Blinkist: Book Summaries Daily

Five stars because I use this app all the time, satisfies my craving for knowledge on various subjects. I love the effort the narrators put into summarizing the content, and relating it. Fantastic job to all the UI developers! The convenience of browsing categories is perfect when surveying specific views on topics. I love comparing the books I’ve read already to their summaries, and (mostly) agreeing with the narrators. However, when I want to recall a book title that I listen to or find a specific point in a series I already completed, and I go to “my library”- every single time my momentum is blocked by the “updating library” loader. It takes between two and five minutes for the loader to go away, and I can’t access what’s behind it while it’s loading. Please allow me to browse while it’s loading, I’m begging you. I’ve updated the app, tried different Wi-Fi networks, and it’s every time the app is reopened. It’s a small inconvenience, but I know you guys can fix this!

(Full disclaimer, because I know people can be (rightfully, perhaps) skeptical of very effusive reviews like these: I’m not being paid to write this, nor am I a Blinkist “partner”, etc. — these are completely my own thoughts, and I’m writing them on my own initiative and volition.) This app is absolutely amazing. I’m grateful and ecstatic that I discovered it, but annoyed I haven’t been using it longer. It condenses almost every book conceivable — philosophy, politics, relationships, you name it — into what you need to know, breaking it down by chaptered themes, with examples; obviously, I’m not recommending this as an alternative to actually reading the books, but if your objective is just to glean, in a very practical, manageable format (just the perfect length — not as cursory as an internet summary, not as lengthy and tedious as a critical essay), the essentials, you can’t do without this. It allows you to expose yourself to SO much, so easily and quickly, and it makes learning really quite fun. It’s also an excellent substitute for the infamous, mindless “doom-scrolling”, given it’s organized similarly. Almost every book is available with voice narration, too.

I love this idea. A lot of nonfiction books can be distilled down to some key concepts. This is a way to gain a lot of information and ideas efficiently. The narration is good and I like that there is both written and audio options. My main frustration 2 days in is that I cannot figure out how to manage the order of my playlist. I would like to be able to prioritize the order of listening. It would also be nice to manage different playlists, so I can shift between topics. Overall I think the product is worthwhile, I would just love to see this improvement. The other feature I would like is to add notes about individual books. There is an option to highlight. That’s good if you are reading the printed version, but not as great for audio. Just a small text box for a few take away would be nice. Looking at other reviews, there are a lot of complaints about getting tricked into an annual trial. I am in a trial period and recall the charge and timeframe being clearly explained when I signed up. Maybe this is a new process in response. In any case, I don’t feel like it is in an intentional scam. The price seems fair for an annual- if you actually use the the product.