ShelfLook
Tools About
Cover of How to Change Your Mind

How long does it take to read How to Change Your Mind?

Michael Pollan

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan takes about 8 hours 48 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 8 hours 48 minutes

A week or two of reading

First published 2018. 480 pages, about 132,000 words.

18 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 14 hours 40 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 8 hours 48 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 5 hours 30 minutes

The page count is the median across 12 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research.

Subjects: Hallucinogenic drugs, Mental health, Therapeutic use, Biography, Psychotherapy patients, Psychological aspects

More by Michael Pollan

Books like this

Popular books of similar length