Quick Reads
Most stories are under 30 minutes to read. They are ideal for a lunch break or a short commute.
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
0%
0 / 0 pages
Remaining
—
Estimated time left
—
At your daily goal
—
Stored locally
Reading history
| Date | Start | End | Read |
|---|
How the progress estimate works
The Reading tool gives you honest estimates for how long a story will take to read, based on word count and average reading speed. It also shows the number of text sections, so you can plan your reading session.
The archive's stories are mostly quick reads, with 90 out of 91 falling in the quick category (under 30 minutes). The median reading time is 40 minutes, but that is pulled up by a few longer pieces.
Steady Reads
A few stories take around an hour. These offer a more substantial reading experience.
Section Count
Stories are divided into sections. Single-section stories are continuous, while multi-section ones have natural break points.
Planning Your Progress Page by Page
Reading Tracker is a simple tool for keeping track of how far you have come in a book and how much is left. It records progress in pages, not in sections or minutes. That is an important distinction: you set a daily page goal, and the tracker estimates how many days it will take to finish based on that goal. It does not track time spent reading, so it is best used as a planning aid rather than a stopwatch.
Setting Up Your Page Count
When you open the tracker for a book, it needs a total page count. If the catalog does not have a fixed page count, the tool estimates one by dividing the word count by 250 words per page. For example, "The Prison of the Stars — A Reader’s Guide" (id 285) has 19,374 words, so the initial estimate would be about 78 pages (19,374 divided by 250, rounded up). That is a reasonable starting point.
You are not stuck with that estimate. If your reading app or edition shows a different total, you can replace it. This is useful because page counts vary by edition, font size, and device. The tracker is designed to adapt to your actual copy.
Once the total is set, you enter your current page. If you have already read some, you can mark that. The tracker then shows how many pages remain and, with your daily goal, how many days it will take to finish.
Choosing a Daily Goal
The default daily goal is 20 pages, which is a reasonable pace for many readers. But you can adjust it to fit your schedule. If you have more time on weekends, you might set a higher goal. If you prefer shorter daily sessions, a lower goal works too.
The tracker uses your goal to estimate the finish date. For "The Prison of the Stars," if you set a goal of 20 pages per day, the estimated remaining days would be the remaining pages divided by 20, rounded up. If you have 78 pages total and start at page 1, that is 78 divided by 20, which is 3.9, so the tracker would show 4 days. That gives you a concrete target without any pressure to read for a specific number of minutes.
Using the Tracker with the Rest of the Archive
The tracker is most useful when you have already chosen a book, but it can also help you decide. If you know you can read 20 pages a day, you can estimate how long any book will take. For a shorter story like "Alpha Say, Beta Do — Background and Themes" (id 301) with 8,615 words, the page estimate would be about 35 pages, so you could finish in two days. For a longer one like "The Prison of the Stars," it would be four days.
This page-based planning works well with the archive's short stories. Many are under 10,000 words, which translates to under 40 pages at 250 words per page. That means most books can be finished in a few days even with a modest daily goal. The tracker makes that visible, so you can plan your reading without overcommitting.
Remember, the tracker does not measure progress in sections or minutes. It is purely about pages. That simplicity is its strength: you only need to know your page count and your daily goal. Everything else is optional.