▎V E R S O

Your reading chronicle — a minimalist stats dashboard that runs entirely on your Kobo.

Tap a button. See your stats. No internet. No cloud. No app.

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What It Does

Verso queries your Kobo's built-in SQLite database and generates a crisp, e-ink-optimized HTML dashboard — viewable right on your device through the built-in browser.

One tap from the home menu. Zero dependencies to install. Fully offline.

Dashboard Sections

Section	What You See
Library Overview	Total books, finished, reading, unread
Reading Time	Total hours read, average per book, total authors
Records	Most time spent on a book, fastest finish
Currently Reading	Progress bars for each in-progress book
Monthly Completions	Bar chart of books finished per month
Most Time Invested	Top 10 books ranked by reading time
Top Authors	Ranked by total reading time
Recently Finished	Your last 15 completed books
Annotations	Highlight & note counts, most annotated books
Library Composition	Visual read / reading / unread breakdown
Day-of-Week Patterns	Which days you tend to finish books
Year in Review	Yearly books & reading time summary

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Screenshots

Library Overview & Reading Time

Currently Reading & Monthly Completions

Most Time Invested & Top Authors

Recently Finished & Annotations

Library Composition & Year in Review

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Requirements

• A Kobo e-reader (tested on Libra BW — should work on any Kobo with firmware 4.x)
• NickelMenu installed

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Installation

1. Install NickelMenu (if you haven't)

Download KoboRoot.tgz and place it in <Kobo>/.kobo/. Eject and reboot. You should see a NickelMenu entry in the main menu.

2. Connect your Kobo via USB

It will appear as a drive (e.g., E:\ on Windows, /Volumes/KOBOeReader on Mac).

Note: .adds is a hidden folder. Enable Show hidden files in your file manager.

3. Copy files

Create the folders if they don't exist, then copy:

<Kobo>/.adds/verso/verso.sh        ← main script
<Kobo>/.adds/verso/sqlite3         ← bundled SQLite binary
<Kobo>/.adds/nm/verso              ← NickelMenu entry (no file extension!)

Important: The NickelMenu config file must be named exactly verso — no .nm or other extension. Rename it when copying.

4. Eject & restart

Safely eject the Kobo. It will restart automatically. Done.

Windows example (E:\)

E:\.adds\verso\verso.sh
E:\.adds\verso\sqlite3
E:\.adds\nm\verso

Mac / Linux example

KOBO="/Volumes/KOBOeReader"  # or /media/your-user/KOBOeReader
mkdir -p "$KOBO/.adds/verso" "$KOBO/.adds/nm"
cp verso.sh "$KOBO/.adds/verso/"
cp sqlite3  "$KOBO/.adds/verso/"
cp verso.nm "$KOBO/.adds/nm/verso"

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Usage

1. From the Kobo home screen, tap the menu (☰ or three dots)
2. Tap Verso
3. The dashboard generates (~2 seconds) and opens in the browser
4. Scroll to explore your reading stats
5. Press back or close the browser to return to reading

Re-tap Verso anytime to refresh with your latest data.

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How It Works

┌─────────────┐     SQL queries     ┌──────────────────┐     generates     ┌────────────────┐
│ NickelMenu  │ ──────────────────▶ │  KoboReader.sqlite│ ──────────────▶ │  dashboard.html │
│ (menu tap)  │     via bundled     │  (Kobo's own DB)  │     styled for  │  (e-ink browser) │
└─────────────┘     sqlite3 CLI     └──────────────────┘     e-ink        └────────────────┘

• verso.sh — A POSIX shell script that runs SQL queries and generates a single HTML file
• sqlite3 — A statically-compiled ARM binary (musl libc, ~858KB) bundled with Verso, since Kobo firmware doesn't include the sqlite3 CLI
• KoboReader.sqlite — The database your Kobo already maintains with reading history, progress, bookmarks, and annotations

No data leaves your device. No internet required. Everything runs locally.

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File Structure

<Kobo>/
├── .adds/
│   ├── nm/
│   │   └── verso                ← NickelMenu menu entry
│   └── verso/
│       ├── verso.sh             ← main script
│       ├── sqlite3              ← bundled ARM binary
│       └── dashboard.html       ← generated on first run
└── .kobo/
    └── KoboReader.sqlite        ← Kobo's database (read-only)

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Troubleshooting

"Verso" doesn't appear in the menu

• Confirm NickelMenu is installed and working
• Check the file is at .adds/nm/verso — no file extension
• Restart the Kobo (hold power button ~10 seconds)

"Could not run process" error

• The NickelMenu config may have Windows line endings (CRLF). Open it in a code editor and save with LF line endings.
• Make sure the file is at .adds/nm/verso (not verso.nm)

Browser opens but shows an error page

• "sqlite3 not found" → Make sure sqlite3 is in .adds/verso/ alongside verso.sh
• "Database not found" → The Kobo database may be at a different path on your firmware version. Open an issue.

All stats show 0

• You may not have read any books on this device yet
• Sideloaded books need to be opened at least once to register in the database

Browser opens but shows nothing / stale data

• The script may not have finished. Tap Verso again.
• Check that both verso.sh and sqlite3 are in .adds/verso/

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Building the sqlite3 Binary

The included sqlite3 binary is a statically-linked ARM (armhf) executable compiled with musl libc for maximum portability. If you want to build it yourself:

# Using a musl ARM cross-compiler (e.g., from musl.cc)
wget https://musl.cc/arm-linux-musleabihf-cross.tgz
tar xf arm-linux-musleabihf-cross.tgz

# Download SQLite amalgamation
wget https://sqlite.org/2024/sqlite-autoconf-3450200.tar.gz
tar xf sqlite-autoconf-3450200.tar.gz
cd sqlite-autoconf-3450200

# Compile static binary
arm-linux-musleabihf-cross/bin/arm-linux-musleabihf-gcc \
  -Os -static \
  -DSQLITE_THREADSAFE=0 \
  -DSQLITE_OMIT_LOAD_EXTENSION \
  -DSQLITE_OMIT_READLINE \
  -o sqlite3 shell.c sqlite3.c

# Strip
arm-linux-musleabihf-cross/bin/arm-linux-musleabihf-strip sqlite3

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License

MIT — do whatever you want with it.

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_{Made for readers who like numbers as much as books.}