How long does it take to read Speed?
Speed by William S. Burroughs takes about 4 hours 54 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 54 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1984. 267 pages, about 73,425 words.
10 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 8 hours 10 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 54 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 4 minutes |
The page count is the median across 2 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
A methedrine-inspired odyssey, a painfully candid exploration of the horizons of the speed freak's world, from the drug-hazed fantasy of New York's infamous East Village to the terrifying reality of a Federal narcotics hospital, Burroughs Jr.'s two novels present a vision of alienated youth at its most raw and uncensored. Speed follows Billy as he hustles for dope and money, crashing in garbage-strewn apartments and guiding a paranoid friend through the perilous city streets. With tough, gritty detachment, he describes the stages of his own drug addiction and physical and emotional deterioration. Kentucky Ham takes him from the squalor of the East Village crash pads to his father's literary hideaway in Tangier, and finally to incarceration at the Federal Narcotics Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Through both these autobiographical novels, William S. Burroughs, Jr., tells a story of generational isolation that is as relevant today as when it was first written.
Subjects: Fiction, Amphetamine, Drug Addiction, Alienation (Social psychology), Drug addicts, Methamphetamine abuse
