How Long Does It Take to Read New Moon?
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (2006) runs about 132,758 words — roughly 563 pages in a standard paperback. At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, that is 9 hours and 18 minutes of reading. The tables below break it down by pace and by daily reading sessions, and you can calculate reading time for any book or test how well you know this one with the New Moon book quiz.
Reading time by speed
| Reading pace | Time to finish New Moon |
|---|---|
| Slow (150 wpm) | 14 hours and 45 minutes |
| Average (238 wpm) | 9 hours and 18 minutes |
| Fast (350 wpm) | 6 hours and 19 minutes |
| Speed reader (450 wpm) | 4 hours and 55 minutes |
Reading in daily sessions
Prefer a nightly page goal? Here is how long the book lasts as a daily habit:
| Session length | Days to finish |
|---|---|
| 15 minutes per day | 38 days |
| 30 minutes per day | 19 days |
| 60 minutes per day | 10 days |
Where the numbers come from
The average adult reads 238 words per minute for non-fiction and around 238–300 wpm for easy fiction, according to Marc Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis of 190 reading-rate studies — the number most reading-time tools use. New Moon’s word count (132,758) is an estimate for a standard text or translation; translations and editions vary, so treat both word and page counts as planning figures. For a custom edition or your own pace, the reading time calculator does the math for any word count.
Is New Moon hard to read?
Easy, fast prose - the emotional pitch is the difficulty, not the words. The middle stretch is genuinely bleak before the Volturi chapters turn it into a race.
On her eighteenth birthday Bella gets a paper cut, a vampire almost kills her by accident, and Edward makes the decision that defines the book: the Cullens leave Forks so she can have a human life. What follows is four hundred pages of grief - blank months on a calendar, a rebuilt motorcycle, and a werewolf best friend - until a vision of a cliff dive drags Edward to Italy to die. Think you know it already? Take the New Moon book quiz — eight questions, two minutes — or see how you do on the full mixed-classics book quiz.
A realistic pace plan for New Moon
Numbers help, but habits finish books. At 30 minutes a day — one coffee break or one commute — you are done in 19 days. Prefer the one-sitting test? You would need about 9 hours and 18 minutes in a single stretch, which most readers split over a weekend. And if you read 56 pages a night, the book lasts roughly 11 nights — the point is that a 563-page classic shrinks fast once the session is fixed. Readers who finish long books almost never “find time”; they pick the session size first and let the days accumulate.
Your pace may vary from chapter to chapter, especially when the language or ideas are unfamiliar. Leave a little room in your plan for slower passages. When you turn the last page, the New Moon book quiz is a quick way to see how much stayed with you.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read New Moon?
At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, New Moon takes about 9 hours and 18 minutes. At a fast 350 wpm it is 6 hours and 19 minutes; a slow, careful 150 wpm reader needs about 14 hours and 45 minutes.
How many pages is New Moon?
About 563 pages in a standard paperback edition — editions vary, so treat it as a close estimate.
How many words is New Moon?
Approximately 132,758 words, the figure used for every calculation on this page.
Is New Moon hard to read?
Easy, fast prose - the emotional pitch is the difficulty, not the words. The middle stretch is genuinely bleak before the Volturi chapters turn it into a race.
Is New Moon worth the time?
On her eighteenth birthday Bella gets a paper cut, a vampire almost kills her by accident, and Edward makes the decision that defines the book: the Cullens leave Forks so she can have a human life. If that sounds like your kind of book, 9 hours and 18 minutes is a reasonable price for one of the most-read titles in its genre — and the quiz linked above tells you whether an earlier read already stuck.
What reading level is New Moon?
About Grades 9-12, typically read by ages 14-17. The suggested age is a guide; reading experience varies from person to person.
How long other classics take
Counting sessions instead of hours? New Moon has 24 chapters, about 5,531 words each. Every title on the shelf is timed the same way in how long to read: 133 classics, timed — from Animal Farm’s single afternoon to War and Peace’s two-week campaign. For scale, New Moon is the 35th longest of the 133 classics timed here — shorter than The Odyssey but longer than Rebecca.
Planning a whole-author project? The Stephenie Meyer books in order guide lists the full shelf in reading order.