If you’re into gaming, you might have heard about the concept of speedrunning – which involves completing a section of a game, or even the whole game as fast as possible.
With ever-shorter attention spans, and our increasingly active lifestyles, there never seems to be enough time to read. Which begs the question, can we apply the same principle of speedrunning when it comes to our potential passion or need for reading?
According to some specialists and various articles found online, speed reading is not entirely possible. However, it’s definitely an interesting concept, as a skilled reader can read somewhere between 200 and 300 words per minute.
So, if you feel that Mark Hanna from The Wolf Of Wallstreet is right (even though its totally out of context) when he said “You gotta pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers…”, you should try Spedread.
What is Spedread?
Spedread is a free and open-source GTK speed reading software. It’s designed to show one word at a time rapidly in order to allow focusing on the general idea rather than the whole reading experience. In short, less eye movements, faster speeds for reading.
The app is capable of handling a wide range of languages, it allows you to play, pause, and switch between the next and previous words, and it even allows you to control the speed at which words are displayed.
The software can be installed on most Linux distributions directly from Flathub, or you can build it from source.
Conclusion
While not impressive in any meaningful way, Spedread is a simple yet interesting, and well-designed little app that should fit right into your speedreading fantasy, if that’s something you want to try, or if that’s something you’re passionate about.
