The invention relates to a distributed data reading method and device. The method comprises the following steps of: sending a reading request to a first storage node which saves target data, wherein the first storage node is any one of storage nodes which do not receive the reading request and save the target data in the distributed storage system; obtaining the sending time point of the reading request and a transmission time period corresponding to the first storage node; detecting whether the first storage node returns the target data within the transmission time period or not; and when the transmission time period is greater than a preset time threshold value and a detection result shows that the first storage node does not return the target data in the transmission time period, sending the reading request to a second storage node which saves the target data, wherein the second storage node is any one of the storage nodes which do not receive the reading request except the first storage node and save the target data. By use of the technical scheme of the invention, under a situation that network burdens are not increased, the delay of the reading operation under an abnormal state is effectively lowered, and data reading efficiency is high.