How long does it take to read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind?
William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer, Korey Jackson
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer, Korey Jackson takes about 5 hours 25 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 25 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2009. 295 pages, about 81,125 words.
11 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 9 hours 1 minute |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 25 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 23 minutes |
The page count is the median across 23 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger, and a place where hope and opportunity were hard to find. But William had read about windmills in a book called Using Energy, and he dreamed of building one that would bring electricity and water to his village and change his life and the lives of those around him. His neighbors may have mocked him and called him misala-crazy-but William was determined to show them what a little grit and ingenuity could do.Enchanted by the workings of electricity as a boy, William had a goal to study science in Malawi's top boarding schools. But in 2002, his country was stricken with a famine that left his family's farm devastated and his parents destitute. Unable to pay the eighty-dollar-a-year tuition for his education, William was forced to drop out and help his family forage for food as thousands across the country starved and died.Yet William refused to let go of his dreams. With nothing more than a fistful of cornmeal in his stomach, a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks, and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to bring his family a set of luxuries that only two percent of Malawians could afford and what the West considers a necessity-electricity and running water. Using scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves, William forged a crude yet operable windmill, an unlikely contraption and small miracle that eventually powered four lights, complete with homemade switches and a circuit breaker made from nails and wire. A second machine turned a water pump that could battle the drought and famine that loomed with every season.Soon, news of William's magetsi a mphepo-his "electric wind"-spread beyond the borders of his home, and the boy who was once called crazy became an inspiration to those around the world.Here is the remarkable story about human inventiveness and its power to…
Subjects: Biography & Autobiography, Nonfiction, Inventors, Water-supply, rural, Windmills, Electric power production
