A new text-streaming technology is set to revolutionise the way we read work documents, emails and e-Books with a speed reading facility of up to 1,000 words per minute - meaning you could read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (at 311 pages) in under three hours.

The technology used by the folks at Boston-based start-up company Spritz allows you to speed read by flashing up one word at a time. The thinking behind this is that the time-consuming part of reading comes from moving your eyes from word to word and sentence to sentence.

Added to that is the actual physical space taken up by words and sentences.

The Spritz technology aims to eliminate both problems by flashing up words one by one, at speed. We read at an average of 220 words per minute, so even the lowest Spritz reading will let you up that rate to 250 words per minute. You can go up beyond that to 350 words per minute and even 500 words per minute (concentration is the key here).

New technology lets you speed read a book at 1,000 words per minute