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Originally Posted by davidfor
I didn't say that. I do like the look of the stats. I was mainly questioning the use completing the circle to the lengths. They need something extra for when the book is more than 500 pages.
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Of course. I didn't want to imply that. What I meant is that, like you, I don't find the circle appropriate because a full circle seems to represent 500 pages. Kobo needs to add one or more (inner/outer) circles, depending on the number of pages. Otherwise, the circle in it's current incarnation is no use as a visual indicator and the designers should choose another way to visually represent the number of pages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor
They are probably using the Adobe page count algorithm. Their ereaders do this for epubs and it is an option for kepubs. And of course it is innacurate and depends on so many other things. But, so long as they use the same algorithm across their site, it gives a good relative size. And is more understandable to most people, myself included. That's how I have compared length of novels for as long as I've been reading. I can see word count is probably better but I don't have a feel for what it means yet.
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I agree, it's definitely better than nothing or the abstract word count. You're obviously right insofar as the relative size is concerned. Didn't think of that in the heat of the moment. Still, I do like data to be accurate and the number of pages isn't. Martin's
A Dance with Dragons is off by ~300 pages, compared to the MMPB (and my settings). I'd draw the wrong conclusions, at least until I've gotten used to the stats (or until Kobo changes the algorithm for unknown reasons).
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor
I assumed the reading time is based on some words per minute or pages per minute for a mythical average reader. It would be nice to think they are calculating it based on their user base, or even better, based on my stats, but I doubt it.
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Looks like Kobo is assuming somewhere around 290 words per page and a reading speed of roughly 12 000 words per hour, which coincides with the average reading speed of 200 words per minute. That's suspiciously close to your mythical average reader.
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor
And why would the backmatter be excluded? The appendices are parts of the books and get read, so they should be included. Excluding "Bonus" material like the first chapter of the next book in the series would be a good, but that needs some sort of indication in the book if the calculation is to be automated. But again, that is still part of the book, so if the time is for reading "cover to cover", it should be included.
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I've never actually
read appendices or glossaries. Sure, I use them to look up some terms or whatever can be found there but mostly I don't have to. As far as forewords, acknowledgments, TOCs, introductions, prefaces, etc. are concerned, you don't have to read them to understand the book. They might help with some things but they're usually not essential for the story. That's different for nonfiction books.