You don’t have to be the fastest reader in class. The book ends the same for everyone who finishes it.

Finishing and finishing first are not the same achievement, and only one of them matters later. Everybody who reaches the end of the book has read the book, whatever the pace, and the speed you got there at leaves no trace in what you now know. The race is mostly something other people are running.

Set a pace you can hold rather than one that keeps up with whoever reads fastest. Go back over a page you did not follow instead of pressing on. Measure whether you finished and understood it, which is the part still true next year.