How Long Does It Take to Read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes?
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (2020) runs about 128,000 words — roughly 517 pages in a standard paperback. At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, that is 8 hours and 58 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 Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes book quiz.
Reading time by speed
| Reading pace | Time to finish The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes |
|---|---|
| Slow (150 wpm) | 14 hours and 13 minutes |
| Average (238 wpm) | 8 hours and 58 minutes |
| Fast (350 wpm) | 6 hours and 6 minutes |
| Speed reader (450 wpm) | 4 hours and 44 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 | 36 days |
| 30 minutes per day | 18 days |
| 60 minutes per day | 9 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. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’s word count (128,000) 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 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hard to read?
Longer and slower than the trilogy - third person, an adult-register protagonist, and politics instead of arena action for the first third. Older YA and up.
Sixty-four years before Katniss, the tenth Hunger Games has no mentors, no sponsors, no showmanship - and an academy student named Coriolanus Snow gets assigned the female tribute from District 12, a singer named Lucy Gray Baird. What follows is an origin story of evil told from inside the man becoming it: every act of love doubles as an act of ambition, and by the epilogue you understand exactly how the president of the trilogy was manufactured. Think you know it already? Take the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes book quiz — eight questions, two minutes — or see how you do on the full mixed-classics book quiz.
A realistic pace plan for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Numbers help, but habits finish books. At 30 minutes a day — one coffee break or one commute — you are done in 18 days. Prefer the one-sitting test? You would need about 8 hours and 58 minutes in a single stretch, which most readers split over a weekend. And if you read 52 pages a night, the book lasts roughly 10 nights — the point is that a 517-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 Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes book quiz is a quick way to see how much stayed with you.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes?
At an average reading speed of 238 words per minute, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes about 8 hours and 58 minutes. At a fast 350 wpm it is 6 hours and 6 minutes; a slow, careful 150 wpm reader needs about 14 hours and 13 minutes.
How many pages is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes?
About 517 pages in a standard paperback edition — editions vary, so treat it as a close estimate.
How many words is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes?
Approximately 128,000 words, the figure used for every calculation on this page.
Is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hard to read?
Longer and slower than the trilogy - third person, an adult-register protagonist, and politics instead of arena action for the first third. Older YA and up.
Is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes worth the time?
Sixty-four years before Katniss, the tenth Hunger Games has no mentors, no sponsors, no showmanship - and an academy student named Coriolanus Snow gets assigned the female tribute from District 12, a singer named Lucy Gray Baird. If that sounds like your kind of book, 8 hours and 58 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 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes?
About Grades 7-10, typically read by ages 12-17. The suggested age is a guide; reading experience varies from person to person.
How long other classics take
Counting sessions instead of hours? The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has 30 chapters, about 4,266 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, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the 37th longest of the 133 classics timed here — shorter than Rebecca but longer than Life of Pi.
Planning a whole-author project? The Suzanne Collins books in order guide lists the full shelf in reading order.