Speed Read the Book of Mormon

There’s a number of companies researching ways to help speed read easily—can the methods be applied effectively to scripture study?
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There’s a number of companies researching ways to help speed read easily, without the normal practice it takes to learn to do it with normal printed pages and web articles. The idea is our brain’s can process the words much faster than we normally read. But we have to move our eyes down each line, and most people mentally say the sounds of the word. These two things slow us down a lot. So companies like one called “Spritz” has done quite a bit of research to make speed reading easy. Several applications use Spritz reading technology. You can read more about them here: http://spritzinc.com/get-spritz.

 

 

You can download their Spitzlet button and use to to speed read the Book of Mormon. Basically it flashes words quickly on the screen, forcing you to read faster. But it helps you do it, by showing each in approximately the same position as the last word. That way, unlike normal lines on a page, your eyes don’t have to move. You can just focus on the two little indicator lines and the highlighted letter. That letter has been selected through research, as the best one for your mind and eye to focus on to be able to speedily read each word quickly. I tried this out, and with other content on Spritz’s site, and was able to jump up to 300WPM pretty quickly. Here’s an example from the webapp, at 200 WPM:

Now you can use this great webapp to speed read the Book of Mormon. I wouldn’t recommend reading it this way every time. But it’s certainly a great way to get through it quickly to see overarching themes and plotlines. To get started, just visit the site. Let us know how you’re using this webapp or these kinds of speed reading tools in general.

Also, how else do you like to read the Book of Mormon?

 

Other Book of Mormon links

 

 

22 comments
  1. Why would anyone want to speed read the Book of Mormon? The best part of my day is when I study and ponder with my worn copy of the BofM that I love so well. It is like a dear friend that I want to have a nice long visit with, not just wave in passing. I will pass on this app, thank you.

    1. Great question Kris. The answer is that there’s many ways to study this book, with its depths upon depths. One exercise that many people find useful is to read it quickly, to better see the overarching themes, the trends, and patterns that span the entire book. Things that get lost when you carefully study every verse. It’s like stepping out of the trees so you can see the forest. A very useful vantage point. As I said in the post: I don’t recommend speed reading the Book of Mormon every time, but there is much value in doing it once in a while.

      1. I agree with both posts. Reading quickly as we were challenged to do a few years ago by the prophet is an excellent to way to get and aerial view of the Book of Mormon. It helps to see the book as one large Testament of Christ. It is one valid way to study. But, just as flying over a land scape does not give one the intricate details that someone who is on the ground sifting through the dirt and cataloging each species and trying to work out the interrelating effects on the surrounding micro ecosystem, someone who ponders the book of Mormon phrase by phrase may miss the majestic over arching theme that Jesus is the Christ and Messiah for all the earth, past, present and future. This looks to be an awesome app and it is a shame there is no on to credit for the hours spent on it.

  2. In junior high 50+ years ago I learned to “speed read”, and in high school we were challenged to read the Book of Mormon. I read it in a few weeks for the first time, and then read it again just as quickly. I did get the underlying themes and plot lines and I enjoyed it. For years after that I still read the BoM quickly. It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized how much I was missing reading quickly. How much of the doctrine and beauty of God’s love I missed. I now read more slowly looking for a specific principle or doctrine. My heart gets a better “softening” that way.

  3. Love the idea because I am a slow reader like many others whose second language is English. I appreciate this and will use it definitely as it is my goal to read from the Book of Mormon daily. And I hardly read it to the end, always stuck with Nephi and Moroni.

  4. I am learning to speed read with a program on the computer. I recently finished the BOM in my personal reading, so I decided to give speed reading the BOM a try. I love to do fast read every once in a while for the same reasons you mentioned. I have been doing this since it was recommended in aBOM class at BYU over 20 years ago. I also figure by the end of reading the BOM my speed reading skills and comprehension should be much improved. I am not sure that seeing one word at a time is the best way to go since learning to see multiple words at a time helps us read faster and teaches the eyes not to stop so frequently, however I am excited to try this app. I wish I could get the BOM in my speed reading program.

  5. Could you also do the same thing but slower for people with limited vision. The large font would work great.

  6. Thank you for this article! Very fascinating! It’s like reading subtitles but milliseconds or microseconds at a time and reading the words of God faster. Normally, I speak fast when I get excited so reading the Book of Mormon fast makes me feel like I’m excited to read the words of God! 🙂 Also, I like to be challenged and reading faster helps me concentrate more somehow. Well, that doesn’t mean I do not like to slow down. In fact, I sometimes I read the Book of Mormon on other languages so that I force myself to slow down to understand the meaning of a certain word of that language. I have noticed that the translated language(s) of the Book of Mormon is not the same kind of language(s) used when for conversation. I hope that make sense.
    Btw, I can hear fine but I do enjoy subtitles when watching a show or even a movie. For me, if there are subtitles, I don’t miss a sound or a word (if a loud sound distracts me while watching a show or movie). Also, descriptive words can be fascinating if it’s on script. Anyway, thanks again!

  7. Well the app certainly eliminates the excuse of not having enough time to read!
    It may not be for everyone, as the comments so indicate. Personally I’m grateful to have found it. At my age ( 65 ) I should be able to sit quietly and focus on the project at hand. However, that is not my reality. I love being able to read more of the scriptures than my attention span might otherwise allow. It would be awesome if my entire library could be viewed this way. Oh the joy of being able to reread my favorite books, without feeling like I should be spending my time on something else!

  8. How cool! And a pretty unique way to study. I can see the pros and cons of this. I wouldn’t read it this way everytkme I read the Book of Mormon, maybe every other or 3rd time? Thanks for sharing!

  9. There is a site called Spreeder that I came across a while back that does the same thing with any text. Simply copy and paste into the box. There are various settings as to speed and txt size, etc.
    Now you can speed read Enos, Jarom, Omni, or the Words of Mormon.
    Here is the link:
    http://www.spreeder.com/app.php?intro=1

  10. thanks for all the comments and for this article. this is very interesting I have a very quick mind and I’m usually using it to think more than one thought at once. I think going faster will be more my pace/speed and may help me focus even if it’s not deep as each verse goes it’s still purposeful. . I’ve got out of habit in my scripture reading of the book of mormon this may be the trick to make it back on track

  11. I liked this idea so much that I decided to create an iOS app. Its not out on the store yet, but it’ll allow you to speed read the who.standard works. The name of the app is going to be “Scriptures in Focus” Its currently waiting for review in the app store queue right now. Its a basic implementation up front, but I plan on adding to it regularly.

    1. Cool Mikel! Message me when it’s out, through the contact page. I’ll find someone to review it, since I don’t have any iOS devices.

      1. Will do! I plan on building an Android version as well. I will probably build a web version since the one linked in the article seems to be down.

  12. I installed your Scripture Focus app in my iOS devices. It is really nice. I have shown it to a number of other people who have likewise been impressed.
    Thank you for your work on this.
    One feature request I would like is to have an option to drop the verse numbers.

    1. Thanks for sharing the app with others! I’ve been a little slow on this, but I’ll be releasing an update with a couple of minor improvements in a few days. Dropping the verse numbers will be included. 🙂

  13. The link to the site dedicated to the Book of Mormon speed read seems to be broken. Any idea where it ran off to?

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