In Which We Discuss Kobo Achievements

This post originally appeared on my games blog, Deis' Discs.

The Kobo is an ereader, created by a Canadian company and affiliated with WHSmith.  I have a Kobo Mini which is adorably tiny and fits in my jeans pocket.  I bought my Kobo just before Christmas, since I was going to stay in London in order to work in a homeless shelter.  In 2011 I took a pile of books which were heavy, awkward, and finished before I came home.  The Kobo was a LOT easier.  I wasn't sure about eReaders before I got one, but I love it.  I'll write a full review at some point, but, for now, I just want to talk about the achievements.  I'm planning on getting a Kindle as well, so maybe I'll just write a comparison.  If you're thinking of getting an eReader, and you have a smartphone, I highly recommend starting with the various free apps.  They work in much the same way as the eReaders do, and should give you an idea.  I wish I'd done that.

Anyway.  Kobo has a 'reading life' section which lists various statistics, like how much of your library you've read, and how long it's taken you.  It also has various awards or achievements that you can earn for completing various tasks (like X-Box achievements).  As well as the eReader, I have the Kobo app on my phone, and there are some achievements unique to the iOS.  There's also at least one unique to the Kobo Vox, which I don't have, and have no intention of buying.  There are several which are only available with newspaper or magazine subscriptions, and I've not intention of moving out of the UK to take advantage of those, either.

The table below is not a comprehensive list, but it will be as complete as I can make it.  You can have a look at some of the awards here, although I'm fairly sure that's not a comprehensive list either.  I don't have an android, and I gather that there are a few different achievements on there, and a few are time specific and have since been discontinued, so I've not heard of most of them. Unfortunately, Kobo seems to have lost interest in the awards system, as they've not added any new ones in some time.

When you first open your kobo, you'll see many of these awards greyed out.  I think a few of them only appear once you've got them, but don't ask me which ones.

Achievement	System	How-To
Afternoon Rush Hour	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 4pm and 6pm.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
All You Can Eat	Kobo, iOS	Fill your eReader with books.  I think I had somewhere between 50-100 on mine when I got this (I've since cleaned off a lot of the free ebooks, on the grounds that the paperback versions of Austen, Dickens, et al sat on my bookcases for years and I never read those either.  Can't abide Austen).
Author-ized Reader	iOS	I believe this has to do with the 'author notes' feature mentioned here.  I'm planning on reading Me Before You anyway; will update when I can. I've just discovered that you can't get it from reading the preview, even if you look at 'all notes' and click on the threads started by the author.
Better in Bed	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 10pm and 12am.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
BookLover	Kobo, iOS	Link your Kobo account to your eReader.  Although this is theoretically available on the Kobo, a glitch means it doesn't work.  However, if you unlock it on the iOS (by downloading the free app and logging in), it will sync across systems.
Breakfast of Champions/Eat It	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 5am and 7am.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
Classic Attack	iOS	Read the five classic novels that come with your Kobo.  If, like me, you deleted the stupid things, these are the editions in question; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Dracula Grimms' Fairy Tales Pride and Prejudice Since I've read all but the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I feel no guilt whatsoever about cheating.  Just spend ten minutes flicking through the books while watching TV. Note:  You can't get this by flicking to the start of each chapter, then through all the pages of the last one.  Do one book per day, and then do the Lost in Austen award in the same way, and you'll be most of the way through the Twain award by the end.
Deep Thinker	iOS	Make a note in any book.  Long press to highlight a word, then click 'add note' when the menu comes up.
Facebook	Kobo, iOS	Connect your Kobo account to Facebook.  This should be straightforward.  I did it fairly early on, in a 'gotta catch 'em all' spirit, so I can't quite recall how to.
Fanatic	iOS	Own more than five ebooks by one author.  Mine was Sheri Tepper.  You could probably get it with Dickens, since all of his are out of copyright now, if you don't fancy buying five books by any author.
Freeloader	iOS	Add ten free eBooks to your library.  If you're stuck for ideas, try here.
Fully Loaded	iOS	Add items from outside Kobo to your library.  I highly recommend Alicorn's Luminosity and the sequel, Radiance, but it's up to you. Go to the app screen in itunes, scroll right down, and click on the Kobo icon (incidentally, I had no idea you even could scroll down that far).  Add a document or two (PDF or ePub) then sync.
Graveyard Shift	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 1am and 5am.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
Happy Hour	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 6pm and 8pm.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
Highly Decorated	Kobo, iOS	Unlock twenty other achievements.
I ❤ My Library	Kobo, iOS	Add a book to your library.
I Eat Books for Lunch	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 12pm and 2pm.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
Inverted Comma	Kobo, iOS	Highlight something.  Press and hold on a word to highlight, tap to make the dictionary definition go away, wiggle the little end markers if you like (this is a total pain to get right without lots of practice) then hit highlight down in the bottom left.
Juggernaut	Kobo, iOS	Turn 10,000 pages.  It took me about two months to get this.  Keep reading, you'll make it.  This is probably easier to get on the iOS due to the smaller screen.  You lightweight.
Just the Highlights	iOS	Highlight twenty different passages.  These can be single words.  Personally, I just picked random words in Grimms' Fairy Tales.  Made some very odd sentences.  It took a few minutes for my awards to catch up with my highlighting, so don't worry if it doesn't pop up immediately.
Kill the Commute	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 7am and 9am.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
LOLZ	iOS	Write a note with the word 'lol' in it.
Night Rider	Kobo, iOS	I have this award, but I'm not totally sure how I got it.  The description congratulations me on reading all night long, and I know I got it early on.  I typically read at night, but I'm not sure for how long, or which specific times.
Not an Open Book	Kobo, iOS	Finish a book.  This doesn't work if you open the mini-menu for a book (press and hold on book's name in library) and 'mark as finished'.  You need to go to the last page and close it by tapping right.
Off the Wall	iOS	This one drove me absolutely mental.  You need to share what you're reading in a very specific way, which took me a great deal of googling and experimentation to figure out. Step 1:  Press and hold on the cover of a book in your library.  You will be taken to the overview screen. Step 2:  Press the very rightmost button at the top of your screen in order to see a menu that includes 'share to facebook'.  Share this way, and it will count towards the award. Step 3:  Repeat for a total of five times.
Once Upon a Time	Kobo, iOS	Open a book for the first time.
Page Turner	Kobo, iOS	Read for two hours straight.  I did this during a very boring shift at the homeless shelter.  I was in clothing, which is where we have piles of donated clothes for people to sift through.  Even if no one wants to come down and shop, there still has to be someone sitting there.  That was my job.  Mine and Opal Kobo's (that's her name).
Papillon	Kobo, iOS	Share on facebook ten times.  I found the easiest way to do this was to share my highlighted passages.  My friends list got very sick of my Jinian Footseer quotes.  Tough, they should have fucking read it.  It's a good book.  My favourite.  And considering I've read over a hundred books so far this year alone, that's saying quite a lot.
Playing Hooky	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 2pm and 4pm.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
Pressed for Details	Kobo, iOS	Press and hold on the title of a book in your library.
Primetime	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 8pm and 10pm.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
Quoth the Maven	iOS	Highlight ten different things and post them to facebook by clicking and holding until the option comes up.  Easy peasy.
Reading Life	Kobo, iOS	Set up your ereader. Impossible not to get.
Scout Leader	Kobo, iOS	Unlock ten other achievements.
Sleeping In	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 9am and 12pm.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
Total Recall	iOS	Reread any book.  I did this accidentally, with Francesca Lia Block's The Rose and the Beast.  There are plenty of short stories you could read through twice with ease.  If you get the PDF of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, then that'll help with the Freeloader, too.
Total Closer	iOS	Finish ten books.  If you can't do this, I feel bad for you, son.  I got ninety-nine problems, but not-reading ain't one.
The Twain Award	iOS	Open any book in the Kobo app once a day for two weeks.  Doesn't have to be the same book.
Lost in Austen	iOS	I believe you need to read five different Austen novels.  Bloody Austen.  Can't abide her.  There's something direful in the sound.
Witching Hour	Kobo, iOS	Read five times between 12am and 1am.  Open any book between those hours, on five different days.
Word Up!	Kobo, iOS	Use the Kobo dictionary to look up ten words.  Simply press and hold on a word in any book and it'll come up.
-	iOS	-