Summer Reading: A War and Peace Reading Timeline

There are quite a few books on my summer reading list this year. Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, Andrea Wulf’s The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, Kiese Laymon’ s Heavy: An American Memoir, and Tara Westover’s Educated: A Memoir. But the big book I’m reading (along with my wife and a few friends) is Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

None of us has ever read War and Peace, and each of us read at different speeds. So, we wanted a reading timeline that moved us through the book at a reasonable pace. The internet is full of advice on how to break up the book into manageable chunks—some of which have readers complete the book over the course of an entire year.

We decided on reading War and Peace over three months. And, after consulting a number of online discussions, we chose Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s translation from 2008.

For readers who might be interested in reading War and Peace in bite-size pieces (about 10 pages each day), I’m sharing our 3-month reading schedule.

War+and+Peace+Cover

WEEK 1 (May 26-June 1)

  • Vol. 1, Part 1, pp. 3-111

WEEK 2 (June 2-8)

  • Vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 112-200 

WEEK 3 (June 9-15)

  • Vol. 1, Part 3, pp. 201-296

WEEK 4 (June 16-22)

  • Vol. 2, Parts 1-2, pp. 297-417

WEEK 5 (June 23-29)

  • Vol. 2, Parts 3-4, pp. 418-534

WEEK 6 (June 30-July 6)

  • Vol. 2, Part 5, pp. 535-602

WEEK 7 (July 7-13)

  • Vol. 3, Part 1, pp. 602-681

WEEK 8 (July 14-20)

  • Vol. 3, Part 2, pp. 682-820

WEEK 9 (July 21-27)

  • Vol. 3, Part 3, pp. 821-934

WEEK 10 (July 28-August 3)

  • Vol. 4, Parts 1-2, pp. 935-1030

WEEK 11 (August 4-10)

  • Vol. 4, Parts 3-4, pp. 1031-1128

WEEK 12 (August 18-24)

  • Epilogue, pp. 1129-1216

Blog PostsJason KellyTolstoy, War and Peace, reading, schedule, timelineComment