Why stay an average your whole life when you can surround yourself with the knowledge and wisdom of successful people like billionaires, entrepreneurs, Nobel Prize winners, and other revolutionary leaders who changed the world.
What makes it even special is that you can gain unlimited knowledge only within a few minutes a day.
That said, what are the best summaries websites you can find on the web?
1. Blinkist
2. Four Minute Book
3. Soundview
4. 12min.com
5. The Book Summary Club
6. Nat Eliason
7. The Power Moves
8. getAbstract
9. ReadItFor.Me
10. Readingraphics
Reading summaries can give you time in abundance where there are thousands of exceptional summary websites available to leverage the wisdom available. It can be daunting to find the one that works for you.
Therefore, here's a complete list of the top 10 best book summary websites you can save time learning and increase time in actually putting the knowledge to action.
1. Blinkist
Making to our top pick is this exceptional Blinkist website and app for book summaries.
It specializes in condensing chunky nonfiction books to 15-minute audiobooks. Blinkist has prevailed its name since 2012 to make lives better for seven million people worldwide.
What distinguishes this website from the rest is its user-friendly approach accessible through your Blinkist account with Evernote and Kindle. In case you like the book after listening to its summary, you also have the option to buy a full-length audiobook for that particular nonfiction book.
It can be frustrating not to find your favorite nonfiction books in the store, Blinkist makes sure you access summaries of every book ever written.
What I like the most in Blinkist is their mobile app on iOS and Android which makes me educate myself wherever I am!
Also, Blinkist offers a 7-day free trial, which is great, and I strongly recommend you to check it out!
Rating: 9,8/10
2. Four Minute Book
If you are someone who constantly likes to improve but never has enough time to do so, Four Minute Books is made for people just like you.
The reason could be anything; be it having a lack of time or you just simply want to know what the book is all about, this website thoroughly reads the books, listen to the 15-minute Blinkist audiobooks, and summarizes the entire concept in just 4 powerful minutes.
Founded by Niklas Goke, Four Minute Books aims to make people smarter and knowledgeable to help them thrive in life. If you like what they do, you can also sign up for their weekly newsletter to get links to their latest summaries right in your inbox.
Rating: 9,4/10
3. Soundview
Soundview compresses educational books by business authors into text and audio formats. The easy to read 8-page summaries covers everything you need to know about a particular book and give you an overall experience of a full-length book with its descriptive yet concise stories.
On the other hand, their 20-minute audios are perfectly convenient to help you indulge in knowledge in gyms and parks.
Soundview offers a Professional Plan for $199 per year, which lets you access its 2,500+ educational book summaries, newsletters, and webinars written by top authors. The website is ideal for people who only like to read motivational business books' insights for utmost wisdom and everlasting knowledge.
Rating: 9,3/10
4. 12Min.com
12Min.com publishes outstanding summaries of best-selling books every week.
Although it works the same way as four Minute Books, it offers a summary that is rather more in-depth. Other than that, with 12Min, you can access unlimited quotes from your favorite books and audio versions to help you take full advantage of each summary.
What gives 12Min an upper hand over most of the summary websites is its brutally honest reviews at the end of each summary to help you make up your mind before investing your money in books.
Rating: 9,3/10
5. The Book Summary Club
Here comes a website that is armed with excellent summaries but is, however, relatively new to this free book summary industry.
The Book Summary Club focuses on giving a "3 lessons learned" format to give proper summaries of the book. It cuts down the books' unnecessary information and solely focuses on giving the 3 best takeaways that you get from reading that book.
What's more, to make it interactive and easy to understand, this website compresses the books in funny videos, pictures, and helpful quotes from the author to make this process interesting and enjoyable. It also adds critical reviews and a personal touch to all its summaries to help you connect better with the books.
Rating: 9,1/10
6. Nat Eliason
Nat Eliason is your type of guy if you are looking for summaries that give unique and brutally honest reviews on books.
The website is filled with highly educational summaries packed with entrepreneurial wisdom that you can even see Nat Eliason implementing in his professional and personal life. He is a successful entrepreneur and blogger who achieved all these from putting the knowledge of books to action.
Instead of giving a formal name to his website, Nat believes in staying laid back and call his summaries "notes" or "lessons learned" to help you grab the concepts better and in less time.
The website has been raved for trashing trash books and only providing authentic reviews, which allow you to make the right choice for your next book purchase.
Rating: 9/10
7. The Power Moves
Power Moves has come a long way to yield fantastic summaries of books on every topic.
The writer behind the Power Moves is highly focused on self-improvement and providing you the adequate knowledge to help you do the same. All of its summaries are categorized into different genres, each with a personality of its own.
Be it a highly underrated book or overrated; Power Moves digs deep to give you the right insights into each book. That's not it; Power University is armed with countless practical strategies in terms of dating & relationships, office politics, and leadership that has been created by compressing the content from most of the books written in these specific genres.
Rating: 8,7/10
8. getAbstract
There is nothing about getAbstract that you can't like. The website covers summaries of over a whopping 20,000+ books, especially in the business genre.
It also offers audio summaries that can easily be accessed through your Kindle. If you are new to summary websites, getAbstract offers a 3-day free trial to help you go through all of their summaries for free and make up your mind.
What makes it stand out is that it provides free membership for learning students to access 5,000+ of their summaries so they can read the knowledge and listen on the go.
Rating: 8,3/10
9. ReadItFor.Me
ReadItFor.It is a full-fledged website that aims to solely improve your leadership skills. It firmly believes in providing the best summaries and also putting them into action to make sure you're making the most out of each word written.
The action classes feature a leadership development program that focuses on one book per week. With its 36 leadership and soft skill competencies, you must attend 3 action class sessions a week.
Just like getAbstract, this website also allows you to access its summaries on a free 14-day trial, so you can truly make an informed decision. Other than that, ReadItFor.It is highly affordable to ensure no one is deprived of its excellent leadership programs and book summaries.
Rating: 8,2/10
10. Readingraphics
If you would have an option to condense complex concepts of nonfiction books into easy to read and entertaining graphics with attractive infographics and audio files, how would you feel?
Oh yes, I can already hear you shouting "yay!" in your mind right now.
Readingraphics allows a highly affordable and interesting way of delivering summaries for our visual learners out there. With each book summary, you can expect:
- Engaging infographic summary
- Short 10-15 page readable summary
- 20-minute audiobooks
You can also subscribe to get the latest best-written summaries to land straight into your inbox so you can make sure you're getting your daily dose of learning and entertainment.
But before that, Readingraphics allows you to access two of the best-selling business books called Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends and Influence People for FREE.
Rating: 8,1/10
Are book summaries worth it?
Let me be completely honest with you.
For professionals and students who lack the adequate time to sit and read books for 10 to 15 hours a day, book summaries can be an outstanding way to transform the way they conceive knowledge.
Another plus here is that summaries allow you to get condensed versions of complicated business books that could have been harder for you to read the entire book.
As for fiction books, where summaries get entertaining reviews and opinionated critics to keep you engaged with the book, it's better that you opt for full-length books to truly indulge yourself in the book and connect with its sensory details and characters.
Should I read a book besides listening to a book summary?
The biggest perk of listening to book summaries over reading books is that it allows you to access books that are no longer available in print. Whether people love the "feel" of an actual book, listening to a book summary yields faster and efficient results. Here are some of the benefits of listening to a book summary over reading a book:
- Can listen to summaries while working out/walking in the park
- Saves time in abundance
- It helps you consume knowledge faster
- The personal critics and reviews of summaries help you grab the concept better
- Since it's an actual human reciting the book, you're more likely to get inspired
- It can easily be shared with friends to make connections
So, if you want to reap all the benefits, try one of the book summaries website. I recommend you Blinkist, because they have a huge library of great books, they offer a mobile app, and they offer a 7-day trial.
