How long does it take to read What We See When We Read?
A Phenomenology: With Illustrations
Peter Mendelsund
What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund takes about 7 hours 41 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 41 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2014. 419 pages, about 115,225 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 48 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 41 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 48 minutes |
The page count is the median across 1 edition, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
"A gorgeously unique, fully illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of reading--how we visualize images from reading works of literature, from one of our very best book jacket designers, himself a passionate reader. What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what, exactly, Ishmael looked like? The collection of fragmented images on a page--a graceful ear there, a stray curl, a hat positioned just so--and other clues and signifiers helps us to create an image of a character. But in fact our sense that we know a character intimately has little to do with our ability to concretely picture our beloved--or reviled--literary figures. In this remarkable work of nonfiction, Knopf's Associate Art Director Peter Mendelsund combines his profession, as an award-winning designer; his first career, as a classically trained pianist; and his first love, literature--he considers himself first and foremost as a reader--into what is sure to be one of the most provocative and unusual investigations into how we understand the act of reading"-- "An illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of reading"--
Subjects: Books and reading, Phenomenology, LITERARY CRITICISM / Books & Reading, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, ART / General, LITERARY CRITICISM
