As if self-help books weren’t effective enough on their own, two nascent companies are experimenting with game-changing technology that could allow people to read at record speeds.
Oyster, an e-reader company that employs a similar business model to Netflix, and Spritz, which has developed a new reading paradigm that replaces pages with a small box that pulses one word at a time, have announced a unique alliance.
On its website, Oyster now offers Stephen R. Covey's famous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for free consumption in Spritz’s speed-reading format. This marks the first time that a full-length, in-copyright book has utilized the technology, Oyster says.
Talk about ‘effective’: at 1,000 words per minute -- the top speed that Spritz offers -- the seminal self-help book could reportedly be completed in just under two hours.
Though Oyster, which closed a $14 million round of funding in January, is the first to offer a Spritz-able book, other major players have shown interest in the company. The Boston-based startup also caught the eye of Samsung last month, when it announced it would ship certain new devices with the technology.
Related: New E-Reader App Hatches a Clever Plan to Get You to Actually Read