MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Reading stats are completely broken (probable explanation included!)

sgeiger · 01-03-2012, 06:20 PM

I know someone else with a Kobo Touch and we both have the same issue with the Reading Life stats -- they're completely broken. Specifically, the "minutes each session" number is always really, REALLY far from reality. Here's a perfect example: Last night I started reading a book for the first time (it had never even been opened on any of my devices). I read for 50 minutes straight. I never left the reading app, and never put it into standby. When I finished reading, I went into Reading Life to see that with that particular book my average "minutes each session" was "7" instead of "50". It got the "hours read" and "pages turned" numbers right, but somehow managed to calculate my average session length incorrectly. Seeing as the math for this would be "sum of lengths of all reading sessions" divided by "number of reading sessions", that math would simply be 50/1.

I think I've figured out the problem though (and I sure hope the Kobo devs are reading if they're not aware of this) -- every time you add a highlight or note, have a word defined, and/or invoke the in-book menu (tap the centre of the screen), it sees that as closing your reading session and starts a new one once you're done. In my 50 minutes of reading I did one of those things about seven times (50/7 DOES equal about 7).

I tested this by picking up the same book again today (for the second time ever) and read for 25 minutes straight, this time not highlighting, defining etc etc etc. When I was done, the "minutes per session" figure had lept to "9", which, if you assume it had indeed decided I had seven sessions averaging seven minutes each, makes perfect sense when you add a 25 minute session to that calculation (7+7+7+7+7+7+7+25=9).

This would also explain why my global stats on iOS say that I average only 1.8 pages per session. For this to be true I would have to have had 411 reading sessions. I've had the Kobo for 15 days and doubt I've ever picked it up more than five times in a day (which would be 75 sessions -- a far cry from 411)

I can't imagine this is by design. If I sit down for an hour and read one book -- even if I stop to get a definition or add a note, I would consider that one hour of reading ... all at once. Not multiple consecutieve tiny bursts of a few minutes .

Personally I find the stats keeping option to be a pretty cool feature of eReading. I would really hope that the kobo devs would iron this and all the other stat-keeping features out.

Can anyone confirm the same issue? It's very easy to try out!

01-03-2012, 06:20 PM	#1
sgeiger Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Ottawa ONT Device: Kobo Touch	Reading stats are completely broken (probable explanation included!) I know someone else with a Kobo Touch and we both have the same issue with the Reading Life stats -- they're completely broken. Specifically, the "minutes each session" number is always really, REALLY far from reality. Here's a perfect example: Last night I started reading a book for the first time (it had never even been opened on any of my devices). I read for 50 minutes straight. I never left the reading app, and never put it into standby. When I finished reading, I went into Reading Life to see that with that particular book my average "minutes each session" was "7" instead of "50". It got the "hours read" and "pages turned" numbers right, but somehow managed to calculate my average session length incorrectly. Seeing as the math for this would be "sum of lengths of all reading sessions" divided by "number of reading sessions", that math would simply be 50/1. I think I've figured out the problem though (and I sure hope the Kobo devs are reading if they're not aware of this) -- every time you add a highlight or note, have a word defined, and/or invoke the in-book menu (tap the centre of the screen), it sees that as closing your reading session and starts a new one once you're done. In my 50 minutes of reading I did one of those things about seven times (50/7 DOES equal about 7). I tested this by picking up the same book again today (for the second time ever) and read for 25 minutes straight, this time not highlighting, defining etc etc etc. When I was done, the "minutes per session" figure had lept to "9", which, if you assume it had indeed decided I had seven sessions averaging seven minutes each, makes perfect sense when you add a 25 minute session to that calculation (7+7+7+7+7+7+7+25=9). This would also explain why my global stats on iOS say that I average only 1.8 pages per session. For this to be true I would have to have had 411 reading sessions. I've had the Kobo for 15 days and doubt I've ever picked it up more than five times in a day (which would be 75 sessions -- a far cry from 411) I can't imagine this is by design. If I sit down for an hour and read one book -- even if I stop to get a definition or add a note, I would consider that one hour of reading ... all at once. Not multiple consecutieve tiny bursts of a few minutes . Personally I find the stats keeping option to be a pretty cool feature of eReading. I would really hope that the kobo devs would iron this and all the other stat-keeping features out. Can anyone confirm the same issue? It's very easy to try out!