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Cover of 99% Invisible City

How long does it take to read 99% Invisible City?

Roman Mars, Kurt Kohlstedt

99% Invisible City by Roman Mars, Kurt Kohlstedt takes about 7 hours 11 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 7 hours 11 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2020. 392 pages, about 107,800 words.

15 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 11 hours 59 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 7 hours 11 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 4 hours 30 minutes

The page count is the median across 8 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

A beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, from the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean? Or stopped to consider why you don't see metal fire escapes on new buildings? Or pondered the story behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships? 99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs. Now, in The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design, host Roman Mars and coauthor Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout, The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them.

Subjects: Nonfiction, Cities and towns, Public works, Design, history, design, Reference

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