How long does it take to read When Breath Becomes Air?
Paul Kalanithi
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi takes about 4 hours 15 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 15 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2016. 232 pages, about 63,800 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 7 hours 5 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 15 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 40 minutes |
The page count is the median across 35 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
When Breath Becomes Air is a non-fiction autobiographical book written by American neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi. It is a memoir about his life and illness, battling stage IV metastatic lung cancer. It was posthumously published by Random House on January 12, 2016.
Subjects: philosophy, Neurosurgeons, Cancer, Lungs, Husband and wife, Patients
