Goodies in Your Kindle App #kindlereading

/ Mae Clair

Hi, SEers! Thanks for joining me for another Mae Day on Story Empire.

I think most of us have a Kindle, so I’d like to take a closer look in the Kindle App. I was surprised how many goodies are available when you start poking around.

To get started, open the app on your phone. Go on now… I’ll wait. 🙂

Got it? Good. One of the first things you’ll notice—smack in the middle of your screen—is your reading streak. This shows weeks in a row and days in a row. Scroll to the right and you’ll see the days displayed on a calendar. 

graphic showing number of days and days in a row read, also calendar with streak of days read

Scroll down and you’ll see more selections:

Based on your reading
Continue reading in a series you’ve started 
Upcoming releases for you 
Last chance books in Prime reading
Kindle books by authors you follow
Quick Reads
Recommended reading and more 

Pretty cool, right?

Wait, it gets better.  

colorful graphic showing Amazon achievement awards such as bronze, silver, and gold readers, bookish, bookworm, and bibliophile

Back where you saw your reading streak, look for a line beneath the display that reads SEE MORE READING INSIGHTS. Follow the link and you’ll be looking at the current Kindle Challenge (when I took these screen shots it was during the spring).

This screen shows you the number of days remaining in the challenge. By clicking SEE MY ACHIEVEMENTS, you can see badges you’ve unlocked and those remaining. You can also scroll back to previous challenges to see how you did. 

Go back a screen and you can see the number of books you’ve read by year (Amazon, like Goodreads allows you to set a goal for books read, but unlike GR, it only tracks Kindle titles).

Scroll down on this screen and you can also see stats like days read per month (by month) and Weekly and Daily read streaks. 

graphic showing number of books read, unread, library loans, prime reading, newsstand, docs, and more

Finally, I’ve saved the best for last. 🙂

We all have colossal TBRs, but have you ever wondered exactly how many books you’ve read compared to how many are still waiting on your Kindle?

From any screen click the LIBRARY book icon at the bottom (second from the left). Now, click the filter in the upper left corner (it looks like three lines, each with a small circle). Your filtered lists will pop up at the bottom.

I was appalled to note my number of books read vs. those unread on my Kindle. Clearly, I need to stop buying books, LOL.

Remember that your Kindle only tracks Kindle books, so it if you read paperbacks or hardcovers (even if you purchase them from Amazon) they’re not reflected in these totals, nor are your reading days. Personally, I go back and forth between Kindle books and print. My preference is paperbacks for pool/beach and non-fiction reading, with Kindle for genre fiction.

Thanks again for joining me today for a closer look at the stats in your Kindle app. If you’re a voracious reader—or even a casual reader—I wish you fun exploring.

Did you know about these features? Do you find them as fascinating as I do? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Ready, set, go!

bio box for author, Mae Clair

70 thoughts on “Goodies in Your Kindle App #kindlereading”

  1. Hi Mae, I have never checked these features. I know I have way to many unread books and I still keep buying more. Sometimes I forget about books I promised to read and remember them when I see someone feature the author or the book. I won’t stop buying so there is not point in pretending.

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    • Glad you enjoyed the post, Michael. I was amazed how much information about my reading habits was buried in the Kindle app. I know I’ll be revisiting those statistics often in the future.
      Have a wonderful weekend!

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  5. This post gives me pause for thought. I don’t have use the app on my phone. I have an actual Kindle and the app on two computers. I need to look into these functions. My numbers will be lopsided. I have hundreds of books on my Kindle, but I still read physical books I find at garage sales. 😲

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    • Beem, I rarely use my Kindle app–and never for reading. I happened to be playing around on it one day when I realized how much many statistics are buried in there. Like you, mine are seriously skewed, because I read a ton of paperbacks and hardbacks. I’m probably 50% print and 50% Kindle, so at least I can take that into consideration when looking at my high count of Kindle unread! When I saw that total, my jaw dropped!

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  6. I’ve always been a bit of a statistics nerd, so I find stuff like this interesting. I’m also the guy who gets excited when the lifetime mileage on his hybrid goes up a tenth. 🤣

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  7. Loved this, Mae! I’ve just checked mine, and although the unread are in high 3 figures (very high!), they fall short of your impressive total – so I’m okay to add a few more yet! 🤣

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    • LOL! Yeah, I think I’ve got the reigning crown of unread from everyone who has posted their numbers. I’m a pathetic book buyer. And the thing is I do read–a LOT. Over 100 last year, and I’ll pass 100 again this year. I guess I need to read more Kindle titles and cut down on my paperbacks, LOL.

      Glad to know that while you are still in the high three-figure range, Trish, there is room for more. There’s always room for more, right? 🤣

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  9. My goodness, Mae. This is a first for me. I never use my phone for Kindle reads, but I’m going to check out the app. Amazing information! I cringe to think about how many books I’ve collected for electronic reads. 🤔 Thank you for this informative post!

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  10. I started reading this post, Mae, and had no idea what you were talking about. Apparently, I have never (in a decade) clicked on “Insights”! Lots of great info there… and OMG. I also had no idea I had so many unread books in there! Ha ha ha. I think a lot of us are going to be shocked!

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  12. I knew none of this until you told me. Like Judi Lynn I just turn on my kindle and start reading. Though I vastly prefer paperbacks.
    Just as little aside, I spend far too much money on books (as I suspect most here do). I have tried to cut down the cost, but many novels are just too tempting. Anyway, I noticed that Amazon Prime was advertising a new TV series based on the “Wheel of Time” by Robert Jordan which I watched. It was good, I enjoyed watching it and am looking forward to the next series but all the way through watching I thought to myself… It does not seem much like the books as I remember them. Now, I read those books in my twenties and thirties, and I am now sixty, so I may well have misremembered them. I trudged out to the shed (read; book storage facility 2) and looked out all fourteen titles as well as the two prologue novels.
    Now the average page count for each novel is 1,300 pages in exceedingly small print. I am on book five now. It is saving me a fortune.

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    • Whew! Those are LONG novels, Ray. I remember reading the first 2 or 3 of them when I was in my twenties, but never progressed further than that. Maybe I was overwhelmed by the size of the books, though many I read often run 500 or 600 pages.

      I still read a ton of paperbacks and hardbacks in addition to my Kindle books (which is why I suspect my unread Kindle count is so high), and still have a handful of favorite books from my high school days and early 20s. I used to have a mammoth collection of print books but it got out of control and I ended up donating 90% of them to my local library and a nursing home. I’m back to building my collection again, but am trying to keep it minimal. It’s already getting too big.

      I do miss some of those old books though. I think its awesome you were able to find all those old novels and benefit from having saved them. I wish you happy reading!

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      • Lol- “out of control”. My ex-wife sent around two thousand books about twenty years ago to the dump as she was pissed off with me. Twenty years later, new life, new wife, and they have gathered once more. My house is small, but we have a lovely garden. Read, storage options.
        All the bookcases full, window ledges beginning to pile up. I built a library in the garden. A lovely wooden shed heated and lit, with a computer and floor to ceiling shelves. You would have loved it. All book lovers would have. But the books bred and multiplied and there were not enough shelves. A second shed was built to act as storage for the books, even though I gave many away to charity. Later a third shed was added, also filled to the brim with books. I suspect my wife thinks, hopefully he will die soon and I will have lots of sheds to put stuff in.

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      • Ray, just reading about that first shed has me wanting to disappear into it, soak up the ambiance and read for hours, days, and weeks on end. I love books, and I know many people who do, but I don’t think I know anyone who can say they have/had as many as you appear to. WOW! I think all book lovers will want to be you when they grow up!

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  13. I’ve never looked at the apps. When I turn on my Kindle, I just start reading. Now, I’m curious. I’ll have to give them a look. I know I have WAY too many books on mine, though, so might wish I hadn’t seen how many are unread.

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    • LOL. My husband does the same thing, and can’t read outside in the sunlight.
      I read a ton of paperbacks in addition to Kindle books which is my read count on the app is so low. I guess I need to start concentrating on reducing some of those Kindle buys!
      Thanks for sharing, V. M.!

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  16. Awesome tips. Another new thing I’ve noticed is you can now return a Kindle Unlimited book from the app by opening your library and pressing-and-holding the book you want to return. A drop-down menu shows, from which you can choose‘return book’. Before this, I had to log in to Amazon, go to ‘manage content and devices’ and find the book I wanted to return, all after lots of their steps. Looks like some great additions to the app.

    Thanks for sharing, Mae! Have a wonderful weekend 💕🙂

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  19. I knew about some of these but never filtered the number of books. Wow, I though I had a lot! I have enjoyed the reading challenges. Got every reward for the fall one except the Vella one. And I doubt I’ll ever get that one. Vella doesn’t cut it for me.

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    • I didn’t get the Vella reward either, Joan. Like you, I’m not a fan.
      I think I missed some of the other awards this go-round too, because I was reading so many paperbacks. I do think the reading challenges are fun. I’m glad they added the stats to the Kindle App. Now if I could just find a way to whittle down that mammoth TBR!

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  20. I noticed some of these earlier this year. I’m both happy with the data at my fingertips and disturbed by the fact that yet another app is keeping track of things I do. I’ll try to focus more on the former and use those stats for my benefit. Thanks for the breakdown of these features, Mae.

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