Are There Kindle Tools To Track And Improve Reading Speed?

I had no idea it would be so easy to track reading speed with apps! The Kindle already has a feature called 'Reading Insights' that shows your daily reading streaks and how many minutes you read during the day, but it does not provide reading speed metrics. I have tested two reading speed apps, ‘Read Up’ and ‘Speed Reading Trainer’ that connect to your Kindle highlights and use word count to estimate your pages per hour reading speed. The app ‘Read Up’ in particular was a real motivator for me. After a month of using it, I was able to increase my reading speed from 200 to 320 wpm.

Combining these reading apps with Kindle’s ‘Word Wise’ feature has been a huge help for me with particularly challenging books. By hovering over a word that I’m not familiar with, a definition is revealed in a pop-up box above the word. I’ve also found that apps that use the ‘Spritz’ method (where words are displayed one at a time) of speed reading can really detract from the immersion of a novel, but are great for nonfiction. I use Kindle’s ‘Vocabulary Builder’ to review the words that I missed in a highlighted section of text later, and it’s become sort of a personal speed drill for my weak points. Interestingly, I’ve found that I read thrillers and action-oriented novels about 40% percent faster than I read more dense, complex classics. Now I plan my TBR list accordingly.

Kindle has a ‘Reading Speed’ setting under ‘Settings’ that provides an estimate for reading speed. But, I tend to track this manually. I measure how long it takes to read a 50-page chunk and then calculate the number of words divided by the number of minutes. There’s also an app called ‘Outread’ that adds a reading pace to the Kindle e-book, highlighting sections of text to focus on. I find this works best for short bursts of reading time. My solution to improve reading speed without wearing yourself out is to re-read favorite action scenes.

Does anyone know anything about the ‘BeeLine Reader’ concept? I was reading fanfiction on a website that allowed extension installs for a browser, so I added it to read some stuff. It’s a reading technology that adds a color gradient to lines of text to help you read faster by reducing the amount of times you ‘skip lines’.

I have been wondering if someone could implement this concept as a unique experimental font on a jailbroken Kindle. Instead of trying to train people’s brains to be better readers, reading assistance should focus on making the physical reading process less work for the eyes. If the Kindle were an open platform instead of a closed walled garden, then there would probably be plenty of indie developers who could create a variety of fonts and reading tools for particular niches of readers.