I think the new AI tools are going to help me a great deal. There are books that I know I’m not going to read but I’d still like the Cliffs Notes distillation. I think an AI that understands my areas of interest could create personalized summaries of those books.
I’m also looking forward to seeing if the new AIs work as better recommendation engines. Again, once the AI gets to know me, I’d love to be able to ask “I want to learn how to sew a messenger-type bag. Where do I start?” Hopefully I’d get back a list of books, videos, and local craftspeople. (And I actually do want to learn that…)
I did and haven't found it that useful after all. Turns out that after you subscribe, it's hard to find the motivation to get through many of those condensed versions.
I tried blinkist, I liked it in theory but I realized that I only listened to the summaries while busy with other things so I wasn’t really absorbing the information.
I can’t help but think their time is running out. AIs are going to be able to produce the book summary and maybe even generate the audio version of that too.
I have not, because I actually prefer to read the full book, even if my Tsundoku keeps growing. Another way that I look at it is that even if I compressed my unread books into summaries, I would then just get more and more summaries, ending up with the same problem.
I recommended it to you because it sounds like you really want to read the books you have or are accumulating, so you might find it valuable, even if I don't.
I prefer to read the full book as well, I just know that there are certain books for which that will never happen. For example, I would love to have already read one of those 4” thick biographies of Winston Churchill but I have almost no desire to start reading one of them.
I’m also looking forward to seeing if the new AIs work as better recommendation engines. Again, once the AI gets to know me, I’d love to be able to ask “I want to learn how to sew a messenger-type bag. Where do I start?” Hopefully I’d get back a list of books, videos, and local craftspeople. (And I actually do want to learn that…)