As you know, I read a lot. But I don’t really enjoy non-fiction, especially when they are how-to, leadership or career books. I don’t like that each chapter is typically a variation of a central theme, and there are too many anecdotes and examples to illustrate the chapter theses. I find it repetitive, and frankly not very interesting.
But I also want those nuggets of information!!! After several Blinkist ads, I decided to give it a try. Blinkist takes non-fiction books and summarizes them to 15 minutes or fewer in what it calls “blinks”. The app is NOT a substitute for the full experience of reading a book, but it will give you the highlights and major takeaways in a concise format. After using the week free trial, here are my thoughts:
What I like about Blinkist:
Each book is summarized in 15 minutes or less. As someone who doesn’t generally enjoy non-fiction, this is an efficient way to figure out what the book is about, and if the little blinks are interesting enough, I can just get the whole book.
The narrators have generally pleasant voices.
The key takeaways are well summarized - they don’t spend time on examples and stick to the main points and calls to action.
What I don’t like about Blinkist:
They summarize biographies - what’s the point of this? If all you want is the high points of a biography, just read the subject’s Wikipedia page?
The cost: at $99/year, this is not inexpensive.
The user interface could use some improvement. For example, you have the option to favorite books on Blinkist, but it doesn’t add them into a queue automatically. You have to manually add them to a queue. You also can’t find what you’ve already listened to (or if you can, I can’t find it, which says something about the interface), so I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up listening to the same thing more than once.
All that said, I did sign up for a full year of Blinkist. I prefer spending my leisure reading time on fiction, but if I’m trying to absorb information quickly, this is the most effective way for me to achieve those goals. I used the What a Day podcast sponsor discount code to get a full year for $75, so at less than a cup of black coffee per week, this is a worthy investment for me.
