How to Turn Locations Into Pages

First, let’s start with an important fact; I am a HUGE Kindle fan (that’s not a fat joke).  I love just about everything about my Kindle, especially the fact that it has increased the frequency of my reading.

However, I do understand that some Kindlers (as well as potential Kindlers) have concerns about certain things.  Recently, Amazon announced that they will be adding a loan feature to the Kindle.  It should come as a software update (if I understand the announcement correctly) and will have guidelines similar to those of the Nook.  That’s one concern that I hear about a good bit from people who are trying to decide between the Kindle and the Nook.  So, hopefully the new software update will resolve that issue.

The “problem” that I would like to attempt to resolve today is that of page numbers.  The Kindle does not use page numbers; it has location numbers instead.  I believe that one theory behind this is that the Kindle has variable font sizes, and this might affect pagination.  Another theory that I have heard is that different editions of the same DTB (paper books) have different numbers of pages (example:  Hardback vs. Paperback) so page numbers are really not that relevant.  Still, many readers like to know how long a book is before reading it, so that they can estimate how long it will take to read.

After Kindling for a few months, I quickly developed the ability to gauge how long a book would take for me to read by using the location numbers.  I no longer need page numbers.  I actually prefer location numbers to pagination, but I may be in the minority here.

I often see posts on the forums, as well as receive emails and verbal questions, from people about how to manage their reading without page numbers.  For this, I have some advice.

When you wake your Kindle and go to the home page, book titles have a series of small dots under the titles.  These correspond to book length.  If you are looking for a shorter book to read because time is limited, you can simply look down your list of books for the shortest line of dots.  This will tell you the shortest book on your Kindle. 

Here’s an example of book lengths compared to dots:  I have a book that contains the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, the Boston Port Act, as well as a Constitutional Dictionary.  This book is 1038 locations long, and my home page shows nine dots.

I also have four Bibles on my Kindle.  They include the Holy Bible: NASB version, the Holy Bible: ESV, the Holy Bible HCSB, and the Kindle Bible (WEB).  The NASB version is in the middle of the length of the four, so I will use that one for this demonstration.  The NASB Bible has 42623 locations, and on the menu page, it has 67 dots.

Mentally, I compare this to looking at a book shelf and comparing the width of the books there to select a short one.  A key difference here (and I believe that this is a difference in the Kindle’s favor) is that these dots are actually based on data in the book.  A small book on your bookshelf could simply have smaller print and smaller margins than a slightly thicker book, but you may pick the thinner book expecting (incorrectly) that it will be a quicker read.

Second, you can always convert locations to pages (and get a good estimate – not 100% accurate).  I don’t necessarily think that this is the best way to go, because I once you adjust to locations, you won’t really care about page numbers any more.  But, for those who would like to do so, I’ll give you the facts.

To start, we need to know the average number of characters per page.  I researched this pretty thoroughly.  I read it several places on the internet, and found that characters per page were listed anywhere from 1500 to 2800.  I decided to come up with my own number.  I did this by picking ten books at random (2 Hardback, 4 Mass Market Paperback, and 4 Trade Paperback) and checking ten pages in each book at random.  One-hundred pages later, and I came up with an average of 2200 characters per page (should you decide to test this theory, remember that all spaces need to be counted as characters).

A Kindle location is estimated to be about 128 characters.  Therefore:

                2200 characters per page / 128 characters per location = 17 locations per page 

Location size never varies, regardless of font.  So, if you increase the size of the font, there will still be about 17 locations per page of DTB standard print.

So, for my copy of the Constitution above:

                1038 locations / 17 locations per page = 61 pages (I could not find a comparable paper edition)

For my copy of the Holy Bible (NASB edition):

                42623 locations / 17 locations per page = 2507 pages

Now, the only comparable paper version of the NASB Bible that I could find on Amazon lists it at 2088 pages, so this estimate is obviously not accurate for extreme cases (and 42623 locations is fairly extreme).

However, when I test it on my other books, it is very close to what the paper books claim.  An example of this is the book Agatha Webb:

3352 locations / 17 locations per page = 197 (The product information lists this book at 184 pages)

Or the book Girls Like Us:  Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon…:

10112 locations / 17 locations per page = 595 pages (The Hardcover of which lists the books at 592 pages)

I hope that this helps subscribers to deal with the “page numbers vs. locations” dilemma.  

Don’t own a Kindle, but would like to?  The latest generation of Kindle is available at the following links:  with WiFi only   or with WiFi and 3G.

Christy Parker is the author of three blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind,  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day,  and You Be the Editor.

For comments, questions, notes or suggestions; Mrs. Parker can be reached in the blog specific forums on the product information pages listed above or via email at unkemptruminations@comcast.net.