# Digest for akratics@googlegroups.com - 3 Messages in 2 Topics **URL:** \ **Category:** uncategorized\ **Created:** [October 25, 2013, 8:21am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/digest-for-akratics-googlegroups-com-3-messages-in-2-topics/1464 "2013-10-25T08:21:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boardtc](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/boardtc/32/66_2.png) [@boardtc](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/boardtc)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 8:21am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/digest-for-akratics-googlegroups-com-3-messages-in-2-topics/1464/1 "2013-10-25T08:21:02Z")
Hi Aaron, Good question. I set a modest goal this year of reading one a month but always have more than one on the go. Beeminder is not able to work with monthly goals, the best being spitting the year into 12, so that has not really worked for me. I keep my reading list on a list on libraryThing, which allows a list to be ordered but you can’t mark as reading\read. So a hook up to beeminder would not help there. Cheers, Tom. On 20 October 2013 15:10, [akratics@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics@googlegroups.com) wrote: > Today’s Topic Summary > > Group: [http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/topics](http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/topics) > > - Tracking reading with multiple books\<#141d63452a7bc5ad\_group\_thread\_0\>[2 Updates] > - Jawbone UP integration \<#141d63452a7bc5ad\_group\_thread\_1\> [1 Update] > > Tracking reading with multiple books[http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/t/4a73c0071ed8d582](http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/t/4a73c0071ed8d582) > > Aaron Maras [aaronmaras@gmail.com](mailto:aaronmaras@gmail.com) Oct 20 02:27AM -0700 > > Has anyone come up with a good way to track reading progress when you > have > multiple books on the go at once? > > Simply tracking page numbers doesn’t work unless you have one goal per > book > (impractical). Even tracking the sum of page numbers gets iffy when > you > throw ebooks into the mix, since kindle locations don’t map 1:1 to > page > numbers and not many kindle books have “real page numbers”. > > The obvious answer is to track time spent reading, but this rubs > against > the grain for me - I don’t want to turn reading into another block in > my > schedule, rather make sure that I fit some book-reading somewhere in > my > day. And tracking time spent will encourage one block of reading per > day > rather than several shorter sessions - this seems undesirable to me. > > Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Lisa\_Boetti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@Lisa\_Boetti](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/Lisa_Boetti)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 12:21pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/digest-for-akratics-googlegroups-com-3-messages-in-2-topics/1464/2 "2013-10-25T12:21:24Z")
Beeminder is able to work with monthly goals - you can switch to monthly units by going to the Advanced tab under settings. You can set ‘Rate units’ there to anything from hourly to yearly. As for the original question, I track the sum of the pages too. The only workaround I have for registering reading in e-books, is that I look up (i.e. on Amazon) how many pages the paperback version of the e-book has, in order to convert the % to the pages I enter in Beeminder. I.e. if the paperback is ~300 pages, I enter “3” (pages) for each % read. It’s a bit tedious, not to mention that it doesn’t help for e-books that have never been published as paper books. BTW I’m curious why you find one block of reading undesirable? For me it’s actually the opposite, I’m striving to do my reading ‘less often but longer’, since I found I was doing it so fragmented it actually decreased the quality of my reading. On 25 October 2013 10:21, boardtc [boardtc@gmail.com](mailto:boardtc@gmail.com) wrote: > Hi Aaron, > > Good question. I set a modest goal this year of reading one a month but > always have more than one on the go. Beeminder is not able to work with > monthly goals, the best being spitting the year into 12, so that has not > really worked for me. > > I keep my reading list on a list on libraryThing, which allows a list to > be ordered but you can’t mark as reading\read. So a hook up to beeminder > would not help there. > > Cheers, > > Tom. > > On 20 October 2013 15:10, [akratics@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics@googlegroups.com) wrote: > > > Today’s Topic Summary > > > > Group: [http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/topics](http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/topics) > > > > - Tracking reading with multiple books\<#141eeb47060b256e\_141d63452a7bc5ad\_group\_thread\_0\>[2 Updates] > > - Jawbone UP integration\<#141eeb47060b256e\_141d63452a7bc5ad\_group\_thread\_1\>[1 Update] > > > > Tracking reading with multiple books[http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/t/4a73c0071ed8d582](http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/t/4a73c0071ed8d582) > > > > Aaron Maras [aaronmaras@gmail.com](mailto:aaronmaras@gmail.com) Oct 20 02:27AM -0700 > > > > Has anyone come up with a good way to track reading progress when you > > have > > multiple books on the go at once? > > > > Simply tracking page numbers doesn’t work unless you have one goal > > per book > > (impractical). Even tracking the sum of page numbers gets iffy when > > you > > throw ebooks into the mix, since kindle locations don’t map 1:1 to > > page > > numbers and not many kindle books have “real page numbers”. > > > > The obvious answer is to track time spent reading, but this rubs > > against > > the grain for me - I don’t want to turn reading into another block in > > my > > schedule, rather make sure that I fit some book-reading somewhere in > > my > > day. And tracking time spent will encourage one block of reading per > > day > > rather than several shorter sessions - this seems undesirable to me. > > > > Any ideas? > > – > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > “Akratics Anonymous” group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com). > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![aamaras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@aamaras](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/aamaras)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/digest-for-akratics-googlegroups-com-3-messages-in-2-topics/1464/3 "2013-10-25T14:23:37Z")
Actually you’re probably right - I guess what I object to really is ending up reading this way: ‘beeminder emails me saying I am about to derail’ → ‘set a timer and sit down and read for exactly 30 mins to avoid derailing’. I want to maintain some illusion that I’m just reading for pleasure (even though I would really be doing it to avoid the psychic pain of giving those bastards at Beeminder my hard-earned dough). On Friday, October 25, 2013 2:21:24 PM UTC+2, Lisa wrote: > Beeminder is able to work with monthly goals - you can switch to monthly > units by going to the Advanced tab under settings. You can set ‘Rate units’ > there to anything from hourly to yearly. > > As for the original question, I track the sum of the pages too. The only > workaround I have for registering reading in e-books, is that I look up > (i.e. on Amazon) how many pages the paperback version of the e-book has, in > order to convert the % to the pages I enter in Beeminder. I.e. if the > paperback is ~300 pages, I enter “3” (pages) for each % read. It’s a bit > tedious, not to mention that it doesn’t help for e-books that have never > been published as paper books. > > BTW I’m curious why you find one block of reading undesirable? For me it’s > actually the opposite, I’m striving to do my reading ‘less often but > longer’, since I found I was doing it so fragmented it actually decreased > the quality of my reading. > > On 25 October 2013 10:21, boardtc \<[boa...@gmail.com](mailto:boa...@gmail.com) \\> wrote: > > > Hi Aaron, > > > > Good question. I set a modest goal this year of reading one a month but > > always have more than one on the go. Beeminder is not able to work with > > monthly goals, the best being spitting the year into 12, so that has not > > really worked for me. > > > > I keep my reading list on a list on libraryThing, which allows a list to > > be ordered but you can’t mark as reading\read. So a hook up to beeminder > > would not help there. > > > > Cheers, > > > > Tom. > > > > On 20 October 2013 15:10, \<[akra...@googlegroups.com](mailto:akra...@googlegroups.com) \\> wrote: > > > > > Today’s Topic Summary > > > > > > Group: [http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/topics](http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/topics) > > > > > > - Tracking reading with multiple books\<#CACBhNKm5rA09=-TrgatrUsVK8JYVdtvXavrJk+KM7LyTvFc-2w@mail.gmail.com\_141eeb47060b256e\_141d63452a7bc5ad\_group\_thread\_0\>[2 Updates] > > > - Jawbone UP integration\<#CACBhNKm5rA09=-TrgatrUsVK8JYVdtvXavrJk+KM7LyTvFc-2w@mail.gmail.com\_141eeb47060b256e\_141d63452a7bc5ad\_group\_thread\_1\>[1 Update] > > > > > > Tracking reading with multiple books[http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/t/4a73c0071ed8d582](http://groups.google.com/group/akratics/t/4a73c0071ed8d582) > > > > > > Aaron Maras \<[aaron...@gmail.com](mailto:aaron...@gmail.com) \\> Oct 20 02:27AM -0700 > > > > > > Has anyone come up with a good way to track reading progress when > > > you have > > > multiple books on the go at once? > > > > > > Simply tracking page numbers doesn’t work unless you have one goal > > > per book > > > (impractical). Even tracking the sum of page numbers gets iffy when > > > you > > > throw ebooks into the mix, since kindle locations don’t map 1:1 to > > > page > > > numbers and not many kindle books have “real page numbers”. > > > > > > The obvious answer is to track time spent reading, but this rubs > > > against > > > the grain for me - I don’t want to turn reading into another block > > > in my > > > schedule, rather make sure that I fit some book-reading somewhere in > > > my > > > day. And tracking time spent will encourage one block of reading per > > > day > > > rather than several shorter sessions - this seems undesirable to me. > > > > > > Any ideas? > > > > – > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > “Akratics Anonymous” group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > email to [akratics+u...@googlegroups.com](mailto:akratics+u...@googlegroups.com) \. > > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/groups/opt\_out](https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out). ---
**Author:** ![aamaras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@aamaras](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/aamaras)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/digest-for-akratics-googlegroups-com-3-messages-in-2-topics/1464/4 "2013-10-25T15:06:21Z")
To put it slightly differently, I don’t want to have to think “better time this reading session to report to beeminder” every time I sit down with a book. I want to be able to read naturally, in whatever blocks seems right, report it asynchronously and make the tracking as invisible as possible.