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Kindle data export summary and stats

MF
Matt Foster • @mpf
MF
This directory has an export of my kindle data. Summarise what's here, are there stats on things like reading speed or times and dates of when I read?

Let me explore the Kindle data export to understand what's available.

Workspace
Kindle.Devices.ReadingSession
Kindle.ReadingInsights
Kindle.ReadingBehaviorCounts
Digital.Content.Ownership
Kindle.Devices.ReadingActionsContainers

Let me sample the key data files to see what's in them:

Kindle.Devices.ReadingSession/ Kindle.Devices.ReadingSession.csv
 L1-15
Kindle.ReadingBehaviorCounts/ Kindle.ReadingBehaviorCounts.csv
 L1-15
Kindle.ReadingInsights/ datasets
Digital.Content.Ownership/ Digital.Content.Ownership.1.json
Kindle.Devices.kindleHighlightActions/ Kindle.Devices.kindleHighlightActions.csv
 L1-10
Digital.Content.Whispersync
Kindle.Devices.ReadingActionsContainers/ Kindle.Devices.ReadingActionsContainers.csv
 L1-10
build_timeline.py
Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets/Kindle.reading-insights-sessions_with_adjustments/ Kindle.reading-insights-sessions_with_adjustments.csv
 L1-5
Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets/ Kindle.UserUniqueTitlesCompleted
Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets/ Kindle.ReadingInsightsDayUnits
 
wc -l "/Users/mpf/Downloads/Kindle/Kindle.Devices.ReadingSession/Kindle.Devices.ReadingSession.csv"
ls "/Users/mpf/Downloads/Kindle/Digital.Content.Ownership/" | wc -l
    6902
Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets/Kindle.ReadingInsightsDayUnits/ Kindle.ReadingInsightsDayUnits.csv
 L1-10
Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets/Kindle.UserUniqueTitlesCompleted/ Kindle.UserUniqueTitlesCompleted.csv
 L1-10
Digital.Content.Whispersync/ whispersync.csv
 L1-10

Here's a summary of your Kindle data export:

What's here

Category Key data
Library ~6,900 owned items (Digital.Content.Ownership) — books with titles, ASINs, purchase dates
Reading Sessions ~13,800 session records with start/end timestamps, reading duration in ms, and page flips per session
Reading Insights Higher-level sessions (13K) with book titles, plus 1,587 days where reading was tracked, and **150 completed titles**
Behavior Stats Monthly snapshots with avg reading days/month (27), genre breakdowns (mostly sci-fi/fantasy ~75%), completion rates (90% avg)
Highlights Timestamped highlight actions with word counts, color, context
Whispersync Reading position sync data across devices — bookmarks, last-read positions
Annotations Bookmarks, notes, quote shares
Device/App telemetry Tons of iOS app behavioral data (search, navigation, toolbar interactions, notifications, etc.)

Reading speed & timing — Yes!

  • Kindle.Devices.ReadingSession has exact start/end timestamps and total_reading_millis + number_of_page_flips per session — you can derive reading speed from this
  • Kindle.ReadingInsights sessions also have per-book millisecond totals with timestamps
  • ReadingInsightsDayUnits lists every day you read (going back to ~2021)
  • UserUniqueTitlesCompleted lists each finished book with its completion date

You also already have a build_timeline.py script that aggregates this into a reading_timeline.json with per-book total reading hours, start/finish dates, authors, and genres. Want me to run it or build something more detailed from the raw session data?

MF
Summarise the reading insights

Let me look at the reading insights data more thoroughly.

wc -l "/Users/mpf/Downloads/Kindle/Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets/Kindle.reading-insights-sessions_with_adjustments/Kindle.reading-insights-sessions_with_adjustments.csv"
wc -l "/Users/mpf/Downloads/Kindle/Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets/Kindle.UserUniqueTitlesCompleted/Kindle.UserUniqueTitlesCompleted.csv"
wc -l "/Users/mpf/Downloads/Kindle/Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets/Kindle.ReadingInsightsDayUnits/Kindle.ReadingInsightsDayUnits.csv"
cd "/Users/mpf/Downloads/Kindle/Kindle.ReadingInsights/datasets"

python3 -c "
import csv
from collections import defaultdict, Counter...
=== READING INSIGHTS SUMMARY ===

Total reading time: 1095.4 hours (45.6 days)
Total reading sessions: 13,064
Days with reading tracked: 1,586
Date range: 2021-08-29 to 2026-03-16
Unique books read: 205
Books completed: 150

--- Reading hours by year ---
  2018: 48.5 hours across 308 sessions
  2019: 109.6 hours across 1,173 sessions
  2020: 168.1 hours across 840 sessions
  2021: 165.3 hours across 1,011 sessions
  2022: 130.5 hours across 1,244 sessions
  2023: 127.2 hours across 2,083 sessions
  2024: 103.5 hours across 2,326 sessions
  2025: 207.3 hours across 3,294 sessions
  2026: 35.5 hours across 785 sessions

--- Top 15 books by reading time ---
  1. The Business-Minded CISO: Run Your Security Program Efficien 62.9h (166 sessions)
  2. Gnomon                                                       27.2h (410 sessions)
  3. Semiosis: A novel of first contact                           25.3h (87 sessions)
  4. Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel (The Murderbot Diaries Boo 21.0h (34 sessions)
  6. Exodus: The Archimedes Engine                                16.0h (294 sessions)
  7. Fall or, Dodge in Hell: From the New York Times bestselling  15.2h (175 sessions)
  8. A Book of Bones: Private Investigator Charlie Parker hunts e 11.8h (65 sessions)
  9. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.: A Thrilling Fantasy Novel of  11.8h (49 sessions)
  10. The Ministry for the Future                                  11.0h (99 sessions)
  11. Eyes of the Void: The thrilling sequel in this award-winning 10.8h (109 sessions)
  12. Inhibitor Phase                                              10.5h (47 sessions)
  13. Aurora Rising: Previously published as The Prefect (Inspecto 10.3h (48 sessions)
  14. Children of Ruin: New intelligences arise in this epic and t 10.2h (151 sessions)
  15. Tiamat's Wrath: Book 8 of the Expanse (now a Prime Original  10.1h (65 sessions)

--- 10 most recent completions ---
  2025-11-01  Forty Signs of Rain: A Highly Topical Eco-Fiction Thriller of Survival
  2025-11-10  Halcyon Years: A gripping new murder mystery set on a spaceship from t
  2025-11-21  Fifty Degrees Below: A Gripping Political Thriller Set Against a Globa
  2025-12-02  Sixty Days and Counting: A Topical Science Thriller of Politics and Cl
  2026-02-09  Exodus: The Archimedes Engine
  2026-02-14  The Shattering Peace: The acclaimed Old Man's War series returns in th
  2026-02-26  Dead Astronauts: A Compelling Cyberpunk Fantasy About the Fight for th
  2026-03-04  The Man Who Saw Seconds
  2026-03-11  Three Men in a Boat
  2026-03-15  A Guardian and a Thief: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2

Average session length: 5.0 minutes

--- Top 10 busiest months ---
  2025-06: 45.3 hours
  2025-07: 42.9 hours
  2020-01: 29.7 hours
  2020-07: 24.4 hours
  2021-10: 20.4 hours
  2025-11: 18.4 hours
  2025-08: 17.6 hours
  2021-08: 17.1 hours
  2022-04: 16.6 hours
  2020-02: 16.5 hours

Longest daily reading streak: 148 days
Current/most recent streak: 75 days