Last Updated on by Nishil Prasad
In this world of bullet trains and 5G internet, reading an entire Book just to derive one moral or lesson can easily seem counterproductive. Self-help books often employ multiple examples over page after page to drive home one point. Just one point. And it’s not surprising that readers are often tempted to leave books halfway across in such cases.
What to do? They are effective, after all. We all do want to change our lives, after all. In comes Blinkist.com, to bring learning and wisdom and knowledge in little, digestible nuggets.
In today’s article, we’re going to look at what Blinkist.com is, what it provides you, and its multiple pros and cons. Hop on the saddle and let’s begin our ride:
What is Blinkist.com?
There are so many books out there waiting to be picked by us. Our lives are busy, our jobs, and families, and whatnot are always there to focus our time on. Blinkist.com helps in reallocating little pieces of your daily time into something more rewarding, more enriching. While commuting, or while doing house chores, or while browsing your phone, you can take our mere 15 minutes at a time to get the primary ideas from best-selling works of non-fiction from around the world.
You can consume those 15-minute ideas as text or sound, whichever way you please. Currently, there are over 4500 books in their ever-growing catalog of books that cover a vast range of topics from psychology to philosophy to science to business to mindfulness. Personalized recommendations, bestseller lists, and the best new releases are some of the many features provided by the website.
What Does Blinkist.com Provide?
- Blinkist Reader
Not only does this reader make reading the book ideas easier, but it also provides audio versions for most of the books. Not just that, you can easily highlight and share your favorite ideas and quotes on various platforms. These highlights can also be synced with Evernote and the summaries can also be transported to your Kindle account.
- Audio Player
You can easily switch to the audio player by hitting the Listen option in the book overview. The audio is very distinct and easy to understand in one go. They can be downloaded for offline listening, and have other functionalities as well, the same as any music player.
- Book Selections
Sure, you want to read a book that grows you. But which one? And the next? The next one after that? Blinkist offers you curated selections that you can filter based on genres and other criteria. This ensures you’re never short of books to read and imbibe in your life. Be it philosophy or management, Blinkist always has the right book(s) for you!
Benefits and Drawbacks of Blinkist.com
+ Minimalistic Design
The purpose of the app is to make you read more books and provide more knowledge in short amounts of time. And its simplistic design helps in that. With time, they’ve decreased the number of features available on their app so that you focus solely on one thing. The thing you’re here for. Learning from the books you read or listen to.
This is why there are no advertisements, no extra bars, no unnecessary buttons. This provides for better navigation and a faster experience. You can easily load your books, download them for offline reading, or listening smoothly and swiftly.
+ Complete Book Summaries
You don’t just get a checklist of everything mentioned in the book, but the entirety of the ideas mentioned. This ensures that you aren’t just reading or skimming the principles, but rather grasping what lies at the core of the book which eventually helps in enhancing your knowledge and understanding.
+ Pricing
Whether you compare it to other services that provide book summaries or to actual books, Blinkist is very affordable. It costs less than a coffee per day and is far more superior to the free summary websites out there on the internet.
+ No Need to Take Notes
An often recommended advice while reading self-improvement books or guides is to not down notes throughout the text. Blinkist takes that out of the picture because here you’re bound to memorize more. Besides, you can always come back to it if any such need arises. It hardly takes 15 minutes per book after all!
+ More Books in Lesser Time
Have you always been jealous of that one friend who would read 5-6 books per month? Well, worry not, for, with Blinkist, you can easily surpass that number and even read 4-5 times to that number of books. This also helps you avoid poor books without much relevance for your life as you only spend 15 minutes on them rather than hours.
+ Multitasking Like a Boss
It’s not always easy to juggle some reading time every day and that’s understandable. But what about utilizing those minutes or hours when you’re not using your cognitive abilities to perform a task? For example, when you’re driving, or washing dishes, or vacuuming the house, you can simply plug in your audio headset and listen to any of the multiple titles available in Blinkist’s collection. Easy peasy!
+ Gives You More Time to Work on the Principles
Ask yourself. What would you prefer more? Spending more time reading the book or spending that time applying those concepts in your daily life? If your answer is the second option, Blinkist is perfect for you. Because you can spend the 5-7 or more hours that you spend reading the book into practicing what it teaches.
+ Reading Not Just Books That You Like, But Also Those That You Need
It’s always easier to just drift into reading one kind of book, which is quite often the case with readers. But for more holistic growth, be it in your personal life or professional, multiple aspects need to be studied and understood, and applied in our lives. And Blinkist helps in that with its wide selection of titles that are available in a plethora of categories. Whether you need happiness or love, whether you seek to understand history or biology, Blinkist has titles for you aplenty.
+ Top-notch Books That Can Potentially Change Your Life
The selection of books at Blinkist is incredible, from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey to Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell to Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. These books actually carry the ability to turn your life around if they were to be successfully employed, and Blinkist brings them to you in a crisp, short form.
– Not as Interesting as Reading the Actual Book
At the end of the day, reading the actual thing is almost invariably always going to be better than reading simply the 15-minute version. While some summaries try to imbibe the humor and emotion of the book, Blinkist doesn’t. It’s a platform very much focused on the facts inside a book, which is why they’re often lacking the spirit of the book.
– It Can Get Boring
Since all the stories and examples and contexts are not present in the 15-minute version, it can get repetitive especially if multiple books are read in a single day. The humor and emotional aspects of a book are what often make it unique and popular, and removing it can often take the fun out of it.
– You Might Not Get the Actual Message
Since the platform condenses a book, however long it may be from 300 pages to 800, into 10-15 minute summaries, you’ll find a few cases where the summary imparts a message not in resonance with the book. This can give a completely wrong message, and in such cases, reading the book is definitely more preferable.
– Might not be Perfect for Long-Term Retention
While those stories and examples in a book can make you spend more time on it, it’s often those very same things that can help you remember the lessons and take them in context, in the long run. You’re much likely to forget some life lesson provided in a sentence to a story that leaves its imprint on your brain.
Conclusion
Life is short and we aren’t able to do a lot of things which we want to. Don’t make reading one of those things. Make reading a part of your daily routine with Blinkist. It not only provides you with a concise summary, but it also provides it in a manner so you don’t leave out anything important. From its design to its functionality, it’s built to assist you in finding and reading all the best books for your knowledge and skills.
Whether you’re a student or a business owner or someone who wants to grow their skills or improve their finances or are simply interested in nonfiction books, Blinkist is the place to be at. Whether you intend to make the best of your time spent in chores or commute or just want to revisit some of the books you read years ago, Blinkist would help you make the most of it.
The post Blinkist.com Review Read Books In 15 Mins or Less appeared first on SpeakAudible.
