How long does it take to read Robbie?
Robbie by Isaac Asimov takes about 39 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 39 minutes
An evening's read
First published 1976. 35 pages, about 9,625 words. Written for children.
2 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 1 hour 4 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 39 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 24 minutes |
The page count is the median across 3 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
"Robbie" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was his first robot story and writing commenced on June 10, 1939. It was first published in the September 1940 issue Super Science Stories magazine as "Strange Playfellow", a title that was chosen by editor Frederik Pohl and described as "distasteful" by Asimov. A revised version of "Robbie" was reprinted under Asimov's original title in the collections I, Robot (1950), The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990). "Robbie" was the fourteenth story written by Asimov, and the ninth to be published. The story is also part of Asimov's Robot series, and was the first of Asimov's positronic robot stories to see publication. The story centers on the technophobia that surrounds robots, and how it is misplaced. Almost all previously published science fiction stories featuring robots followed the theme 'robot turns against creator'; Asimov has consistently held the belief that the Frankenstein complex was a misplaced fear, and the majority of his works attempted to provide examples of the help that robots could provide humanity. In 2016 Robbie won a retrospective 1941 Hugo Award for best short story.
Subjects: Robots in fiction, Robots, Science fiction, Fiction, Children's fiction
