How long does it take to read The War of Art?
Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield takes about 3 hours 31 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 31 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2002. 192 pages, about 52,800 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 5 hours 52 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 31 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 12 minutes |
The page count is the median across 7 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
The War of Art is a non-fiction work from 2002 in which Steven Pressfield examines the obstacles that block creative effort in artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and others. His central claim is that any attempt at self-realization meets resistance, which shows up as self-doubt, procrastination and aversion. He presents resistance as a tool of the ego, which is cunning and hazardous yet necessary for survival, while the self seeks creative fulfilment and delayed rewards. To keep the ego in check, he urges readers to work as a professional, who does not seek attention or perfection but practises a disciplined craft.
This summary was written by AI and checked by a second AI model. How these are chosen.
Subjects: Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.), Inhibition, Resistance (Psychoanalysis), Procrastination, Creative thinking
