ShelfLook
Tools About
Cover of Norwood

How long does it take to read Norwood?

Charles Portis

Norwood by Charles Portis takes about 3 hours 30 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 3 hours 30 minutes

A weekend read

First published 1966. 191 pages, about 52,525 words.

7 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 5 hours 50 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 3 hours 30 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 2 hours 11 minutes

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

About the book

Out of the American Neon Desert of Roller Dromes, chili parlors, The Grand Ole Opry, and girls who want "to live in a trailer and play records all night" comes ex-marine and troubadour Norwood Pratt. Sent on a mission to New York by Grady Fring, the Kredit King, Norwood has visions of "speeding across the country in a late model car, seeing all the sights." Instead, he gets involved in a wild journey that takes him in and out of stolen cars, freight trains, and buses. By the time he returns home to Ralph, Texas, Norwood has met his true love, Rita Lee, on a Trailways bus; befriended Edmund B. Ratner, the second shortest midget in show business and "the world's smallest perfect fat man"; and helped Joann, "the chicken with a college education, " realize her true potential in life.

Subjects: Fiction, Young men, Fiction, general, Travelers

More by Charles Portis

Popular books of similar length