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RECOMMENDED: Blinkist - excellent summaries of what you wish you could read


I love audio - no big surprise there (I listen to a bunch of podcasts and despite sometimes questionable audio quality, I do have my own). And I love to read. But it's not easy to read a book when driving and when you're driving short distances, it's hard to get into a good book.

Enter Blinkist. I learned about this from the James Altucher show and thought I would give it a try using the free trial. The annual subscription after that wasn't so bad, especially if I found I would use it a lot.


130 books in and I'm really enjoying it. I've covered a huge number of topics (everything from food culture to math and physics) and have gone back to read summaries of books I've already purchased as well as purchased books after having my curiosity piqued.





To be fair, I have questioned whether authors do get any benefit from summaries but much like other Executive Summaries, if a summary intrigues even 1% of its listeners to buy the book, it's much like having an author go on a one-hour podcast ( vs 4 authors in an hour) and definitely better than an author having a 2 minute segment on national TV, where the hosts usually just get one story which is hard to compress an entire book in.

What I love best is the ability to switch from listening to reading. So I start by listening in the car and then when I get out and am walking to another location or waiting for an elevator, I can finish the "blink" or book.

If you find it's hard these days to read everything that is out there, and are tired of reading just blurbs from blogs, consider Blinkist.  Let me know if you enjoy it as well.


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