Quick reads
Stories under 30 minutes. The shortest titles, like 'The Dancers' at 21 minutes, fit neatly into a coffee break.
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
The Reading tool provides a realistic estimate of how long each story will take to read. It uses the story's word count and an average reading speed of 228 words per minute. The archive's median reading time is about 41 minutes, but individual stories range from 21 to 120 minutes.
Remember that these are estimates. Your own pace may be faster or slower depending on the text's complexity and your familiarity with older science fiction. Use the estimate to plan a reading session that fits your available time.
Standard reads
Most titles fall between 30 and 60 minutes. These are ideal for a lunch hour or an evening stretch.
Longer sessions
A few stories exceed 90 minutes, such as 'Shannach—The Last' at 102 minutes. Set aside a dedicated block for these.
Planning Your Reading: Using the Tracker
The Reading Tracker helps you set a daily page goal and monitor your progress through a book. It records your current page, total pages, and daily goal, and it estimates how many days it will take to finish. The tracker is built around pages, not minutes or sections, so you will need to think in terms of pages as you read.
Setting up a book
When you start a new book, the tracker needs to know the total page count. If the catalog does not provide one, it estimates the total by dividing the word count by 250. For example, The Rhizoid Kill — Reading Notes has 7,479 words, which gives an estimated total of about 30 pages. You can accept that estimate or replace it with the page count from your own reading app or edition. This is useful if you are reading a print copy with different pagination.
The default daily goal is 20 pages, but you can adjust it to match your available reading time. If you usually read for 30 minutes a day, you might set a goal of 15 pages; if you have more time, you might set it higher. The tracker uses this goal to estimate how many days it will take to finish the book.
Tracking progress
As you read, you update your current page in the tracker. It then calculates your remaining pages and estimates the remaining reading time, based on the book's estimated total reading minutes. For The Rhizoid Kill — Reading Notes, which has an estimated reading time of 33 minutes, if you have read 10 of 30 pages, you have about 22 minutes left. The tracker also estimates your finish date by dividing the remaining pages by your daily goal.
The progress history is stored in your browser's localStorage, so you do not need an account. You can close the page and come back later; your progress will still be there. This makes it easy to track multiple books at once, though you will need to switch between them manually.
Using the tracker to choose
You can also use the tracker before you start a book, to see if a title fits your schedule. If you want to finish a book in a week, you can estimate how many pages you need to read each day. For a longer book like The Lost Tribes of Venus — Background and Themes, with an estimated 110 minutes of reading time, you might need a higher daily page goal. The tracker gives you a concrete plan, so you can decide whether a book is worth starting now or saving for a weekend.
Adjusting as you go
Your reading pace may change, and the tracker allows you to update your daily goal at any time. If you find you are reading more pages than expected, you can increase the goal and finish sooner. If life gets busy, you can lower it and extend the timeline. The tracker is a tool to support your reading, not a strict schedule. The goal is to help you make steady progress, one page at a time.