Quick Reads
Books under 30 minutes of reading time. There are 23 quick reads, perfect for a short session. Example: 'Orders conceived and published by the Lord Major' takes about 27 minutes.
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
Reading time estimates are based on word count, assuming an average reading speed. The archive groups books into four time brackets: quick, steady, immersive, and marathon.
These estimates help you choose a book that fits your available time. The median reading time for the archive is 252 minutes, but individual titles vary widely.
Steady Reads
Books that take 30 to 119 minutes. There are 22 steady reads, suitable for an afternoon. 'Reprint of Two Tracts' fits here at 53 minutes.
Immersive Reads
Books that take 120 to 299 minutes. There are 27 immersive reads, ideal for a day of reading. 'Gilbertus Anglicus' is an example at 133 minutes.
Marathon Reads
Books that take 300 minutes or more. There are 21 marathon reads, requiring significant commitment. 'Observations on the Diseases of Seamen' takes 453 minutes.
Planning Your Reading with the Tracker
The Reading Tracker is a simple tool for anyone who wants to read a long historical work without losing momentum. It records progress in pages, not minutes or sections, so you always know where you stand. You set a daily page goal, and the tracker estimates how many days it will take to finish, based on the total number of pages.
How page counts are determined
When a book does not have a fixed page count in the catalog, the tracker estimates it by dividing the word count by 250, which is the configured words-per-page value. For example, A Book of Medical Discourses, in Two Parts — Text and Context has 37502 words, so the initial page estimate would be about 150 pages. You can replace this estimate with the total page count shown by your own reading app or edition, if it differs. That flexibility is useful because page counts vary across formats.
The tracker also calculates estimated remaining time proportionally: if you have read half the pages, you have used half the estimated reading minutes. This keeps the estimate consistent with the total reading time provided in the catalog, regardless of your pace.
Setting a daily goal
The default daily goal is 20 pages, but you can adjust it to anything that fits your schedule. For a book like A Book of Medical Discourses, in Two Parts — Text and Context, 20 pages per day would mean finishing in about eight days (150 pages divided by 20). If you prefer a slower pace, 10 pages per day would take about fifteen days. The tracker uses the ceiling function to estimate finish days, so even a fraction of a day counts as a full day.
Your progress history is stored in localStorage in your current browser, so you do not need an account. This also means the data is tied to that browser; if you switch devices, you will start fresh. The tracker is designed for personal planning, not for syncing across devices.
Using the tracker with a real book
Suppose you choose A Book of Medical Discourses, in Two Parts — Text and Context as your next read. The tracker shows the current page (starting at 1), the total pages (about 150), and your daily goal. As you read, you update the current page, and the tracker recalculates the remaining time and finish date. If you fall behind one day, you can adjust the goal or simply continue the next day; the tracker does not judge, it just records.
The tracker does not record sections or minutes as progress, so you should rely on page numbers rather than chapter breaks. This is a deliberate choice: pages are a consistent unit across books, while sections vary widely in length. By focusing on pages, the tracker gives you a steady, predictable measure of your advance through the text.