how long does it take to read?

How long does it take to read a long classic of philosophy? That will vary, of course. We all know to read one of the great classics with proper care may take “several weeks”, but what I mean is– how much time in terms of hours spent reading?

Well, I actually tested this last summer. I was doing a very thorough reread of Logical Investigations, “thorough” meaning that I took notes on each and every interesting point that came up in all of that massive work.

The statistics are back in Cairo, but I think the answer was something like 37 hours of actual reading time to read the whole of it.

“No problem,” you might think. “Less than a normal work week.” But as you all know, an hour of reading Husserl intensely is pretty draining.

The good news is, those are great notes. I won’t have to read L.I. cover-to-cover again for at least a decade. The current notes are a perfect road map and summary.