts. Missing several days means the remaining days need proportionally more to still hit the same deadline, which this calculator doesn't automatically adjust for; re-enter a shorter remaining target-days figure partway through to get an updated daily number.
- Enter Book length (pages) and Words per page — 300 words per page is a reasonable default for a typical novel.
- Enter Reading speed (words per minute) — 238 wpm is the research-backed default; adjust if you know your own rate.
- Enter Days to finish it in — your target deadline, counted in days.
- Read Total reading time (in minutes and hours) for the book's full read-through time, and Daily reading time needed plus Pages per day needed for what that means as a daily habit.
Worked example — a 320-page book, 10-day deadline
A 320-page novel at 300 words per page, read at the default 238 wpm, needs a total of 320 × 300 ÷ 238 ≈ 403.36 minutes to finish — about 6.72 hours of total reading time cover to cover.
Split across a 10-day deadline, that's 403.36 ÷ 10 ≈ 40.34 minutes a day — call it a comfortable 40-minute daily reading session — which lines up with the simpler pages-per-day cross-check of 320 ÷ 10 = 32.0 pages a day exactly.
Questions
What if I miss a few days of reading partway through?
The daily targets assume even reading across every day of the original deadline, so missing days doesn't automatically recalculate for you — re-enter your remaining page count and remaining days (rather than the book's original total and original deadline) to get an updated, realistic daily target for what's actually left.
How is this different from the site's Reading Speed Calculator?
Reading Speed starts from time available and tells you how many pages that produces; this calculator starts from a fixed book length and deadline and works backward to a daily time target. They share the same underlying reading-rate figure, so the two calculators' outputs are consistent with each other, just solved for different unknowns.
Why does the default reading speed matter so much for this calculator?
It directly scales the total time estimate — a slower reader at, say, 150 wpm instead of the 238 wpm default would need roughly 60% more total time and daily minutes to finish the same book by the same deadline. If you know your own reading speed differs meaningfully from the default, entering it will give a noticeably more accurate daily target.
Should I use the book's actual page count or its 'e-reader estimated pages' figure?
Whichever one matches the words-per-page figure you're entering — a physical book's printed page count paired with its actual average words per page will be more accurate than an e-reader's 'estimated pages,' which is often calculated against a different, device-specific words-per-page assumption that may not match your words-per-page entry here.
Can I use this to plan reading a stack of several books instead of just one?
Yes — add up the total page count across all the books (keeping words per page reasonably consistent, or run each book separately if their formatting differs a lot) and enter that combined total, along with your overall deadline, to get one daily target that covers the whole stack rather than calculating each book separately.