On average, it took people more than 17 minutes to read the selected tales, which Nielsen wrote is "enough to get them immersed in the story" and is also "representative for many other formats of interest, such as whitepapers and reports."

The 24 study participants read short stories by the author Ernest Hemingway, chosen "because his work is pleasant and engaging to read, and yet not so complicated that it would be above the heads of users," said Jakob Nielsen, who led the study for the Nielsen Norman Group.

The study tested peoples' pace of reading on two popular e-reader tablets -- Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle 2 -- as well as a standard PC monitor and a regular book.

People can read traditional printed books a good bit faster than e-books on tablet computers, a new study has found.

Overall, the study revealed that people read text 6.2 percent slower on an iPad than on the printed page. With the Kindle, reading was 10.7 percent slower.

To make sure people did not just skim the stories, the participants were given a reading comprehension tests afterward.

Study participants also rated each reading implement from one to seven -- with seven being the highest -- and provided feedback as well.

Nielsen noted that this difference between the e-readers was not statistically significant, however, so in the end the only fair statement is that "tablets still haven't beaten the printed book," Nielsen wrote.

The default iBook app on the iPad used for the test took top prize, but just barely, scoring a 5.8. Amazon's Kindle, the close runner-up, ranked 5.7 and the regular book came in third by a hair at 5.6.