Read the text and write things you read one by one:
he says he read 1/3 of his novel. Let x represent number of pages of the novel.
1/3x is one third of that novel.
3 pages less than one third is:
1/3x - 3
and that represents 114 pages that he read.
now we make that equal to 114 and solve for x
1/3x - 3 = 114
1/3x = 114 + 3 = 117
x = 351
Answer is 351 pages
