Product Review: Where to find thousands of book summaries in 15 minutes or less
I came across Blinkist.com online as I was researching topics and information for my blog. I really can't say enough good things about this service.
First Impressions
There are so many books that I want to read, that is in addition to the ones I am reading to better educate myself. Not enough time to read all the material. It was a good thing I came across Blinkist as I was searching on a topic of interest.
The website boasted to be able to summarize a book's content in 15 minutes. I admit I was a bit skeptical. I decided to try the 7-day free trial.
The first thing I did was look up a book I had already read to review the book summary. I was surprised at how well the book was organized. Each book is separated into about 8 to 10 'blinks' that focus on one of the author's main ideas. This could follow the book's chapters or span several chapters depending how the ideas are presented in the book. Book summaries were concise and effective. I was thrilled to find this gem of a service! Once I was satisfied with the quality of summaries being presented (I might have looked up a couple more books), I looked up books I was interested in reading but just didn’t have the time.
Product Use
The website has a clean, bright look. You can search for book titles at any time. When you log in, you are brought to “Your Library”, which is neatly organized showing your latest read book first.
I have been using the service for almost six months. There is a wide selection of books to choose from. They have categories from Economics to History to Communication Skills to Creativity and much more.
I have used the service to review a few books that I have sitting on my shelf, that I just have't gotten around to. Sure enough, Four Hundred Souls and Crucial Accountability were both available to read in blinks.
Blinkist has audio features, so you can listen to the blinks instead of reading them. Blinkist also has an app that you can get on your Apple or Android device. This makes the service an on-the-go service that is truly a must have!
Pros and Cons
There is no automation when blink’s are created. Blinkist’s employees do the hard work of checking out the latest new books and book recommendations, reading them and making bullet points of the main ideas, and then condensing it into a 15-minute-long version.
Because Blinkist writes summaries manually and that is a time-consuming job, they can only ever cover a fraction of all the new books being released. You may not find every book you’re ever interested in on Blinkist, but you will certainly get a very wide range of books that is always growing. New blinks are added every month.
The pricing for a subscription may be considered a bit expensive - it is $15.99 per month or is paid annually, $8.34 per month, but I think it is very much worth it if you review at least 2 books a month. I would recommend that since these books are boiled down to 15 minutes, you could try to review one book a week!
The Final Score
I enjoy reading. I have read many books. There are many more books that I want to read, but there just isn’t enough time in a day to read as much as I would like – and live my life. Blinkist has allowed me to get into my “want to read” list much quicker.
Some books are actually just a few key ideas plus hundreds of pages of fluff. This makes it easy to tell when reading a Blinkist summary and helps me skip books or get the one lesson the book really shares without the time and effort of reading the full book.
Blinkist is a book summary service for busy people. I highly recommend it.
Check out Blinkist.com
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Please note that I am an affiliate. If you purchase from Blinkist through this blog post or shannonthink.com, I will earn a commission.
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