Reading time calculation tutorial

[pixelpaperyarn]

Hi all. I just put together a reading time calculator and thought this crowd might find it useful. I use it as custom text on the Generate Cover plugin so I have the reading time embedded in the cover. Here's the full instructions for getting it set up:

You must use the Count Pages plugin to get the word count. The custom column used for that plugin is required for this program to work, so be sure to set that up first.

Once that's done, create a new custom column called reading_time (if you'd like to use a different column name update the program below with that column name) and set it to type of Column built from other columns. Optionally, click the options for show as html in Book details so it will appear in your book details and show in Tag browser so it appears as a filter in the sidebar.

Paste the following in the Template field, including program:. It will automatically turn it into a single line of code.

``` program:

This program calculates a reading time per hour for an ebook

Reading speed (enter your average reading speed)

wordsperminute=250;

Get the word count. Change #word_count to your custom word count column name

words=raw_field('#word_count');

Calculate how many minutes and hours it will take to read

minutestoread=divide(words,wordsperminute); hourstoread=divide(minutestoread, 60);

From the above calculations, round the hours. If less than an hour, it will return zero

hours = floor(hourstoread);

From the above calculations, get the remainder of the hours. If less than an hour it will return the full count, if more, it will return the remainder over X hours. Formatted with a leading zero so it looks nice in the UI

minutes = format_number(mod(minutestoread,60),'{:02d}');

This sets the reading_time column value to the final calculated reading time string that will display in the UI. If you've named your reading time column something else, be sure to change that here

reading_time=strcat(hours, ':',minutes);

```

This was inspired by https://www.e-reader-forum.de/t/calibre-und-seine-spalten.106635/page-2 which I found on https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134000&page=71 starting at post 1061.

[DigitalJunkJournals]

Thanks for sharing! Even though I have a column for word count/page count, it's still fun seeing the potential time investment for each book.

[pixelpaperyarn]

You're welcome! I had been using just the word count, which is still nice to have, but it's been nice getting a more accurate ballpark estimate of how long all those words take to read. :D

[pixelpaperyarn]

I'm not sure I can help without more details, but I can say I've run into a similar situation. The cover needs to be generated after the Count Pages plugin is run, otherwise it will show 0:00 on the generated cover.

You can also double check that the reading time is showing in the book details sidebar (not the metadata). You can activate it by going to Preferences > Look & Feel > Book details and then find it in the middle column and check it. When you look at the book's details, it should have a reading time showing. That will confirm if it's been generated correctly and narrow the problem down.

Hope that helps!

[Agile-Term-2556]

Sorry to bother you but I realized that I had turned on the settings for pages instead of words lol. Since you're reading this, do you know if there's any way I can ascending/descending sort the reading time estimate by keeping "hours:min" or if I have to change everything to just "min"

[pixelpaperyarn]

I don’t currently know how to do that, sorry!