Quick Reads
A handful of books are under 40,000 words, such as 'Remarks on a passage from the river Balise' at about 7,000 words.
Reading Tracker
Choose a book, record where you are, and set a daily goal. Your progress is stored in localStorage in this browser; it is not uploaded to a user account.
No sign-up required
Stored in your browser
Estimated time remaining
Choose a book
If the EPUB has no fixed print pagination, the tool starts with an estimated page count and lets you replace it with the page total shown by your own reader.
Reading progress
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Remaining
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Estimated time left
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At your daily goal
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Stored locally
Reading history
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How the progress estimate works
Estimate how long it will take to read any book in the archive. The estimate is based on the book's word count and your personal reading speed, typically 200-250 words per minute for an average reader.
The archive includes works of varying lengths, from short accounts to epic narratives. Use this tool to find a book that fits your available time.
Steady Journeys
Many works fall in the 40,000-80,000 word range, suitable for a few evenings of reading.
Marathon Books
For those who enjoy longer reads, several works exceed 200,000 words, like 'Nicaragua'.
Planning Your Reading with the Tracker
The Reading Tracker is a simple page-based progress tool. It records your current page, the total pages in the book, and a daily page goal. Progress is measured in pages, not sections or minutes. If the catalog does not have a fixed page count, the tracker estimates total pages by dividing the word count by 250 words per page. You can override that estimate with the total from your own edition or reading app. The tracker then estimates remaining time and finish days based on your daily goal.
Setting Up a Book
To begin, select a book and the tracker will show an estimated total page count. For example, "Buttrick's voyages, 1812-1819; Evans's Pedestrious tour, 1818 — Background and Themes" (id 299) has 115,637 words, so the initial estimate is ceil(115637 / 250) = 463 pages. If your edition has a different page count, you can enter that number. The tracker will then use your total to calculate remaining time and days.
The default daily goal is 20 pages, but you can adjust it to match your reading habits. If you set a goal of 20 pages per day, the tracker estimates finish days as ceil(remaining_pages / daily_goal). For a 463-page book, that is ceil(463 / 20) = 24 days. If you prefer a slower pace, say 10 pages a day, it would take 47 days. The tracker helps you see how different goals affect your timeline.
Tracking Progress
As you read, you update your current page. The tracker stores your progress in your browser's localStorage, so you can close the page and return later without an account. It does not track sections or minutes, so you will need to convert your reading into pages. If you read a chapter that spans 15 pages, you move your current page forward by 15.
The estimated remaining time is proportional: estimated_minutes × remaining_pages / total_pages. For "Buttrick's voyages," the estimated reading time is 503 minutes. If you are on page 200 of 463, the remaining pages are 263, so the estimate is 503 × 263 / 463 ≈ 286 minutes. That is a rough guide, assuming your pace matches the average. Your actual time may vary.
Adjusting the Total Page Count
The initial estimate of 250 words per page is a default. Different editions have different layouts, font sizes, and margins, so your actual page count may be higher or lower. If you are using an e-reader, it often shows a location or page number that you can use. For a print edition, you can look at the last numbered page. Replacing the total with your edition's count makes the tracker more accurate.
For a book like "Buttrick's voyages," if your edition has 500 pages instead of 463, the remaining time estimate will adjust accordingly. The tracker is designed to be flexible, so you can update it as you learn more about your edition.
Using the Tracker for Multiple Books
The tracker stores progress per book, so you can use it for several books at once. If you are reading one long book and one short book simultaneously, you can track both. The daily goal is global, so you might set it to the total pages you want to read across all books. For example, if you want to read 20 pages a day total, you can allocate 15 pages to one book and 5 to another. The tracker will show each book's finish date based on its own remaining pages and your goal.