Skip to content
Cover of At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Book · Non-fiction, memoir and self-help

At Home: A Short History of Private Life

by Bill Bryson

Page count, estimated reading time and reading quiz: everything to know before you start At Home: A Short History of Private Life, and the Vread challenge to get to the end.

Pages
638
Reading time
≈ 11 h 30 min
Checkpoints
18
Genre
Non-fiction
Take the challengeAlready have the app? Open the book

Free on iPhone and Android.

How long does it take to read At Home: A Short History of Private Life?

At 638 pages, At Home: A Short History of Private Life is a long book. Expect about 11 hours 30 minutes of reading to finish it, based on 250 words per page and an average reading speed of 230 words per minute. A fast reader will go quicker; a careful read (or reading in a second language) will take longer.

At 30 minutes a day, that is about 24 days of reading. At the median pace of Vread readers, 72 pages per reading day, it takes 9 reading days. For a book of this length (600 pages or more), Vread readers who finish it take a median of 6.4 days between the first and the last checkpoint (Vread Reading Barometer 2026).

Reading days to finish it
30 minutes a day24 days
Vread median pace (72 pp./day)9 days

Estimates; see the method at the bottom of the page.

Prove you read it

The Vread challenge: 18 checkpoints

  1. Checkpoint 1, page 35
  2. Checkpoint 2, page 71
  3. Checkpoint 3, page 106
  4. Checkpoint 4, page 142
  5. Checkpoint 5, page 177
  6. Checkpoint 6, page 213
  7. Checkpoint 7, page 248
  8. Checkpoint 8, page 284
  9. Checkpoint 9, page 319
  10. Checkpoint 10, page 354
  11. Checkpoint 11, page 390
  12. Checkpoint 12, page 425
  13. Checkpoint 13, page 461
  14. Checkpoint 14, page 496
  15. Checkpoint 15, page 532
  16. Checkpoint 16, page 567
  17. Checkpoint 17, page 603
  18. Checkpoint 18, page 638

In Vread, At Home: A Short History of Private Life is split into 18 checkpoints, one every 35 pages or so. At each checkpoint, a question covers the passage you have just read: a correct answer validates the step, and your progress moves forward like a training plan.

The challenge: validate all 18 checkpoints through to the last page. No giant quiz at the end, no summary to copy out: short questions along the way that prove the book was actually read. It also works as a reading quiz to check your understanding before a test.

Also available in French on Vread.

Illustrative example

Checkpoint 1/18pp. 1–35

What a checkpoint looks like

A short, precise question about the pages you have just read: a character, a place, a choice.

The answer is in the text: reply in the app.

This is not a question from At Home: A Short History of Private Life: to avoid spoilers, the real questions stay in the app.

Answer in the app, one checkpoint at a time.

Summary, quiz, reviews: frequently asked questions

How many pages is At Home: A Short History of Private Life?
The edition listed on Vread has 638 pages. The exact count varies by edition (paperback, hardback, ebook).
How long does it take to read At Home: A Short History of Private Life?
About 11 hours 30 minutes of reading, or 24 days at 30 minutes a day.
Is there a quiz on At Home: A Short History of Private Life?
Yes: the Vread app has 18 reading questions on At Home: A Short History of Private Life, one per checkpoint, unlocked as you read.
Where can I find a summary of At Home: A Short History of Private Life?
Vread does not publish summaries: the app supports reading the book itself, part by part. Checkpoint questions cover what you have just read, which makes them a good way to check you did not miss anything.

Similar books: non-fiction, memoir and self-help

All books: non-fiction, memoir and self-helpAll genres

Read At Home: A Short History of Private Life with Vread

Add the book to your library, read at your own pace in whatever format you use, and validate each checkpoint. Vread is free on iPhone and Android.

Take the challenge

Written by Vread from its catalogue data (page count of the listed edition, checkpoints, ratings aggregated from 10 ratings). No summary or publisher text is reproduced. Reading times are estimates; see the method in the Vread Reading Barometer (in French).