How long does it take to read My Own Country?
a doctor's story of a town and its people in the age of AIDS
My Own Country by Abraham Verghese takes about 7 hours 46 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 46 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1994. 424 pages, about 116,600 words.
16 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 12 hours 57 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 46 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 52 minutes |
The page count is the median across 7 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
By the bestselling author of Cutting for Stone, a story of medicine in the American heartland, and confronting one's deepest prejudices and fears. Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern American life. But when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, a crisis that had once seemed an “urban problem” had arrived in the town to stay. Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Verghese became by necessity the local AIDS expert, soon besieged by a shocking number of male and female patients whose stories came to occupy his mind, and even take over his life. Verghese brought a singular perspective to Johnson City: as a doctor unique in his abilities; as an outsider who could talk to people suspicious of local practitioners; above all, as a writer of grace and compassion who saw that what was happening in this conservative community was both a medical and a spiritual emergency.
Subjects: AIDS (Disease), Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Biography, Epidemiology, Physicians, Social aspects
