How long does it take to read The Book?
A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time
The Book by Keith Houston takes about 7 hours 35 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 35 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2016. 414 pages, about 113,850 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 39 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 35 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 45 minutes |
The page count is the median across 3 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Reveals how books and the materials that make them reflect the history of human civilization, tracing the development of writing, printing, illustrating, and binding to demonstrate the transition from cuneiform tablets and papyrus scrolls to the mass-distributed books of today. "We may love books, but do we know what lies behind them? In The Book, Keith Houston reveals that the paper, ink, thread, glue, and board from which a book is made tell as rich a story as the words on its pages--of civilizations, empires, human ingenuity, and madness. In an invitingly tactile history of this 2,000-year-old medium, Houston follows the development of writing, printing, the art of illustrations, and binding to show how we have moved from cuneiform tablets and papyrus scrolls to the hardcovers and paperbacks of today. Sure to delight book lovers of all stripes with its lush, full-color illustrations, The Book gives us the momentous and surprising history behind humanity's most important--and universal--information technology."--Back cover.
Subjects: Illustration of books, Paper, Books, Printing, History, Books, history
