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Show HN: Typebook.lol read books by typing the letters only (typebook.lol)

2 points by vegnus ↗ HN
Updated this little project. I have never personally used a project I developed more than this one. I've spent 76 hours typing books since August 28th, 2026. Latest update is in place that allows you to type only case insensitive letters, instead of worrying about punctuation and case. It's a much faster and more enjoyable experience. Though, if you're a masochist, hard mode can be enabled in Appearance settings.

13 comments

[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 27.0 ms ] thread
opiotrek
Why would one do that? what are the benefits instead of just reading?
confusus
I have troubles doing nothing besides reading so typing might help me ease into the story I guess. Will try this out!
carljungslabtek
I don’t know about typing but writing things by hand definitely commits them to memory in a much stronger way than just saying them out loud.

I imagine that typing isn’t as effective but is still way more effective than just reading because you really have to consider every single word.

vegnus
Hey thank's Carl Jung's labtek. I'm 22% through Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Great read so far
vegnus
It's kind of like an active way of reading, also like others said, you're forced to read ever word, painstakingly. I find it fun first and foremost
turtlebits
This is fun, thanks for the note on "hard mode" (maybe call it Settings instead of Appearance).

It was extremely annoying to have it auto skip punctuation. Maybe you should just ignore the keypresses for punctuation marks instead of showing a red indicator for the next character.

ndqpc
Having to login is making users bounce.
vegnus
No email required, it's just to save progress across devices.
hollow-moe
\> bee \> 0 result my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
vunderba
Might be a good idea to try to explain how your project is different from other more well-known ones that let you practice typing using public domain literature. TypeLit is the one that comes immediately to mind.

https://www.typelit.io

vegnus
Gamified elements for some reason are an incentive for me. Combos when you get long streaks without errors. Can load epubs and plain text. Options for typing letters/punctuation/case. I actually got the idea from typ.ing, but there was stuff that I wanted to see that I couldn't find on other typing sites. Also I kept losing progress which I found to be really frustrating