How long does it take to read The Business?
A Novel
The Business by Iain Banks takes about 7 hours 12 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 12 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1999. 393 pages, about 108,075 words.
15 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 12 hours 1 minute |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 12 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 30 minutes |
The page count is the median across 13 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Kate Telman is a senior executive officer in The Business, a powerful and massively discreet transglobal organisation. Financially transparent, internally democratic and disavowing conventional familial inheritance, the character of The Business seems, even to Kate, to be vague to the point of invisibility. It possesses, allegedly, a book of Leonardo cartoons, several sets of Crown Jewels and wants to buy its own State in order to acquire a seat at the United Nations. Kate's job is to keep abreast of current technological developments and her global reach encompasses Silicon Valley, a ranch in Nebraska, the firm's secretive Swiss headquarters, and a remote Himalayan principality. In the course of her journey Kate must peel away layers of emotional insulation and the assumptions of a lifetime. She must learn to keep her world at arm's length. -- Publisher description.
Subjects: Fiction, International business enterprises, Women executives, International agencies, Businesswomen
