Depends on the book. I'm more of a gulper (I read Covenant in about two hours, I think) - when I was a child and teenager I'd frequently come home after a three-hour gymnastics class which had been after school and read two or three or four books, every day. Yeah, I was hardcore...I can't read at quite that speed anymore, although when I was reviewing a lot more for the paper, I'd read about six or seven books a day so as to write the reviews quickly.

Reading in this way does have its drawbacks, though, as you say. I have on occasion read books so quickly that I missed key information and suddenly I was all, 'What? Why are they at a funeral? Hang on, Character B died? When did that happen?'