One use for these I was thinking would be to help work out if a book is worth your time and money.
Do you have experience using a summary service - such as Blinkist - and then going on to read the full book?
If so; did they do a good job at summarising the book?
Which services do you like?
Also does anyone use them to do a lot of reading?
Do you find any downsides over reading fewer full books?
I have used Blinkist for a couple of months. In my opinion, a book leaves a long lasting impact on one's mind but not these summaries. I do not remember much about the book summaries I read on Blinkist. But that could be just me..
Cheers.
12 months free Blinkist with Amex. 30 days left on this deal.. Gotta get a new card before 28 Feb or find a friend happy to help you signup with their card. Or a free trial.
IMO Blinkist is just-ok for screening which books are flat out no good, and which you might consider reading in full.
I don't find myself keep going back to the app to scout more books to buy or fully read. Much better going to libraries to skim a couple of chapters.
I used to read business book summaries, starting when I was young and in junior management. As I've gotten older and hopefully a little wiser, I've found that like an MBA, reading many summaries to give you a lot of breath is pretty useless.
In life you need some breath, but then a lot of depth in a few areas is critical.
If you want a high level summary on whether to start a book or not, skim the table of contents and maybe introduction and read some Amazon reviews.
I go by the author's area of expertise and perhaps references by others in the field. For example, I had watched references to two particular experts in an area of health over five years ago and started getting across their work in more detail. Last year I read the book of one that was released just a couple of years ago, and I'm working through the even more detailed book of the second one released just last year. Both have been very helpful in my understanding of this field and reinforced my understanding of other works, including two books I read the previous year.
I also watch a lot of lectures and documentaries as well as reading books in a particular area of interest.