How much time have you wasted reading poorly chosen books? If you are like me then you have spent too much time (and money) on disappointing books. A great way to make more of your reading time is to subscribe to a book summary web site.
One of the best decisions I recently made was to subscribe to a couple of book subscription websites. These websites provide an extensive range of books (including many best sellers) across a number of categories. The summaries themselves can be accessed in various formats such as PDF documents, mind maps and audio. Each summary takes about 10 minutes to read. I love using these book summary subscriptions for the following reasons….
- Exposure to wide range of ideas in no time: I can easily read a book summary or two everyday which enables me to be exposed to a wide range of new ideas and concepts across a number of fields.
- Better return on my reading time: I would rather read 20 quality book summaries than one quality book.
- Better reading decisions: It takes a lot less time to read a 6 page summary than a 300 page book. If I don’t like a book summary - I have lost a few minutes. However, if I don’t like a book, I have lost hours. If I really like the book I can still buy it.
- Quick and cheap way to satisfy a curiosity: On a regular basis I see new book which catches my attention, but I don’t want the commitment of buying it. (If I bought every book that catches my attention I could start a library). Instead of purchasing I can often satisfy my curiosity by looking up the book summary and reading that.
- Built-in Research facility: The site has a built in facility for author searches (e.g – books by ‘maxwell’) and topic searches (e.g – books on ‘time management’).
- Saves money: While I am more interested in the time saved, making use of a book summary website can save a lot of money. You can do the sums.
The book summary websites that I subscribed to last year were BusinessSummaries.com and www.getabstract.com. I have enjoyed both of them. I found that GetAbstract provided a better range of books, while BusinessSummaries provided a cheaper option. My only regret – I didn’t do it years earlier. Think of the time I could have saved.
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A little time, well spent.
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