Anyone who expects to succeed has to invest in personal development. There isn’t a way around it, lifelong learning is a must. Skills are changing, and to keep up with the rapid changes, professionals need a way to consume ‘brainful’ media to remain current. In the headline, I asked you the question, “Should you subscribe to book summaries?” My answer is yes, but I have a caveat.
I’ve been reading and listening to book summaries for over 15 years. Back in the day, I received printed book summaries and summaries on cassette tapes in the mail. I’m dating myself here. But I’ve been using book summaries for a long time. Today, there are many good book summary resources you have at your disposal. And they make great professional development tools. However, you cannot use them in isolation.
I’ll present what I see as common mistakes that professionals make when it comes to book summaries as well as things that they wouldn’t think of.
Should You Subscribe to Book Summaries: Common Mistakes Professionals Make with Book Summaries
Busy professionals often use book summaries as a substitute to reading the book.
Life is busy, however, we find time to invest in activities that are important to us. Book summary services have done an excellent job in promoting their services. Many of them have a lot of subscribers. As a professional, you may think that your schedule doesn’t allow you the time to read a book, so you think that a summary of the book is a good substitute.
A book summary doesn't allow you to think for yourself and draw your own conclusions about a book.
A book summary is just that, it’s a shortened form of a text. Someone has spent time summarizing the text for you. Some summaries are better than others, but a summary is still someone’s point of view. If you read one summary of a book, you’re not giving yourself the opportunity to draw your own conclusions on the content.
Book summaries don't go deep enough. A book summary is concise knowledge.
A book summary is short, allowing the reader to go wide because she can read so many of them. However, since the summary by definition has to be shorter than the original version, some things have to get left out. And the summary often doesn’t go deep enough, so you can get a deeper understanding of important ideas.
Reading only one book summary on a topic.
This is also a common mistake with reading only one book on a topic, but it’s amplified when you do it with a book summary. You need multiple perspectives on a topic of interest, so you can draw your own conclusions. That’s very difficult when you read only one book, or one summary of a book on a topic that’s important to you.
Reading book summaries for professional development is taking the easy path.
That’s what many people do, so why not take the road less travelled? Because of the busyness of life, most people, including myself are looking for shortcuts to make us more productive. In terms of reading book summaries and not the actual books,it’s taking the easy way out.
Have you read?
Leadership Reading: Key Ideas You Can Use to Improve Your Business
Turn the Page by Chris Brady, Book Summary
An answer to this common mistake that professionals make is to learn how to read a book like a leader. Leadership reading is very different from sequential reading – reading a book from cover to cover. The most successful leaders read to learn what they need to know.
“Leadership reading is reading with a bent toward making the page impact our lives. It is more than just pleasure, although it can be immensely enjoyable. It is more than reading a lot of books, although it will certainly take us through many volumes. Leadership reading is the active, intentional devouring of the greatest writings applied with earnestness toward the highest aspirations. It is a lifestyle habit that is open to everyone but taken advantage of by only a select few.”
Another answer to the common mistakes that professionals make about book summaries, is to read more than one summary of a book, so you get multiple perspectives. You’ll also find that some points that are important in one summary, are not important in another. When you read multiple book summaries for a specific book, it’s easier for you to draw your own conclusions about the book.
Should You Subscribe to Book Summaries: Things You Didn't Know About Book Summaries
Many book summary services focus on summarizing bestsellers.
Although this may not apply to you, many professionals love to read bestselling books. Because a book is a bestseller, doesn’t mean that it’s very good. It could be. But it could be a bestseller because of the promotion engine behind it. I always recommend to my clients and readers, to make sure that they’re also reading books off the beaten path. If you’re reading what everyone else is reading, how can you differentiate yourself. And how can you generate different ideas.
Many book summary services focus on summarizing business books.
It’s good to read business books because you’ll learn about new trends and business models. However, it’s also important to read books from different genres. Take Elon Musk as an example, he’s often referred to as an expert generalist. He’s knowledgeable about a lot of sectors, and has excelled in several. If you look at the books that he says shaped his life, one thing you’ll notice is how diverse the books are.
A summary of a specific book you’re interested in may not have the information you need.
Many professionals have access to book summaries through the company they work for. Quite a few people have mentioned their frustration with book summaries. They need a specific piece of information that a book is supposed to cover, but it’s missing from the summary of the book they have access to. Remember that a book summary is someone’s distillation of a book’s text. Therefore, what they consider important enough to include in a summary, may not be what you need for the work you’re doing.
The most highly accomplished people use book summaries as a complement to the book.
I’m not saying that I’m among the most accomplished people, because I’m not. But what I’ve discovered is that when I read a summary of a book before reading the book, I have a better general understanding of the content. And I have a place to hang the information when I read the book. The summary also acts as a guide, directing me to sections in the book that I need to focus on when reading the book. The most successful people do this as well. The summary gives you insider information about the book.
Read more than one summary of a book.
I covered this point above when I recommended that to draw your own conclusions, you need to read more than one summary of a book. I subscribe to more than one book summary service. And I also search Google for book summaries.
Should You Subscribe to Book Summaries?
I’ve shared my views about book summaries. And although I recommend that you subscribe to them, I’d like you to read my arguments and draw your own conclusions. In my opinion, a book summary is a great complement to reading the book for yourself. I know that you’re busy, but if you learn how to read like a leader, you’ll become skilled at reading only the sections of a book that satisfies your purpose for reading it. I can also teach you how to read like a leader. I offer a service where I train senior level executives on how to read strategically instead of reading sequentially.
When you read a nonfiction book, chances are you have a problem to solve, or you have questions you want answered. Learning how to get what you need from a book, is a skill that will serve you well.
Additionally, I have a membership site, Art of Learning, where I offer courses. However, the courses are not your typical course. I curate Bookish Notes on a specific topic and turn them into a course on that topic. When you complete a course, you have a foundation on the topic, on which you can build. Bookish Notes include a book summary of a book, books I’ll group the book with, my thoughts based on my experience, a workbook where appropriate, big ideas from the book and much more.
A Bookish Note is much more than a book summary, and addresses the weak points of the average book summary.
You can subscribe to my membership site Art of Learning here.
If you’re an individual and looking to learn more about strategic reading, a good product to start with is the 7 Day Reading Makeover Challenge.
Have you read?
How I Came to Teach Courses Based On Summaries of Several Books
5 Common Mistakes Professionals Make With Book Summaries
