Quick Reads
Many stories are under 5,000 words and can be read in under 20 minutes. Perfect for a short break or a quick literary excursion.
Reading Tracker
Choose a book, record where you are, and set a daily goal. Your progress is stored in localStorage in this browser; it is not uploaded to a user account.
No sign-up required
Stored in your browser
Estimated time remaining
Choose a book
If the EPUB has no fixed print pagination, the tool starts with an estimated page count and lets you replace it with the page total shown by your own reader.
Reading progress
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Remaining
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Estimated time left
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At your daily goal
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Stored locally
Reading history
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How the progress estimate works
The reading time estimator gives you an honest estimate of how long it will take to read a story, based on the word count. The median reading speed is used to calculate the minutes, so you can plan accordingly.
Most stories in the archive are short, with a median word count of around 8,000 words, which translates to roughly 36 minutes of reading time. This tool helps you find stories that fit your available time.
Standard Length
The majority of stories fall between 5,000 and 12,000 words, requiring about 25 to 55 minutes. These are ideal for a dedicated reading session.
Longer Works
A few stories exceed 12,000 words and may take an hour or more. These offer a more immersive reading experience.
Planning Your Progress in Pages
The Reading Tracker is a simple tool for managing your progress through a story from the OUFOS archive. It records your current page, the total pages, and a daily page goal. It doesn't track time spent or sections read—only pages. That makes it a flexible way to plan a reading schedule that fits your pace.
How the Page Estimate Works
When you open a story in the tracker, it needs a total page count. If the catalog doesn't provide one, it estimates the total by dividing the story's word count by 250—the configured words per page. For example, "The Fishdollar Affair — Background and Themes" (id 293) has 11,173 words, so the initial estimate would be about 45 pages (11,173 / 250 ≈ 44.7, rounded up).
You can replace that estimate with the page count from your own reading app or edition. That's useful if you're reading a print or e-book version that paginates differently. The tracker then uses your adjusted total to calculate remaining pages and estimated finish dates.
Setting a Daily Goal
The default daily goal is 20 pages. You can change it to anything you like, and the tracker will use it to estimate how many days you need to finish. For a story like "The Fishdollar Affair" (id 293) at roughly 45 pages, a 20-page daily goal means you'd finish in about 3 days (ceil(45/20) = 3). If you set a goal of 10 pages, that becomes 5 days.
The estimated remaining time is proportional to the reading minutes: it multiplies the story's estimated reading time by the fraction of pages remaining. For "The Fishdollar Affair" (id 293), that's 49 minutes × (remaining pages / total pages). So if you have 20 pages left, you'd expect about 22 minutes of reading (49 × 20/45 ≈ 21.8).
A Simple Example
Let's say you want to read "The Fishdollar Affair — Background and Themes" (id 293) over a few evenings. The tracker shows an estimated 45 pages. You set a daily goal of 15 pages. The tracker will tell you that you'll finish in 3 days (ceil(45/15) = 3). Each day, you update your current page, and the tracker recalculates your remaining time and finish date.
No Account, No Fuss
The tracker stores your progress history in your browser's localStorage. That means you don't need an account, and your data stays on your device. If you switch browsers or clear your cache, the history won't follow you, so it's best used for a single reading session or a short-term plan.
Because the archive is mostly short stories, the tracker is most valuable for the few longer works, such as "Arcturus Times Three — Key Ideas to Explore" (id 238) at over 16,000 words, which would estimate to around 67 pages. A page-based plan can help you make steady progress without losing your place.