📖 How long would it take to read every book ever published?
How long would it take to read every book ever published?
About 480,000 years at average reading speed
479,671 years
📐 The Calculation
Google estimated approximately 130 million books have been published. The average book is about 64,000 words. At 250 words per minute reading speed: 130,000,000 × 64,000 / 250 / 60 / 24 / 365 = approximately 480,000 years.
Assumptions:
- • 130 million books published (Google's 2010 estimate)
- • Average book length: 64,000 words
- • Reading speed: 250 words per minute
- • No sleep, no breaks
🤯 For Perspective...
Modern humans have only existed for about 300,000 years
That's about 2x longer than Homo sapiens has been around
The last Ice Age was only 12,000 years ago
💡 Fun Facts
About 2.2 million new books are published every year, so you'd fall further behind every day
The Library of Congress has about 17 million books — that alone would take 63,000 years
Speed reading at 1000 wpm would still take 120,000 years
⚙️ What If Calculator
What if you could go faster?
At 2× speed
239,836 years
At 10× speed
47,967 years
At 1000× speed
480 years
More Absurd Calculations
How long would it take to walk to the Moon?
About 9 years of non-stop walking
How long would it take to count to one million out loud?
About 11.5 days of non-stop counting
How long would it take to count to one billion out loud?
About 31 years of non-stop counting
How long would it take to fill an Olympic swimming pool with tears?
About 7.6 million years of continuous crying
How long would it take to drive to the Sun?
About 177 years at highway speed
How long would it take to watch every video on YouTube?
About 82,000 years (and growing every second)