Is anyone else having problems with the "Time to Read" feature of the PW?

[jupstin]

I find that it tends to say I have much less time than I actually do. It will often say I have 1 minute remaining while I still have to advance several pages (which takes me more than 1 minute.) Is anyone else experiencing this?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by jupstin

I find that it tends to say I have much less time than I actually do. It will often say I have 1 minute remaining while I still have to advance several pages (which takes me more than 1 minute.) Is anyone else experiencing this?

Yes. Not on the PW no more, though. While it is displaying "learning reading speed" it is important to not "read" too fast by playing around. Give it some time, eventually it will relearn and adopt to your reading speed. When I upgraded my KT to 5.3.2, it never showed "learning reading speed" and the Touch thought I could finish a chapter in a minute, a whole book in 5. Just ignore it until it fixes itself, or reset like here.

[xendula]

The only thing that happened to me on the last book I finished was that it was stuck on 5h 44m for hours, which I thought was odd, as this had never happened before.

[SteveK]

Yes, I've been having problems lately with unrealistic low estimates that I wish I could actually accomplish - such as reading a 30-page chapter in 7 minutes! My TBR list would be MUCH shorter if I could actually do that!

I realize the time remaining function is only an estimate, but hopefully Amazon will be able to resolve the error, as it is useful information at times.

SteveK

[Avwriter]

Does anyone know if the estimates are established separately for each book, or does it average your speed across all the books that you read? I read much faster with some authors/genres than others, and I am hoping that this is accounted for. Otherwise, the whole feature is somewhat pointless.

[jupstin]

Interesting question. I bet it's a per-word average over all books, but I fear it may actually be a "page-turn rate" average that doesn't take font size into account. It's an irrational fear with no basis in reality.

Recently, I loaded up a "Complete Sherlock Holmes" file, and it could not come to a conclusion about how long it thinks it will take me to finish that. I'm wondering if the length of that book sort of threw a wrench in the system. It's been since adding it that I've noticed these problems.

[DuckieTigger]

jupstin, not sure what is wrong with yours. I just loaded the Complete Sherlock Holmes (the one that is free from Amazon) out of my cloud and it shows 40 1/2 hours right away. That is right around the same time to read it says for Lord of the Rings: One Volume with LotR showing 3 hours more. Have not checked if they are both about the same size (reading wise).

[jupstin]

What was happening with Sherlock Holmes was that every time I'd turn the page, it would update the total estimated reading time. It would vary from around 40 hours to 55 or more.

[HarryT]

It gets more accurate near the end of the book - which is all I really care about. I find that in the last half hour it's pretty much spot on. I use it all the time when I'm reading in bed, to decide whether to finish the book or not.

[jupstin]

I was hoping it would give me accurate estimates of chapter length for a very similar reason - sometimes I'm not sure if I should just go to sleep or push through for a couple more minutes

[sirmaru]

It averages your speed over time. If you always read at the same pace, it will get very accurate. If you skim some books and slow read others, it will never be accurate.

I slow read all my books and the time left in the chapter is very accurate.

[mewmartigan]

Mine works pretty well. I do sometimes see a separate issue though, I assume based on the book itself. For example, I just started reading Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions. My PW is telling me I have 9 hours and 20 minutes left in the book and 9 hours left in the current chapter. For reference, the book is divided into actual chapters so I am not sure what data its looking at to calculate.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

Mine works pretty well. I do sometimes see a separate issue though, I assume based on the book itself. For example, I just started reading Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions. My PW is telling me I have 9 hours and 20 minutes left in the book and 9 hours left in the current chapter. For reference, the book is divided into actual chapters so I am not sure what data its looking at to calculate.

That depends on _how_ your chapters are done. I have seen one of my side loaded books have the main part of the book as one chapter in the external TOC. So time left in book equals time left in chapter. It doesn't matter how the book looks while reading, but how the chapters look externally - e.g. on the GOTO page. Pretty sure you will see Beginning, End, Cover, and something inbetween.