How I Built a Kindle Reading Stats Dashboard That Actually Works

the problem

i love reading, but tracking what i read was a mess. kindle's built-in stats are basic, goodreads feels bloated, and i wanted something that just... worked. something minimal. something i controlled.

enter koreader

koreader is an open-source ebook reader that runs on kindle (and other e-readers). it's fast, customizable, and most importantly - it tracks everything in a sqlite database.

the killer feature? it can sync that database to cloud storage. including koofr.

why koofr?

koofr offers webdav support out of the box. no complicated apis, no rate limits for personal use. just mount it like a network drive and you're done.

plus, they respect privacy and offer generous free storage.

the setup

1. install koreader on kindle

• download koreader from their github releases
• follow the installation instructions for your device
• launch koreader

2. configure koofr sync

in koreader:

• go to settings → network → cloud storage
• add koofr webdav
• enter credentials:
  • server: https://app.koofr.net/dav/Koofr
  • username: your koofr email
  • password: app-specific password from koofr settings

enable automatic sync and you're done. every time you read, koreader syncs statistics.sqlite3 to koofr.

3. build the integration

now the fun part. i wanted to display my reading stats on my portfolio website.

the stack:

• webdav client to fetch the sqlite database from koofr
• sqlite parsing to extract book data
• web framework of your choice for rendering

here's the basic flow:

// example using typescript
async function fetchKOReaderStats() {
    // 1. connect to koofr via webdav
    const client = createWebDAVClient(webdavURL, {
        username: email,
        password: password
    });
    
    // 2. download statistics.sqlite3
    const data = await client.getFileContents(dbPath);
    
    // 3. parse the database
    const db = await openSQLite(data);
    
    // 4. extract books, pages, reading time
    return parseKOReaderDatabase(db);
}

the database schema:

• book table: titles, authors, pages, last_open
• page_stat_data table: reading sessions with timestamps and duration

4. parsing the database

here's how i extract the data:

async function parseKOReaderDatabase(db: SQLiteDB) {
    const books = await db.all(`
        SELECT title, authors, pages, last_open
        FROM book
        ORDER BY last_open DESC
    `);
    
    for (const book of books) {
        const bookId = await db.get(
            'SELECT id FROM book WHERE title = ?',
            [book.title]
        );
        
        // get latest page from most recent session
        const currentPage = await db.get(`
            SELECT page FROM page_stat_data 
            WHERE id_book = ? 
            ORDER BY start_time DESC LIMIT 1
        `, [bookId.id]);
        
        // sum total reading time
        const timeData = await db.get(`
            SELECT SUM(duration) as total
            FROM page_stat_data
            WHERE id_book = ?
        `, [bookId.id]);
        
        // calculate progress and format
        const progress = (currentPage?.page / book.pages) * 100;
        const readingTime = Math.floor(timeData.total / 60);
    }
}

5. accurate progress tracking

for accurate progress tracking, i fetch the latest page from the most recent reading session:

SELECT page 
FROM page_stat_data 
WHERE id_book = ? 
ORDER BY start_time DESC 
LIMIT 1

not just MAX(page) - because if you flip back to check something, that shouldn't be your "current" page.

the result

now my books page shows:

• currently reading: with real-time progress bars
• finished books: sorted by completion date
• reading time: actual minutes spent, not estimates
• pages read: accurate counts from database

all updated automatically whenever i sync my kindle.

environment variables

set these in .env for local dev:

KOOFR_WEBDAV_URL=https://app.koofr.net/dav/Koofr
KOOFR_EMAIL=your-email@example.com
KOOFR_PASSWORD=your-app-password
KOREADER_DB_PATH=/KOReader/statistics.sqlite3

for production, add them as environment variables in your hosting dashboard.

my setup

• amazon kindle (16 gb) – black
• koreader 2024.11
• koofr free tier
• auto-sync on close

total cost? $0/month.

what's next?

planning to add:

• reading streaks (consecutive days)
• monthly reading goals
• reading speed analytics
• year-in-review stats

but for now? it works. it's fast. it's mine.

source code

this website is fully open source. check out the complete implementation:

github.com/aacevski/andrej.sh

the koreader integration lives in pkg/koreader/ - feel free to use it, fork it, make it better.