The Odyssey has 24 books, written in Greek hexameter verse, a poem of oral tradition committed to writing around the eighth century BCE. The story it tells takes a few weeks, but the time it covers is twenty years, because Odysseus recalls what he has lived through since he set out for Troy.
A useful division for those beginning to read groups the books into four blocks. Books I to IV are the Telemachy: Telemachus in Ithaca, in Pylos, and in Sparta, in search of his father. Books V to VIII follow Odysseus from Calypso to the palace of the Phaeacians, where he still does not give his name. Books IX to XII are the voyage he recounts himself to King Alcinous, from the land of the Cicones to the island of the Sun. Books XIII to XXIV take place in Ithaca, from the arrival to the slaughter of the suitors, the reunion with Penelope and Laertes, and the final peace.
There is a peculiarity of narration: in the middle of the poem, in Books IX to XII, the narrator gives the word to Odysseus, who speaks in the first person to the Phaeacians. For this reason the most famous episodes, such as the Cyclops, the Sirens, and the descent to the world of the dead, are told by the one who lived them, with the care and the omissions of one who tells. The rest of the poem is narrated in the third person.
To read at a relaxed pace, a good measure is six weeks of four books each, following the order of the poem's parts, about 10 pages a day. It is not necessary to read everything at once: each book contains a complete episode, and the most famous passages, such as the Cyclops, the Sirens, Odysseus's bow, and the olive-wood bed, can be read on their own.