How long does it take to read A Man on the Moon?
The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
Andrew Chaikin
A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin takes about 12 hours 37 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 12 hours 37 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 1994. 688 pages, about 189,200 words.
26 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 21 hours 1 minute |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 12 hours 37 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 7 hours 53 minutes |
The page count is the median across 19 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
For the 25th anniversary of the first moon landing, a winning and detailed account of the Apollo astronauts, a dozen of whom were the first human beings to walk on the face of the moon. The strength of the book lies in Chaikin's exhaustive research, including interviews with all 24 Apollo astronauts. Chaikin, an editor of Sky and Telescope, draws on the wealth of material from NASA's files--including recently declassified transcripts from the on-board voice recorders, which give candid glimpses of the astronauts' thoughts not intended for outside ears (not even Mission Control's). As a result, the reader gets an in-depth portrait of the program, which the book sets clearly in its time, with glimpses at the Vietnam War and social unrest at home that were eventually to overshadow its brilliant accomplishments. [Kirkus Review, excerpt] * I've read this book numerous times since the first hardcover edition in 1994, and I never fail to learn something new. While there on many books on Apollo that a serious enthusiast should read, this is easily the SINGLE best book yet written. If you only ever read one book about the moon landings, then this should be it. Chaikin is the only person to ever interview all 12 moonwalkers and get their personal feelings about everything from individual astronaut selection, crew selection, training, peer relations and best of all -- orbiting and walking on the moon. This is not a technical or scientific history, but an account of how the astronauts FELT about their entire Apollo experiences. You can easily "walk in their shoes" and "see through their eyes" with this book. He writes in a way all persons can understand and simplifies the engineering and scientific aspects so you can understand what the astronauts were dealing with. Not only does he avoid getting bogged down in technical speak, but actually makes the technical parts fascinating to learn! Although the moonwalkers are the primary focus of the book, Chaikin wrote a well-rounded…
Subjects: Project apollo (u.s.), Space flight to the moon, Moon, exploration, History, Project Apollo (U.S.)., Astronauts
