main.py

# coding: utf-8
# copyright 2014 tshirtman
# distributed under the GPL licence

from __future__ import division

from kivy.app import App
from kivy.lang import Builder
from kivy.properties import ListProperty, NumericProperty, StringProperty
from kivy.clock import Clock
from kivy.config import Config
from kivy.factory import Factory
from ConfigParser import NoOptionError
from os.path import join
from epub2txt import dump
import html2text

__version__ = '0.1'

Config.setdefaults('Kpritz', {
    'speed': 260,
    'lastbook': '',
    'bg_color': '1 1 1 1',
    'fg_color': '0 0 0 1',
    'hl_color': '1 0 0 1',
    'text_size': '100',
    'default_path': '.',
    })

KV = '''
#:import Factory kivy.factory.Factory
#:import join os.path.join
#:import abspath os.path.abspath
#:import log10 math.log10
#:import get_hex_from_color kivy.utils.get_hex_from_color

<WordPart@ColoredLabel>:
    size_hint: None, None
    size: root.texture_size
    font_size: '%dpt' % app.text_size
    center_y: self.parent.center_y

BoxLayout:
    orientation: 'vertical'
    word: app.text[app.position] if app.text else ''
    index: int(log10(len(self.word) + 1) * 2.5)

    FloatLayout:
        id: label_container
        WordPart:
            x: center_label.x - self.width
            text: root.word[:root.index] if app.text else ''

        WordPart:
            id: center_label
            x: label_container.width / 3
            text: root.word[root.index] if app.text else ''
            color: app.hl_color

        WordPart:
            x: center_label.right
            text:
                (root.word[root.index + 1:]
                if len(root.word) > root.index else '')

    ColoredLabel:
        text:
            '%d / %d (%2d%%)' % (
            app.position, len(app.text),
            100. * app.position / len(app.text)) if app.text else ''
        size_hint_y: None
        height: self.texture_size[1]

    BoxLayout:
        size_hint_y: None
        height: '30sp'
        ImageButton:
            source: 'open.png'
            on_press: Factory.OpenFile().open()
        ImageButton:
            source: 'previous_sentence.png'
            on_press: app.previous_sentence()
            disabled: app.position == 0
        ImageButton:
            source: 'previous.png'
            on_press: app.previous()
            disabled: app.position == 0
        ImageButton:
            source: 'play.png'
            on_press: app.play()
            on_release: app.pause()
            disabled: app.position >= len(app.text)
        ImageButton:
            source: 'next.png'
            on_press: app.next()
            disabled: app.position == len(self.text)
        ImageButton:
            source: 'next_sentence.png'
            on_press: app.next_sentence()
            disabled: app.position == len(self.text)
        ImageButton:
            source: 'faster.png'
            on_press: app.speed += 10
            disabled: app.speed == 990
        ImageButton:
            source: 'slower.png'
            on_press: app.speed -= 10
            disabled: app.speed == 10
        Label:
            text: '%3d wpm' % app.speed
            size_hint_x: None
            width: self.texture_size[0]

        Button:
            text: 'Aa'
            on_press: Factory.TextSettings().open()


<OpenFile@Popup>:
    title: 'Select a file'
    size_hint: .9, .9
    BoxLayout:
        orientation: 'vertical'
        FileChooserListView:
            path: app.default_path
            id: fc

        BoxLayout:
            size_hint_y: None
            height: '30sp'
            Button:
                text: 'open'
                disabled: not fc.selection
                on_press:
                    app.open(fc.path, fc.selection[0])
                    root.dismiss()
            Button:
                text: 'cancel'
                on_press:
                    root.dismiss()

<PathSelector@Popup>:
    title: 'Select a default path'
    size_hint: .9, .9
    BoxLayout:
        orientation: 'vertical'
        FileChooserListView:
            path: app.default_path
            id: fc

        BoxLayout:
            size_hint_y: None
            height: '30sp'
            Button:
                text: 'select current dir as default path'
                on_press:
                    app.default_path = abspath(fc.path)
                    root.dismiss()

            Button:
                text: 'cancel'
                on_press:
                    root.dismiss()

<TextSettings@Popup>:
    size_hint: .9, .9
    title: 'text settings'
    opacity: .8

    GridLayout:
        cols: 2
        Label:
            size_hint_y: None
            height: '30sp'
            text: 'text size'
        Slider:
            size_hint_y: None
            height: '30sp'
            min: 10
            max: 500
            value: app.text_size
            on_value: app.text_size = self.value

        Label:
            text: 'background color'

        ColorPicker:
            color: app.bg_color
            on_color: app.bg_color = self.color

        Label:
            text: 'foreground color'

        ColorPicker:
            color: app.fg_color
            on_color: app.fg_color = self.color

        Label:
            text: 'highlight color'

        ColorPicker:
            color: app.hl_color
            on_color: app.hl_color = self.color

        Label:
            size_hint_y: None
            height: '30sp'
            text: 'default path'
        Button:
            size_hint_y: None
            height: '30sp'
            text: app.default_path
            on_press: Factory.PathSelector().open()

        Widget:
            size_hint_y: None
            height: '30sp'
            id: span
            Button:
                text: 'close'
                pos: span.pos
                size: span.parent.width, span.height
                on_press: root.dismiss()

<ImageButton@Button>:
    source: ''
    Image:
        center: root.center
        source: join('data', root.source) if root.source else ''
        size: root.size

<ColoredLabel@Label>:
    canvas.before:
        Color:
            rgba: app.bg_color
        Rectangle:
            pos: self.pos
            size: self.size
    color: app.fg_color

<ErrorPopup@Popup>:
    title: 'unable to load book'
    size_hint: .9, .9
    message: ''

    BoxLayout:
        orientation: 'vertical'
        Label:
            size_hint_y: None
            height: self.height
            text_size: self.width, None
            text: 'Error message was:'

        ScrollView:
            Label:
                size_hint_y: None
                height: self.height
                text_size: self.width, None
                text: root.message
'''

SENTENCE_END = ('.', '!', '?', '...', '…', ':')


class Kpritz(App):
    bookname = StringProperty(Config.get('Kpritz', 'lastbook'))
    speed = NumericProperty(Config.getint('Kpritz', 'speed'))
    bg_color = ListProperty(
        map(float, Config.get('Kpritz', 'bg_color').split()))
    fg_color = ListProperty(
        map(float, Config.get('Kpritz', 'fg_color').split()))
    hl_color = ListProperty(
        map(float, Config.get('Kpritz', 'hl_color').split()))
    text_size = NumericProperty(Config.getfloat('Kpritz', 'text_size'))
    default_path = StringProperty(Config.get('Kpritz', 'default_path'))
    text = ListProperty([])
    position = NumericProperty(0)

    def build(self):
        root = Builder.load_string(KV)
        if self.bookname:
            try:
                self.open('', self.bookname)
            except IOError:
                self.bookname = ''

        return root

    def save_position(self):
        Config.set('Kpritz', self.bookname, self.position)

    def open(self, path, filename):
        if self.position:
            self.save_position()

        f = join(path, filename)
        Config.set('Kpritz', 'lastbook', f)
        self.bookname = f

        try:
            if f.endswith('.epub'):
                self.text = dump(f).split()

            elif f.endswith('.html'):
                h = html2text.HTML2Text()
                h.ignore_links = True
                h.unicode_snob = True
                h.ignore_images = True
                h.ignore_emphasis = True
                h.skip_internal_links = True
                with open(f) as fd:
                    self.text = h.handle(fd.read()).split()

            else:
                with open(f) as fd:
                    self.text = [
                        unicode(w, 'utf-8') for w in
                        fd.read().split()]

        except Exception, e:
            p = Factory.ErrorPopup().open()
            p.message = str(e)

        try:
            self.position = Config.getint('Kpritz', f)
        except NoOptionError:
            self.position = 0

    def play(self, *args):
        self._next()

    def _next(self, *args):
        if self.position + 1 < len(self.text):
            self.position += 1
            Clock.schedule_once(self._next, 60 / self.speed)

    def pause(self, *args):
        Clock.unschedule(self._next)

    def previous(self, *args):
        self.position -= 1

    def next(self, *args):
        self.position += 1

    def previous_sentence(self, *args):
        while True:
            self.position -= 1

            if self.position == 0:
                break

            elif self.text[self.position - 1].endswith(SENTENCE_END):
                break

    def next_sentence(self, *args):
        while True:
            self.position += 1

            if self.position == len(self.text):
                break

            elif self.text[self.position - 1].endswith(SENTENCE_END):
                break

    def on_pause(self, *args):
        Config.write()
        return True

    def on_resume(self, *args):
        return True

    def on_speed(self, *args):
        Config.set('Kpritz', 'speed', self.speed)

    def on_bg_color(self, *args):
        Config.set('Kpritz', 'bg_color', ' '.join(map(str, self.bg_color)))

    def on_fg_color(self, *args):
        Config.set('Kpritz', 'fg_color', ' '.join(map(str, self.fg_color)))

    def on_hl_color(self, *args):
        Config.set('Kpritz', 'hl_color', ' '.join(map(str, self.hl_color)))

    def on_text_size(self, *args):
        Config.set('Kpritz', 'text_size', self.text_size)

    def on_default_path(self, *args):
        Config.set('Kpritz', 'default_path', self.default_path)

    def on_stop(self, *args):
        self.save_position()
        Config.write()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    Kpritz().run()

Excuse me. But where did you get epub2txt module? This https://github.com/kevinxiong/epub2txt module has no 'dump'. from epub2txt import dump gives error.

this gist has moved to github proper, and that version includes its own epub2txt:

https://github.com/tshirtman/kpritz

Nice. I'm tempted...

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=010FC7C065B6B791F9958F079B32470F?doi=10.1.1.66.6654&rep=rep1&type=pdf