Devilish devices: autoskim

This feature is surely one of those that foretell the end of the world. It can't be a good omen when people need a device to help them 'read' faster. We have come across this blasphemous edition of Jane Eyre:

Passionate about reading? - Want to read MORE. Deadline looming? - Need to REVISE. Now with the revolutionary AutoSkim you can reread, revise and relive JANE EYRE at TWICE the speed. Unnecessary words are removed. "The cat sat on the mat" becomes " cat sat mat". Your mind is powerful and automatically fills in the blanks. After just a few pages you begin to read more rapidly.

Passionate about reading, you say?! Hmph!

So 'There was no possibility of taking a walk that day" would turn into "no walk day". Ah, the joys of reading the classics!

Perhaps you can't believe this. Well, we couldn't at first either. But visit Readpal's website and see it for yourself. In case still don't believe it, you can download a free version of their software (it's not always free, go figure). (See screenshots of the free version here).

We hear it has a few redeeming features - so that someone will buy it, of course - like many different viewing options for people with eye problems, for instance. Apparently, it's also used for work documents, which doesn't sound quite as bad as reading Jane Eyre without half its words or without any of its wonderful prose! (With this patented technology you can choose to remove 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% or even 50% of the words in the document. With one click they are removed, with another replaced.)

You hear that? It's poor Charlotte painfully turning in her grave.

Categories: Jane_Eyre, Websites, Weirdo