A study posted at useit.com, focusing on reading speeds, has pitted our heroes (iPads and Kindles) against their nemesis: the printed page. It’s a study that we’ve all wanted to see; these two sets of media battling it out in a colosseum while a wizened scroll looks on from shadowy booth high among the crowd. The two fight for hours, bits of pages and plastic blowing absently in the wind. There is a hush; the scroll lifts a shaking hand, and with a sudden motion that belies his age: thumbs down. One warrior does not leave the ring.

But this is about reading speeds and satisfaction. How do all of these things stack up?

Conducted with 24 users, the study attempted to find out if reading on the iPad, Kindle, or PC were any faster than simply reading a book. Given a select work from Hemingway (yikes), each participant was told to read the words and attempt to remember what they actually said. A short exam was given afterwards for comprehension’s sake and to make sure that no one just skimmed the pages. The results show that both the iPad and the Kindle clocked in at slower speeds than normal, every day, boring, non-flashy, no-buttony books. The raw numbers say that the iPad averages roughly 6% slower and Kindles 11% slower than books. So that iPad you just bought? Burn it. BURN IT AT THE STAKE.

Or not. The other side of this coin basically says that while books are sooo great for reading and sooo fast (actually, they say there’s not that much difference among the devices in regards to speed, even with those percentages), people are generally more satisfied with their techy counterparts. Whether that’s because the sheer guilt of buying a $200-$800 thinger for reading or not remains to be seen. Interestingly enough, the iPad, Kindle, and regular old crappy book scored nearly the same with users, with the iPad and Kindle just a tiny bit ahead. Everyone hates reading on the PC, though, but we didn’t need a test to prove that.

Check out the full report here.