Aura H2O Start and end date for read books

[dillsandwitch]

Is there any way to see what date I started/finished reading a book on my H20 Aura (gen1) or through calibre? I would really like to be able to just pull up a finished books stats and have it tell me when I began and ended the book so I can update it to my goodreads profile.

TIA
Dill

[Terisa de morgan]

Finished yes, you can use the Kobo Utilities plugin to recover the last updated date. Start, I'm afraid I don't know a way to do it as I think there's only a date in the Kobo database.

[davidfor]

There is a start date in the database. I haven't looked at it enough to see the exact rules for it and it isn't something I'm in a hurry to add to the Kobo Utilities plugin.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There is a start date in the database. I haven't looked at it enough to see the exact rules for it and it isn't something I'm in a hurry to add to the Kobo Utilities plugin.

How do you say me that? Now I have to look at it

[JSWolf]

If there is a start date, I'd love some way to be able to extract that.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There is a start date in the database. I haven't looked at it enough to see the exact rules for it and it isn't something I'm in a hurry to add to the Kobo Utilities plugin.

Which is the field? The only thing I've found that it could be is "LastTimeStartedReading", and it looks like something for Sync. There is "DateAdded" and "DateCreated" but nothing I think it can be for starting.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Which is the field? The only thing I've found that it could be is "LastTimeStartedReading", and it looks like something for Sync. There is "DateAdded" and "DateCreated" but nothing I think it can be for starting.

The content table has the following dates/timestamps:

• DateCreated - Date book added to your account. Should only be set for purchased kepub
• DateLastRead - Last time you were reading the books
• ___SyncTime - When the book was put on the device. For purchased books, this is when the file was synced from the server.
• WishlistedDate - Not used.
• DateAdded - Use for Pocket articles. I don't know if it is when the article was added to Pocket, or put on the device.
• LastTimeStartedReading - Last time the ReadStatus was changed to 1. That means the book was opened from either the Unread or Finished states. But, only for purchased kepubs.
• LastTimeFinishedReading - Last time the book was finished and ReadStatus was changed to 2. Again, only for purchased kepubs.
• AdobeLoanExpiration - I assume this is when a library book borrowed and sideloaded through ADE will expire. I don't have any like this, so I'm not sure.

You seem to be right about LastTimeStartedReading. It looks like it is only populated if there is a sync. I'm reading a purchased kepub on my Aura H2O. Both LastTimeStartedReading and LastTimeFinishedReading are null. But, on my Glo HD, LastTimeStartedReading has a timestamp which would be about when I started it. It looks like these only get populated if you have multiple devices. I just tested this by opening the book on the Glo HD and syncing it and the Aura H2O. The LastTimeStartedReading on the Aura H2O now has a value. I don't see the point of doing it this way. Just set the value on the device the book is first opened on and then sync to the others.

Anyway, this all means that that field isn't that useful to extract. The newish field that I probably should be getting is probably "TimeSpentReading". This is the time in seconds spent reading and is populated for sideloaded books (at least when other elements of the stats recording is working).

[oren64]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The content table has the following dates/timestamps:

• DateCreated - Date book added to your account. Should only be set for purchased kepub

So sort by date added only work on purchased kepub?

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

Is there any way to see what date I started/finished reading a book on my H20 Aura (gen1) or through calibre? I would really like to be able to just pull up a finished books stats and have it tell me when I began and ended the book so I can update it to my goodreads profile.

TIA
Dill

What I do is simply add another column in Calibre for a date, and there I enter when I finished the book. I always start another book immediately, so I could simply sort by date and know from that when I started any book, by using the previous finished date.

You could add another column for when you start a book, but that would only be useful if you wait several days or weeks between picking up another book to read.

I rarely rely on the automated dates, they usually go by when you last opened a book. That will work if you never open a book other than your current read. I sometimes find myself reading a series and going back to a previous book just to check who a person is or something that just catches me wrong, and that would set all the automated date retrievals off as if you just finished the book again.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by oren64

So sort by date added only work on purchased kepub?

From memory, the "Date added" sort is using the "___SyncTime". So it is when the book was last added to the device.

[oren64]

Originally Posted by davidfor

From memory, the "Date added" sort is using the "___SyncTime". So it is when the book was last added to the device.

Is it possible that the KoboTouchExtended driver will set the "___SyncTime" column when sending books to device with the current date?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by oren64

Is it possible that the KoboTouchExtended driver will set the "___SyncTime" column when sending books to device with the current date?

Not really. The drivers cannot change the database until the book has been imported. While the driver could set this the next time the device is connected, I don't think it should. I don't really think this is something the drivers should do.

In any case, the Kobo Utilities already has the function. It can set the timestamps used by the "Date Added" sort. The metadata update lets you choose one of the dates in calibre.

[theinfamousj]

As a slight redirection of the thread ... is there a way to get the date a book was finished from the device, itself, without needing Calibre so that I can check against Calibre for accuracy?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by theinfamousj

As a slight redirection of the thread ... is there a way to get the date a book was finished from the device, itself, without needing Calibre so that I can check against Calibre for accuracy?

Other than using my Kobo Utilities plugin? The plugin reads the database on the device and gets the date from there. You can use a SQLite database manager to look and do the comparison.

But, what do you think is inaccurate? The device or your recording in calibre?

[theinfamousj]

Originally Posted by davidfor

But, what do you think is inaccurate? The device or your recording in calibre?

I don't particularly think anything is inaccurate right now, but I'm someone who always likes to have more than one way to access the same information. I consider it future-proofing.