How this calculator works
The plan treats each collection as a block of pages. Multiply the number of collections by the average page count to get the total, then convert pages to time using the words on a page and your reading speed for poetry. Poetry is slower than prose: a page can hold a single poem and you may read it twice. Dividing the total time by your daily slot gives the number of days, and adding that to the start date gives a finish date. The schedule spreads the collections evenly across the weeks; read a collection a week when it fits, and slow down when it does not.
Formula
total pages = collections x average pages. total minutes = total pages x words per page / words a minute. days = total minutes / minutes a day, rounded up. finish date = start date + days. weeks = collections / collections per week.
Worked example
Thirteen collections of about 70 pages is 910 pages. At 150 words a page and 120 words a minute that is 1,137.5 minutes, or about 19 hours. At 30 minutes a day you finish in 38 days. Starting 1 November 2026 puts the finish around 9 December 2026.
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Frequently asked questions
Which order should I read Glück in?
Chronological order rewards the reader: her later work refers back to earlier books, and the sequence from Firstborn to Winter Recipes from the Collective shows the change in style. Starting with The Wild Iris or Averno is also common, because they are the best known, but then return to the beginning.
Why is the poetry reading speed so low?
The default is 120 words a minute, roughly half of ordinary prose reading. Poetry invites pauses, rereading and attention to line breaks, and a slower pace gives a more honest time estimate than a novel speed.
Do the page counts come from the calculator?
No. Editions differ, so you enter the average page count for the copies you will read. The default is a planning figure, not a claim about a specific edition.
Does this include her essays?
Not by default. Proofs and Theories, her 1994 collection of essays, is prose and reads faster; add it as one more collection and raise the reading speed for that part of the plan.