Quick Reads
These works can be finished in under two hours. For example, 'Practical Rules for the Management of a Locomotive Engine' is about 41 minutes, and 'Types of Canoes on Puget Sound' around 46 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
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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
Reading time estimates are based on the word count of each book and a typical reading speed of about 230 words per minute. These are honest approximations, not promises—your actual pace will vary with the difficulty of the text and your familiarity with the subject.
The catalog groups books into four time brackets: quick (under 2 hours), steady (2–4 hours), immersive (4–8 hours), and marathon (over 8 hours). Use these to plan your reading sessions.
Steady Reads
Books in this range take two to four hours. 'The Road — Story, Setting & Ideas' is about 212 minutes, and 'The Future of Road-making in America' about 166 minutes.
Longer Works
For those who want a deeper dive, these books take four hours or more. 'Jacquard Weaving and Designing' runs about 435 minutes, and 'Catechism of the Locomotive' about 630 minutes.
Steady Progress: Using the Reading Tracker for Historical Engineering Books
The Reading Tracker is built around a simple idea: you make progress by reading a set number of pages each day. It records your current page, the total pages in the book, and a daily page goal. From these, it estimates how many days remain and how much time you will spend reading. This works for any book in the library, whether it is a short manual or a lengthy history.
The tracker does not measure sections or minutes as progress—only pages. This means you can focus on the physical act of reading without worrying about chapters or time. It also allows you to adjust the total page count if your edition differs from the library's estimate, so the tracker remains accurate for your specific copy.
Setting Your Daily Page Goal
The default daily goal is 20 pages, but you can change it to whatever fits your schedule. If you have 30 minutes a day, you might set a goal of 15 pages; if you have a free afternoon, 40 pages might be reasonable. The tracker uses this goal to calculate the estimated finish date. For example, "Electric Gas Lighting: How to Install Electric Gas Ignition Apparatus — Reading Companion" (id 253) has an estimated total of 79 pages (based on its 19,609 words at 250 words per page). At 20 pages a day, you would finish in about 4 days.
You can also update the total page count if your edition has different pagination. The tracker then recalculates the remaining time proportionally, so your estimate stays realistic.
Understanding the Estimates
The estimated remaining time is proportional: if you have read half the pages, you have roughly half the estimated minutes left. This is a simple way to see how much time you have invested and how much more you need. The estimated finish days are calculated by dividing the remaining pages by your daily goal, rounded up.
For a book like "Electric Gas Lighting" with 79 pages, if you have read 30 pages and your goal is 20 pages a day, you have 49 pages left, which will take about 3 days. This can help you plan your week and avoid the discouragement of a long, open-ended project.
Tracking Without an Account
Your progress is stored in your browser's localStorage, so you do not need an account. This means you can close the page and return later, and your current page and goal will still be there. It also means that if you switch browsers or devices, you will need to set your progress again, so it is best to use the same browser for a given book.
The tracker is a tool for your own planning; it does not rate the book or compare you to other readers. It simply helps you turn a large reading project into a daily habit, one page at a time.