If you either set the bar to "all at once", or if there's only one item enabled (i.e., the bar itself or whatever flavor of chapter progress you prefer [there's page left or time left in chapter, IIRC]), that will effectively make the "tap on the bar to cycle" behavior a toggle, which gets you one tap away from chapter progress, while not having to live with the status bar 100% of the time
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Granted, getting used to the tiny tap zone of the bar itself may take some getting used to
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The crappy touch layer of the Aura One will probably not help on that front... If you end up triggering the bottom menu far too often instead, I *think* there's an option to make the menu swipe only or something
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(If you were using a device with raised bezels, I'd say don't hesitate to wedge your finger against the bezel itself, but, again, Aura One ;p).