A couple years ago Amazon introduced a new feature on Fire tablets and the Kindle Android app called Word Runner that’s a completely different way to read.
Word Runner only shows one word at a time on the screen. You just keep your eyes focused on the center of the screen as the words change on their own.
You can control the speed of the words and scroll back and forth by swiping the screen if you miss something.
It’s a really unusual way to read. It’s supposed to make you read faster and help build up your reading speed.
At the end of each chapter it shows results for how many words per minute you can read so you can challenge yourself to read faster.
I tried Word Runner when it first came out but I didn’t feel the need to use it again after that, and I never hear anything about people using Word Runner since.
Does anyone use this feature regularly? If so has it helped improve your reading speed? What about reading retention?
i was actually SUPER pumped when they announce it, back in the days the method of “flashing” words in that way people swear it was the next big thing in speed reading. So it came out, and i used it… once… ! i didn’t feel comfortable, its just a strange and non-comprehensive way to read. Also prefent you from thinking, taking notes and highlight. these things are SUPER important during reading (some) books
However, i appreciate the option, maybe i should check it out again and try it with articles and novels and not non-fiction and self development books
I was interested way back when but, for obvious reasons, the feature never made it to e-readers. Since I only read on e-readers and not phones/tablets I have never tried it.
Depends what you’re reading, I suppose, but for me it defeats the purpose of reading for enjoyment. I don’t care about speed reading when doing so, I care about getting lost in the story.
Personally, I can’t do that when words/phrases are rushing by. Of course, I also can’t do that with audio books because I get continually distracted so perhaps it’s just me.
I tried it a few times, but don’t care for it, since it goes against the way we actually read. Only beginning readers read one word at a time. Those of us who read for enjoyment, scan ahead several words so our brain can process words in groups, rather than one at a time.
In college I took a class where we studied different readers. We watched their eyes as they read a page. What we found was faster readers move their eyes slowly down the page, focusing once or twice per line as they moved down. So picture a line of 10 words, your eyes will hit around word 3 and again around word 7 before you move to the next line.
Word Runner destroys what your brain does naturally, so it slows your reading considerably.
Very interesting… I found myself scanning ahead reading your post 🙂
Our brains work more like a parallel computer than a sequential computer I’m guessing.
Tried it once and found it interesting and not unpleasant, but I’d need something like gaze detection added to it to auto-pause when I look away to ponder something or respond to a distraction. The Brake function would be more useful to me if it’d switch the display to full page with the pause point highlighted, rather than an interface for scrolling back a word at a time.
I never used it, and I don’t like the concept
I think it we would be better if they scrolled 3 rows of text.
I think the potential of this tool is only going to be realized by people that lose their place often like me😶. I’m not diagnosed with ADD but 17yr old son was only a few years ago so I have learned a lot about ADD (not hyperactive but hyper-focused).
I only noticed it a few weeks ago because I forgot my ear buds and had to wait in jury duty selection. I don’t do a lot of reading because I don’t seem to stay on track, lose my place, and then get sleepy but am an avid Audible book user because it seems to help me stay awake and on task with menial things like laundry and driving. Yes I say sleepy because I also have Narcolepsy without cataplexia. Anyways I found the app to be a great help at keeping me from getting sidetracked with the other words. Otherwise I would take a while reading through something and struggle to re read several times until it literally sunk in!
(Note that I didn’t mention my discovery to my family.)
Then low and behold only a week later my ADD son is complaining that he is struggling to read another “stupid” AP English assignment. (He has been struggling with this class all year and only squeaking out a D even quarter while his other advanced classes are A’s & B’s.) So I sit down with him and ask for him to specify the issue like is it he can’t see the words clearly or.? And sure enough he comes right out with “I keep losing my place and have to go back and find it re-read it and not remembering what I read. So I showed him the app, right away he bumped up the speed much higher than I could follow but he took to it right away. Note that he always skimmed like the previous comment in this article said but I think that maybe it depends on what you are reading.
He has since been moved to English Honors (which, here, is not as difficult as AP) and now we know that we need download future assignments if possible and use the app. After I asked the school librarian if they had such a tool for students and she no, she asked about the tool and would research getting something similar for students.
I just started using this and can already tell it is going to be a lifesaver for me. I have convergence insufficiency that has not responded to vision therapy. As a result my eyes tire very quickly when reading from left to right (I usually end up moving my head instead of my eyes). This seemed to help me dramatically. Here’s to hoping I find my love for reading once again!
I love it. I am one of the guys that has trouble focussing on a word when there are other words around it (does this make sense?), so tend to read more effective with Word Runner.
I think it’s fab, I’m dyslexic and find it a great way to read and review material quickly.
Magnificent.
Reading snobs, be gone with you.
I use it, I am normally a slow reader and struggle to focus, my mind wonders. This feature has help me become a better reader.