This free Android app made me love reading again, one sentence at a time

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have the same attention span I once had, and that has directly impacted my reading habit. Doomscrolling short-form videos on social media and a writer’s job that requires me to stare at walls of text (and write them too) have made me incapable of finishing a book. I’ve long considered it a shame, as once upon a time, I could read and finish an entire Harry Potter book in a day. But now, I can barely cross a few pages before losing my concentration and floating away. If you find yourself in a similar situation of being unable to read through a book anymore, here’s a new app that could help you bring back your reading habit, one sentence at a time.

Seriatim Reader is a new app for Android phones and tablets that breaks down books into single sentences on your screen. It’s a novel concept, one that imports the principles of social media doomscrolling into book reading, and I actually love it.

This is a free e-reader app that lets you import EPUB, PDF, and TXT files for reading. The app also lets you download free books and research papers.

Instead of presenting a wall of text that e-reader apps typically do, Seriatim Reader breaks down the book into single sentences. You’re now reading a single sentence at a time, similar to how you consume micro-content on Instagram and TikTok. You scroll through with single taps on the screen.

The app allows you to customize various settings, including setting the light, dark, or automatic theme, marking starting letters with bold for easier visual tracking, adjusting text spacing, selecting entry and exit animations for the text, and more. You can even set how many sentences you want per page: I started with one sentence, but I’ve progressed to two sentences for faster reading.

Before I realized it, I had spent over 20 minutes reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, one sentence at a time. That’s 20 more minutes spent reading a book in many years. I really thought I had lost my ability to read a book without losing my concentration and having my eyes start glazing over after a point, but thanks to this app, I’m overjoyed to rediscover my lost hobby.

My enthusiasm might come across as too strong, but I’d like to clarify that this is not a paid promotion at all — I am genuinely this happy to rediscover my love for reading, even if it’s adapted for the doomscrolling era. Seriatim Reader is a free app, so try it for yourself. Happy reading!