Read a Novel in 90 Minutes With an App?

Jett. said:

A recent article by "I fucking love science" presents an App (named Spritz) that uses optical recognition methods to speed up reading.

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/read-novel-90-minutes-smartphone-app#overlay-context=

There are gifs that show the process.

I don't know if I would like to read everything that fast, though I personally like the fact that your eyes wouldn't have to constantly bounce left to right, which I think in some cases is a cause for headaches.

Like my position on e-readers, some books you are glad to read fast and loose, while for others you want a nice hardcover, fine typography and the whole experience.

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I didn't think I was a particularly fast reader, but apparently I'm 40% faster than average. (I can get through about 20,000 words in an hour, given reasonable alertness and non-tiredness, so that's 333 words per minute. Most people I know who can speedread seem to get through about 35,000 words an hour, or about 100 pages of a averagely-typeset print book.)

I could read the 500wpm sample, but not sure if I could keep that up for long.

I could keep up with the 500 wpm, too, but I'm not sure if I would be able to fully comprehend the plot of a novel if I tried reading it that fast. It might be useful for studying from a textbook, though.

The 500wpm seems fine to me, but it'd require retraining me to read in a somewhat different way. Possibly a more efficient way, but I'm not sure I need to be able to read a novel in 90 mins. (There are occasions when it would be a very useful skill, sure.)

Torgo said:

... I'm not sure I need to be able to read a novel in 90 mins.

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+1

If I'm reading a novel, I should be enjoying it. (If I'm not enjoying it, I should be paying attention to why I'm not enjoying it, so I can avoid writing unenjoyable stories myself.) It's supposed to be about the journey at least as much as the destination. Why would I take the scenic highway and floor the accelerator until the scenery's a blur?

Now, some nonfiction stuff that I'm reading for information (including one I'm slogging through right now)... yeah, I can see where getting through the thing that much faster would be good, but only if I actually retained the information I was reading to acquire in the first place - which still sounds like an open question, from the article.

I've seen this, and while I concede the usefulness in certain situations, strongly dislike it. It. Makes. Me. Feel. Like. I'm. Reading. A. Telegraph. For non-fiction, it would not annoy me as greatly, but it destroys flow and sentence rhythm, IMHO.

I have a few FB friends who are nuts for it, so different strokes and all that.

Not for me! It gives me a headache and makes me feel jumpy. Thanks for sharing it, though.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of this.

I think one of the things that makes novels special is that you have to spend time with them--and moreover, if it's good, you want to spend time with them. I want to read the opening pages of Auggie March two or three or four times because to me it's beautiful.

I could read that fast, but making sense of what I'm reading would be a different matter. It would defeat the purpose.

ETA: That app thing hurt my eyes.

I tried a similar app. It started at 250 wpm, which was too fast. The first lesson had the word contextual in it and it flashed by and I was like "what the hell was that word?" And I missed everything after it. Even when I knew the word was coming, because I pronounce each word in my head, I couldn't keep up. I currently have it set for 185, which is just comfortable enough.

Yikes, I really don't like the 500wpm sample. Like Jari_k, for me it feels jumpy and headache-inducing.

I sampled it and liked it. I think I could get accustomed to it fast. I must be weird.
My
Friends
Will
Tell
You
That
I
Am
Weird
So
That's
Nothing
New.

I thought the point of a book (specifically fiction) is to be read for enjoyment, not to speed through and say "well I read the words, who cares if I missed the comprehension of it" ??? I can speed read very fast without the app, but I'm not able to completely pay attention. I think that's my pet peeve about technology, everything is fast! fast! fast! Dude, slow down!

I could read the 500wpm and honestly, I don't think it would affect my comprehension much. But man, when I'm reading, I love the ability to flip back and forth, to reread passages I really like, and I feel like that aspect would get lost if the book was shouting "Keep up or you're getting left behind!"

I must be a fast reader. It would take me maybe two and a half hours (but probably less) to read the first Harry Potter book (it has big font). So I guess I read something like three times the speed of an average reader.