Calculating Estimated READING Time for your Blog

Estimated reading time for this post: 2 minute 17 seconds. Read it Later?

It is nearly impossible to find a direct calculation method for determining reading time for a piece of writing. This made me mad, and made my head hurt trying to figure it out myself. So I am going to post this on the web, where I can find it again the next time I need it. (I know I had it on a Post-it® somewhere around here….) So here is how I estimate the reading time for my blog posts. This is specifically for my web articles but technically this could be used for any piece of writing.

Accepted average for words per minute that an average person reads:     200-250 wpm

Armed with this knowledge I give readers the benefit of distraction and possibly their sleepiness level. I use 200 wpm to do my calculations. If you read faster, then that is great. If not, then this is sufficiently low, as any lower and I would recommend Tim Ferriss’ PX Project for training to read faster.

So here are the numbers you will have to come up with:

• Choose an appropriate average wpm count for your reading audience. (On my work blog I use 250 because our audience is normally Graduate Engineers with Masters degrees or higher. For this example however, I will be using 200 WPM.)
• Total Word Count for the document/article/piece of writing

This blog entry has 455 words. Trust me, it does. So let’s use that as a word count. Here is your first equation.

455 tw / 200 wpm = 2.275 minutes

tw = total words
wpm = words per minute (average)

Now that’s all fine and dandy but what is .275 minutes? It’s not 28 seconds! So here is the last step to get the number into a for that makes a little more sense. Take that decimal part, .275 minutes, and multiply that by 60 because that is how many seconds are in 1 minute.

So:

0.275 minutes x 60 = 16.5 seconds

Since this is a decimal I would just round up and say 17 seconds. If you were incredible anal and thought milliseconds on the ESTIMATED reading time really mattered, you could do more. I, however, will go no further.

So here is the math equations in its entirety and the formatted solution.

(# of Total Words) / (Average WPM) = Reading time in Minutes

455 / 200 = 2.275

Take and remaining Decimal from the “Reading Time in Minutes” answer and multiply that by 60 to get your Seconds.

0.275 x 60 = 16.5

2 Minute 17 seconds to read this article. 

(Of course I include the disclaimer that this time is Estimated. ;)

2 Minute Book Review: Along for the Ride

Reading time for this post: 1 minute, 33 seconds. Read it Later

Book: Along for the Ride
Author: Sarah Dessen
Audio book read by: Rachel Botchan


This book is a summer read that takes place the summer after high school graduation for the main character Auden, an 18 year old girl. I found myself relating closely with the main character whose family is split and father remarried. Set in a small town on the coast is definitely familiar to me, but the small town was surprisingly not used as a supporting character, thank goodness.

In fact the author did a remarkable job with creating likeable and believable characters, avoided annoying pitfalls of cliché teen dialog. Maggie was particularly likeable, and many of the characters grew on me. For a story that was a little predictable, I was sincerely grateful that there were a few surprises left for the reader.  It was a relief to have a teen romance that wasn’t wrought with drama and too much sex, it was simply a sweet love story.

I was disappointed that we didn’t get to learn more about some of the supporting characters, or for that matter, the lead love interest. The author spent a great deal of time describing Auden’s father but fails to resolve the conflict she creates, and for that I am also frustrated. At least we get to see her mother grow as an individual, her father seems to remain much the same.

What you will find in this book is some fun characters that you might have even known in your own high school years, and a charming love story with a happy ending. The title, “Along for the Ride” is used as a device to explain how when life knocks you down, you need to get back up and try again. Sometimes there are second chances.  This book was light enough and as a summer read it’s perfect. If you are looking for solid resolutions for all of the back stories, then you may be left hanging.

2 Minute Book Review: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

Reading time for this post: 1 minute, 52 seconds. Read it Later

Book: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
Author: Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
Audio book read by: Katherine Kellgren


This book was exceedingly more exciting than the original story, but I should admit I have been a Pride and Prejudice fan since first reading the book nearly ten years ago (and watching subsequent films). Adding to the humor in the story, the reader Katherine Kellgren made all the characters more relatable. Her rendition of the story made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion. The humor is subtle in some sections and is worth a second look. Not to worry, the love story did not get in the way of the zombies.  Zombies did nothing to detract from this story, and gratuitous scenes were made all the more hilarious with the matter of fact nature of the lead character Elizabeth Bennett. She certainly has the confidence, humor and sass to pull that off. Oh yeah, did I mention the ninjas?


For me, the book had plenty of gratuitous zombie sleighing scenes, and a particularly touching scene with mother and her zombie son, the last of her remaining family. Readers looking for more gore, blood, and death might be disappointed, since the book does try to add a hint of humanity as the story proceeds. I was also bummed that the book lacks even a hinted explanation of how the zombie epidemic began. I was disappointed when, at one point, attempts at medical or scientific cure for the plague were hinted at but nothing more than a mention. This is particularly distressing since it is used as a device in the story to explain a character’s behavior.

If I had to make a choice, the audio book probably makes this story more enjoyable than reading, only because this story should be presented with as much personality as possible. If you are not able to slog through the writing style of authors such as Jane Austen, reading this version of the story provides little relief. However, listening to the audio book may be the answer.

In my opinion, NOT A SUGGESTION, this zombie-filled book could be substituted for the original for the particularly immature (or the average joe). What better way to get the unwilling to read an Austen novel? I would recommend this book even to Austen fans, but only those with a sense of humor and are not afraid of the ridiculous premise.