It's rare that any modern-day app can take me back to my childhood, but the brand new and rather intriguing ReadQuick speed-reading app for the Apple iPad did just that — and in a good way.
Back in the 70's when there were no personal computers or giant LCD screens, I sat in my elementary classroom staring at a projector screen, rapt by the image streaming before my eyes. It was a single line of text, whizzing by as fast as my eyes and brain could take them in. In other words, it was a very early speed-reading device for grade school kids. I have no idea how it worked. All I do know is that competitive, little 9-year-old Lance wanted to read faster than any of his classmates.
Fast forward to today when I downloaded the new ReadQuick app from Action Now. This black and white, iPad-only app is for the speed readers — and those who wish to become speed readers — in all of us. It's not a beautiful app. The App icon and most of the interface is black, white and gray, but it does work rather elegantly.
Using ReadQuick
The concept is simple and somewhat ingenious. You collect articles via Instapaper, featured content (from Action Now partners) or URLs you choose (there's a built-in browser) and then you read them, in a portrait-only window, one…word…at…a…time. Now, I know that sounds like the opposite of speed reading, but those single words only appear for a moment on the screen; so one word after another appears in the screen, but almost never two words (unless they're hyphenated) on the screen at once. You have to ingest a single word at a time as fast as you can.
Since we read words in whole, like pictures, and not one letter at a time, this actually works. The default speed for word display is 250 words per minute. It was pretty fast, but I could handle it. You can go as high as 800 words per minute and as slow as 100 words per minute. I tried 800 (see the video below for a sample) and read about every tenth word. By the way, if you change that setting, which is on a slider, good luck getting back to exactly 250 words a minute. You'll likely end up near it — which is good enough.
Every article has a time associated with it; how long it will take you to read said article. It's a nice way of managing your reading time. You can, of course, stop and start reading whenever you want; a double tap starts the word stream and another double tap pauses it. If you choose an article from a website, ReadQuick instantly ingests it and tells you just how long it will take to read at your preferred speed.
ReadQuick is not just about reading fast and getting out of there. The app keeps track of what you've read and your stats. These include articles and words read, as well as your average speed. You can also share the articles you've read via ReadQuick, but I found no way to share my stats.
Your Choices
ReadQuick is not the first iOS-based speed reading app. There are others like QuickReader and the free app Acceleread. The latter is a fair bit cheaper than the $3.99 ReadQuick, but actually more hand-holding. It even tests your reading speed and comprehension before starting your speed-reading journey. However, most of Acceleread's primary training tools are behind a premium wall. You can pay up to $8 to upgrade. It's one free training tool is a speed reader that looks a lot like ReadQuick's reading interface.
To be fair, I think Acceleread is focused much more aggressively on improving speed and comprehension (and making money through in-app purchases). ReadQuick's approach is a lot more subtle, letting you decide when you want to go faster and, I guess, hoping you improve along the way.
Overall, I like ReadQuick. Yes, it's too expensive, but the unadorned interface and focus on the simple act of ingesting words as quickly as possible is surprisingly appealing. Reading in this way, though, does require a lot more attention than normal reading. Glance away for a moment and you are lost. You can always go back, but only to the beginning of the article.
ReadQuick is available now on iTunes and requires and iPad running iOS 5 or higher.
Do you wish you could read more quickly? Share thoughts on your reading and comprehension prowess in the comments.
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