lifestyle

This genius new app will mean you can finish a novel in less than 90 minutes.

Love reading, but don’t have the time? Don’t worry, we’ve got this.

 

 

 

Remember that time when reading a book was a deliciously relaxing pleasure, and you could afford to spend lazy Sunday afternoons by the pool with your favourite novel?

Well, those days are over, people.

What with taking photos of our food and placating sick kids and mastering the socks-with-heels look and whatnot, there is NO TIME for that sort of relaxation anymore.

Luckily, thanks to American software developer Spritz, there’s now an app that allows you to fast-track your reading. And- no kidding- it allows you to read an entire novel in under 90 minutes.

Yup, that’s an entire book in an hour and a half  (leaving enough time for at least extra 20 food selfies.)

So – jokes aside – how does this incredible invention actually work, you ask?

Basically, it manipulates the format of words to line them up with your eye’s natural motion of reading. Using super-clever technology (that we can’t quite get our heads around), it identifies the “Optimal Recognition Point” (OPR) of each word, makes that letter red, and continually presents all the ORPs at the same space on the screen of whatever device you’re using.

ADVERTISEMENT

In other words, it saves your eyes from having to move at all, allowing you to process what you’re reading instantaneously. And therefore read super-fast.

Because SCIENCE.

You can even change the setting of the app, which is about to be released on Samsung devices, to between 250 and 1000 words per minute.

At the slower setting- 250 words per minute- Spritz looks like this:

At 350 words per minute, it starts to look like this:

At 500 words per minute (woah), it’s like this:

And if you can keep up with 1000 words per minute? You can apparently read a whole Harry Potter book in just over an hour.

Insane. Just. Insane.

Would you use an app like this, or do you think it’d take the fun and relaxation out of reading?

00:00 / ???