7 ms·

I've been having major issues reading books (mainly non-fiction and strategy and personal development oriented) due to what I feel to be "filler content" as men

I've been having major issues reading books (mainly non-fiction and strategy and personal development oriented) due to what I feel to be "filler content" as mentioned in the thread above. I'd be very interested in authors (I mean book authors) to provide direction on the mindset and shortcomings of the summary culture (e.g. Blinkist et-al) Surely, every 10th article on my FB feed is about reading books and there is perhaps enough justification to read books

brezelnbitte 5y ago
I read close to 70 books last year and learned to skim all the filler by scanning down the page, reading a paragraphs first sentence until I get past the filler. Or I skip complete sections/chapters based on their titles. Business books all follow a formula with clear chapter descriptions and authors guide to content in the intro. I haven’t found summaries valuable because it’s not always the authors main point that sparks ideas for me.
kache_ 5y ago
I recommend reading the author's blogs & listening to their podcasts. The goal is to have their core ideas drilled into your head, and sometimes that takes time. Having a cadence of a weekly blog post does that much better I find. Maybe don't try to read the whole book in one week, but rather space out each chapter over a long period of time so that the message "sticks" with you.
stathibus 5y ago
In my view its an antiquated business model and there is no virtue in clinging to it as a writer or buying into it as a reader. Ideas are not better merely because they've been printed and bound. Most ideas in this genre can be (and are) expressed in a blog post, but the legion of middlemen in the publishing industry can't make money on blog posts. One of the ways publishers stick their fingers into this process is by demanding more material.
itisit 5y ago
I question the value of services like Blinkist. If you reduce a book to a five minute gist, what does the reader gain? Maybe a "huh, neat" at best. What is remembered? Are there any lasting takeaways? Padding popsci nonfiction with anecdotes is as old as the genre itself. Comprehension requires time and variety, and all those stories and asides can help reinforce and round out the message. If you're just looking for the point or thesis of one of these books to satisfy your curiosity, you obviously don't need to bother with however many hundreds of pages there might be, especially if you view reading as a chore.
pramodbiligiri 5y ago
I tried Blinkist but gave up quickly. Their summaries are not high quality. I don't know who writes them. When I looked up summaries of books I'd already read (Deep Work, Startup of You and some others) they didn't match my sense of the book. I wish someone would fill this niche. There's definitely a need for a good book summarization service. The service shouldn't try to replace the book-read. They only need to help you decide whether you should buy/borrow the book.
- james-bcn 5y ago
  I agree that the Blinkist summaries are low quality. I think this https://shortform.com https://shortform.com may be the answer, although it's expensive.
dSebastien 5y ago
Fully agree with you, and exactly what I've decided to do this year! I want to read lots of non-fiction books and create similar long-form summaries. My goal is to explore new ideas, expand my second brain, and share the learnings with my audience.
apricot13 5y ago
I have the same feelings as you a lot of these books are glorified blog posts - my trick to dealing with them is to treat them as such. I read on kindle so for books like this I read on my ipad and check the 'continuous scrolling' option. Eliminating the 'book' aspect of them makes you feel less guilty for skipping whole paragraphs when they're really just filler!
winter_squirrel 5y ago
patrickk 5y ago
The E-Myth (Revisited?) is a book that suffers badly from having page after page of sentimental drivel, padding it out significantly. The core message is quite insightful and worth knowing, but the author doesn’t respect the readers time. Edit: some book notes from Derek Sivers- https://sive.rs/book/EMythRevisited https://sive.rs/book/EMythRevisited It’s like a modern open world video game in book form.

brezelnbitte 5y ago

I read close to 70 books last year and learned to skim all the filler by scanning down the page, reading a paragraphs first sentence until I get past the filler. Or I skip complete sections/chapters based on their titles. Business books all follow a formula with clear chapter descriptions and authors guide to content in the intro. I haven’t found summaries valuable because it’s not always the authors main point that sparks ideas for me.

kache_ 5y ago

I recommend reading the author's blogs & listening to their podcasts. The goal is to have their core ideas drilled into your head, and sometimes that takes time. Having a cadence of a weekly blog post does that much better I find. Maybe don't try to read the whole book in one week, but rather space out each chapter over a long period of time so that the message "sticks" with you.

stathibus 5y ago

In my view its an antiquated business model and there is no virtue in clinging to it as a writer or buying into it as a reader. Ideas are not better merely because they've been printed and bound. Most ideas in this genre can be (and are) expressed in a blog post, but the legion of middlemen in the publishing industry can't make money on blog posts. One of the ways publishers stick their fingers into this process is by demanding more material.

itisit 5y ago

I question the value of services like Blinkist. If you reduce a book to a five minute gist, what does the reader gain? Maybe a "huh, neat" at best. What is remembered? Are there any lasting takeaways? Padding popsci nonfiction with anecdotes is as old as the genre itself. Comprehension requires time and variety, and all those stories and asides can help reinforce and round out the message. If you're just looking for the point or thesis of one of these books to satisfy your curiosity, you obviously don't need to bother with however many hundreds of pages there might be, especially if you view reading as a chore.

pramodbiligiri 5y ago

I tried Blinkist but gave up quickly. Their summaries are not high quality. I don't know who writes them. When I looked up summaries of books I'd already read (Deep Work, Startup of You and some others) they didn't match my sense of the book. I wish someone would fill this niche. There's definitely a need for a good book summarization service. The service shouldn't try to replace the book-read. They only need to help you decide whether you should buy/borrow the book.

james-bcn 5y ago
I agree that the Blinkist summaries are low quality. I think this https://shortform.com https://shortform.com may be the answer, although it's expensive.

dSebastien 5y ago

Fully agree with you, and exactly what I've decided to do this year! I want to read lots of non-fiction books and create similar long-form summaries. My goal is to explore new ideas, expand my second brain, and share the learnings with my audience.

apricot13 5y ago

I have the same feelings as you a lot of these books are glorified blog posts - my trick to dealing with them is to treat them as such. I read on kindle so for books like this I read on my ipad and check the 'continuous scrolling' option. Eliminating the 'book' aspect of them makes you feel less guilty for skipping whole paragraphs when they're really just filler!

winter_squirrel 5y ago

patrickk 5y ago

The E-Myth (Revisited?) is a book that suffers badly from having page after page of sentimental drivel, padding it out significantly. The core message is quite insightful and worth knowing, but the author doesn’t respect the readers time. Edit: some book notes from Derek Sivers- https://sive.rs/book/EMythRevisited https://sive.rs/book/EMythRevisited It’s like a modern open world video game in book form.