diff --git a/pkgs/additional/koreader-from-src/default.nix b/pkgs/additional/koreader-from-src/default.nix
index 2870e096..0916051d 100644
--- a/pkgs/additional/koreader-from-src/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/additional/koreader-from-src/default.nix
@@ -25,14 +25,14 @@
 }:
 let
   sources = import ./sources.nix;
+  version = "2023.10";
   src = fetchFromGitHub {
     owner = "koreader";
     repo = "koreader";
     name = "koreader";  # needed because `srcs = ` in the outer derivation is a list
     fetchSubmodules = true;
-    # rev = "v${version}";
-    rev = "f3520effd679eb24a352e7dec600c5b378c3d376";  # master
-    hash = "sha256-cPftNXKL9khQKH/DKXyl9YZAEa27T/n3ATErPZy8irY=";
+    rev = "v${version}";
+    hash = "sha256-J8WNSkhPO0Y+m/h246w1GpowOVROOHVbmuDHFAniItk=";
   };
   # XXX: for some inscrutable reason, `enable52Compat` is *partially* broken, only when cross compiling.
   # `table.unpack` is non-nil, but `table.pack` is nil.
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ let
 in
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "koreader-from-src";
-  version = "unstable-2023-10-18";
+  inherit version;
   srcs = [ src ] ++ (lib.mapAttrsToList
     (name: src: fetchgit (
       {
diff --git a/pkgs/additional/koreader-from-src/sources.nix b/pkgs/additional/koreader-from-src/sources.nix
index cbc52fd6..8d439040 100644
--- a/pkgs/additional/koreader-from-src/sources.nix
+++ b/pkgs/additional/koreader-from-src/sources.nix
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 # to update:
+# - first, figure the rev for `koreader-base`:
+#   - inside `koreader` repo:
+#     - `git submodule status base`
+#     - or `git log base`
 # - inside `koreader-base` repo:
-#   - note the git rev as `old-rev`
-#   - `git pull` in koreader-base
-#   - `git diff old-rev.. thirdparty`
+#   - `git diff old-rev..new-rev thirdparty`
 # - update `source.rev` everywhere here that changed upstream
 #   - zero the hashes here and correct them based on build errors
 # - tweak ./vendor-external-projects.patch until it applies
@@ -13,6 +15,11 @@
 # the following build output may look like an error, but is safe to ignore:
 # - "awk: fatal: cannot open file `3.9' for reading: No such file or directory"
 #   - this number comes from the luarocks version
+#
+# how to automate koreader updates?
+# - it may be that koreader-base is more strongly decoupled from `koreader` than first appears:
+#   - most `koreader` commits which update base simply bump its rev and nothing more.
+#   - then, `koreader-base` could be its own package, updated independently from the main koreader.
 {
   thirdparty = {
     curl = {