Reading Timer

The Reading Timer is a single, shared timer that lives on your account — start it on your iPad, pause it from your iPhone, finish it on the web. Closing the app or the timer modal won’t lose your time. When you stop the timer, Bookworm logs the reading session automatically with the elapsed duration and pages read.

Starting the Timer

Open a book that’s set to Currently Reading.
Tap Start timer in the action row (next to “Update progress”).
The timer starts immediately and the elapsed time begins counting.

Only one timer can be active at a time across all your devices. If you try to start a timer for a different book while one is already running, Bookworm will ask whether you want to discard the current timer or jump to the active book.

The Floating Pill

While a timer is active, a small floating pill appears at the bottom of every screen. It shows:

The book you’re reading
The status (running or paused)
The live elapsed time

Tap the pill at any time to jump back to the active book and reopen the timer controls.

Pausing, Resuming, and Stopping

Pause: keeps your elapsed time and freezes the counter. The pill switches to “Paused”.
Resume: continues counting from where you paused.
Stop and log: opens the session form. Enter the page you stopped on and tap Log session. Bookworm saves the session and removes the timer.
Discard: cancels the timer without logging anything (useful if you started by mistake).

Cross-Device Sync

Since the timer is stored on your account, every device polls the server every 10 seconds and reflects any change:

Start a timer on your Android tablet → it shows up on your iPhone within 10s.
Pause from the Dynamic Island on iPhone → the web app reflects the pause.
Stop and log from any device → the session is saved and the timer disappears everywhere.

iOS Live Activity

On iPhone (iOS 16.2+), the timer also appears in the Dynamic Island and on the lock screen as a Live Activity. You can pause, resume, or stop directly from the Dynamic Island without opening the app. Tapping the body of the Dynamic Island returns to Bookworm with the timer still running — the previous “ghost timer” bug is fixed.

Backdating Sessions

When you mark a book as finished with a past date (e.g. “I actually finished this in March 2023”), Bookworm now records the reading session on that historical date — your stats, streaks and yearly goals reflect the correct period instead of bumping today’s numbers.

Ambient Sounds (mobile)

The mobile Reading Timer includes optional ambient sounds to help you focus:

Sound	Available
None (silent)	Free
Rain	Free
Fireplace	Premium
Café	Premium

Tap Ambient Sound to enable sounds and pick a track. Audio continues playing while the screen is locked.

Free vs Premium

Feature	Free	Premium
Cross-device timer (start/pause/resume/stop)	✅	✅
Floating pill on every screen	✅	✅
Session auto-logging on stop	✅	✅
iOS Dynamic Island / Live Activity	✅	✅
Backdated session attribution	✅	✅
Rain sound	✅	✅
Fireplace sound	❌	✅
Café sound	❌	✅

Upgrade to Premium to unlock all ambient sound tracks.