A reading app idea to beat long-book discouragement
A reading tracker that measures progress by chapter, scene, or session instead of raw page counts or finished-book totals, so long books feel achievable one sitting at a time.
how do you trick yourself into reading long books?
hello, everyone! recently i’ve picked up “sleep in the red chamber”. i’m interested in chinese culture and this book is one of the most fundamental ones. it’s good but quite long: the first volume alone is around 800 pages. no matter how much time i read, it’s like the amount of pages left doesn’t change. it feels discouraging and unproductive because usually i get to read at least a few books in a month and now i haven’t logged anything for a while because i’ve been reading this one for so long. it feels so silly to be intimidated by a long read yet here i am, dreading to continue. has anyone ever felt that way? how do you deal with it?
The problem, in the searcher’s words
I picked up a really long book and no matter how much I read, it feels like the page count barely moves. I usually finish several books a month, so now that I haven't 'logged' anything in weeks it feels like I'm falling behind, even though I'm actually reading. It's discouraging and makes we want to avoid picking the book back up.
I know the book itself is good and I'm enjoying it, but the size alone is intimidating me into procrastinating. I don't want to abandon it, I just want a way to feel like I'm making progress instead of measuring myself against a 'books finished this month' number that punishes long reads.
What the thread shows
The OP's frustration with book-count-based tracking is echoed by several commenters offering their own workarounds (chapter-based logging, physical book darts, audiobooks, RSVP apps), showing the 'long book demotivation' problem is common but currently solved with manual, ad-hoc tricks rather than a dedicated tool.
“no matter how much time i read, it’s like the amount of pages left doesn’t change. it feels discouraging and unproductive because usually i get to read at least a few books in a month and now i haven’t logged anything for a while”
“The page count isn't moving because you're scoring a marathon on a sprint scoreboard. 'Books per month' works fine for normal books and quietly punishes you for reading a long one”
“Divvying up the book makes it feel more acheivable.”
“i feel so silly for this urge to log every book i read but i guess im just wary of the possibility that without some kind of tracking system i might drop reading completely.”
Target customer
Who
Avid readers who track their reading habit (books-per-month style) and get discouraged when a book is much longer or denser than their usual reads
Context
They hit this problem when starting a long classic, doorstop novel, or dense non-fiction book, and their existing habit-tracking method (counting finished books) stops giving them the sense of progress that keeps them motivated to pick the book back up.
What to build
- Add a book and break it into custom sections (chapters, scenes, or user-defined chunks)
- Log each reading session against a section rather than the whole book
- Visual progress bar per section plus an overall 'sessions completed' streak, decoupled from book-count
- Mid-scene 'stopping point' notes so users remember the hook that pulls them back in
- Optional switch between formats (physical/ebook/audiobook) without losing tracked progress
Build note — Could parse EPUB/table-of-contents metadata to auto-generate chapter breakdowns; audiobook progress sync would require third-party API access (Audible does not have a public API, so this may be limited to manual entry).
Later, if it lands
Who’s already out there
Tracks books read, reading progress by page/percentage, and annual reading goals.
Gap: Tracks progress at the whole-book level and encourages a 'books finished' count, which is exactly the metric the thread says discourages long-book readers.
Reading tracker with page/percentage progress, mood and pace stats.
Gap: More granular than Goodreads but still doesn't reframe a long book into small, chapter-level wins or address the psychological 'sprint scoreboard' problem raised in the thread.
Tracks reading time and sessions, sets reading goals and streaks.
Gap: Session tracking exists but isn't tied to chapter/scene-level progress or to overcoming the specific discouragement of a book that isn't moving in page-count terms.
Mentioned in the thread as an RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) speed-reading app for DRM-free ebooks.
Gap: Solves reading speed/focus, not the progress-tracking discouragement described by the OP; unclear if this is a currently active or accurately described product.
Demand read
Several commenters describe recurring long-book fatigue across different genres, suggesting the underlying frustration is durable and common, but no one in the thread states they would pay for a tool or names a paid product they use specifically to solve it.
Worth digging into before you build
4 to considerNo idea is a sure thing at this stage — these are open questions worth checking yourself, not a verdict against building it.
Weak Demand
No commenter states willingness to pay or names a paid tool bought specifically for this problem.
Already Solved
Commenters point to Kindle's percentage display and audiobooks/RSVP apps as adequate workarounds, and mainstream trackers (Goodreads, StoryGraph) already track progress beyond simple book counts.
Generic Idea
Reading/habit-tracking apps are a saturated category; differentiation would need to be very specific (chapter-based motivation) to stand out.
Verify Competitors
Uncertain whether 'Outread' is a real, currently maintained app with the described RSVP feature set.