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How long does it take to read The Godfather?

Mario Puzo

The Godfather by Mario Puzo takes about 8 hours 15 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 8 hours 15 minutes

A week or two of reading

First published 1969. 450 pages, about 123,750 words.

17 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 13 hours 45 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 8 hours 15 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 5 hours 9 minutes

The page count is the median across 109 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

The Godfather is a crime novel by American author Mario Puzo. Originally published in 1969 by G. P. Putnam's Sons, the novel details the story of a fictional Mafia family in New York City (and Long Beach, New York), headed by Vito Corleone. Puzo's dedication for The Godfather is "For Anthony Cleri". The novel's epigraph is by the French author Honoré de Balzac: "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." The novel covers the years 1945 to 1955 and includes the back story of Vito Corleone from early childhood to adulthood.

Content warnings (AI-checked, may be incomplete)
  • violence

How these are chosen

Subjects: Detective and mystery stories, Organized crime, Criminals, Italian Americans, Mafia, Fiction

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