My Life and Work: reading level, length and free edition

Name: My Life and Work
Author: Henry Ford

My Life and Work by Henry Ford is a memoir in English. Our team rates it B1. It runs to 93,814 words with 6,773 different word forms, about 8–16 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.

By the Readlang Mobile team (an independent app, not affiliated with readlang.com). Updated 31 October 2026.

Author: Henry Ford
Language: English
Level: B1
Form: memoir
Words: 93,814
Different word forms: 6,773
Forms for 95% / 98%: 3,009 / 4,897
Reading time: 8–16 h
Free edition: Project Gutenberg

"My Life and Work" by Henry Ford is a historical account written in the early 20th century. The text provides insights into Ford’s life, his philosophical approaches to business, manufacturing, and the transformative impact of the automobile on society. It serves as a reflection on his experiences and the principles that guided the operations of Ford Motor Company. The opening of the work introduces the reader to Ford’s foundational beliefs regarding work and service as central to a successful life and business. He emphasizes the value of hard work and intelligent planning, critiquing the then-prevailing attitudes towards finance and profit-driven approaches that neglected genuine customer satisfaction. Ford recounts his early fascination with machinery and mechanics, sharing anecdotes from his childhood and early career that led to the development of his automobiles. This segment highlights his desire to innovate and improve production processes, setting the stage for his later successes in the automotive industry.

Is My Life and Work right for your level?

To recognise 95% of the running words in My Life and Work, you need its 3,009 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 4,897. The median English B1 book in our table needs 702 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is harder than most for its level: number 16 of 21, easiest first.

A word form is any spelling that appears in the text, so “walk” and “walked” count twice, and names count too. These numbers are a guide to how much vocabulary the book asks for, not a test. The level itself was set by hand by our team. Before you commit, read one page of the free edition and count the words you do not know: the one-page test takes two minutes.

Which words should you know before you start?

These are the words that My Life and Work uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 309 English books in our library; the number is how many times each appears. Names of people and places are left out. Learning a handful of them first makes the opening chapters easier.

production 166
cars 143
wages 107
factory 87
plant 86
motor 79
industry 78
machine 70
waste 69
automobile 68
cent 66
engine 65
prices 64
dollars 60
manufacturing 58

How does it begin?

We have only started on our development of our country—we have not as yet, with all our talk of wonderful progress, done more than scratch the surface. The progress has been wonderful enough—but when we compare what we have done with what there is to do, then our past accomplishments are as nothing.

From the Project Gutenberg edition, which is in the public domain. If this paragraph already feels slow, try a book one level lower.

How long does it take to read?

Hours to read *My Life and Work* (93,814 words) at four reading speeds.
Words	100 wpm	150 wpm	200 wpm	250 wpm
93,814	16 h	10 h	8 h	6.5 h

Learners reading a book at their level often manage 100 to 150 words per minute, and readers in their first language 200 to 250. Where these speeds come from, and a calculator for your own: How long does it take to read a book?

Where can you read it for free?

The free edition is Project Gutenberg eBook #7213. Project Gutenberg publishes books that are in the public domain in the United States, as EPUB, Kindle and plain text, free and without an account. Copyright terms differ by country: if you live outside the United States, check that the book is out of copyright where you are before you download it.

To read it with a translation over every word you tap, open it in Readlang Mobile on iPhone or iPad.