Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2018. The statement that The Intelligent Investor costs almost 40 euros reflects the 2018 Spanish price.
Several companies have sprung up recently offering what is, in principle, an excellent idea: sign up and get access to a whole series of book summaries followed by practical exercises.
In principle, these entrepreneurs’ idea encourages reading. For that reason alone, it’s an excellent initiative. Reading book summaries is undoubtedly much better than not reading any books at all. It’s true that we’re all short of time to read, and if instead of reading 2 books a month we managed to read 20 in a month, we’d gain an enormous advantage in terms of knowledge.
That said, I have my reasons for not recommending this practice.
Some facts about reading
First, as a general rule, over time we won’t remember much of the content of the books we read.
Second, and here I’m shooting myself in the foot, there are studies claiming that an article along the lines of “10 ways to be more productive” is likely to be forgotten quickly unless you write those 10 points down and keep them in mind every week to put them into practice. We have too much information but we lack action when it comes to applying what we read.
And finally, when we recommend reading, we do it as a way of opening the mind, something that also serves as entertainment and learning. If we approach reading as if we were studying, we’ll probably end up getting tired of reading.
See also: Books to open your mind and become smarter
Why don’t I recommend book summaries?
On top of everything above, the truth is that a 600-page book has 600 pages, and it’s not by chance. Its author decided it that way. The author could have written a 100- or 60-page summary.
Take Robert Cialdini’s book Influence, for example. It has 376 pages. Could it have been cut down to 60 pages to extract the most vital concepts? Of course. In fact, I summarised it myself in an article called “8 ways to influence people“, picking apart every point Cialdini talked about.
If you are a regular reader here and haven’t read the book, I’m sure you won’t remember the points I covered in that article. If you have read the book, I’m absolutely sure you won’t remember most of the points, but you will remember some of the stories Cialdini told, such as the jewellery shop assistant who made a mistake and raised the price of the jewellery instead of lowering it, and thanks to that mistake managed to get the jewellery sold.
We learn through stories, we learn through anchors
There are stories in books that act as anchors for learning, because the story contains the lesson. Sometimes a part of the book that matters to us means nothing to someone else.
I’m an avid reader. Right now I have 11 books waiting to be read and I’m itching to find time for them. Clearly, if I used summaries, I’d devour those 11 books in the time it would take me to read 2.
But reading relaxes me, I learn by reading, I gain knowledge, and I love stories. I like reading those things that might not matter to most people but that the author felt were important to tell. And if it was important to the author, I want to know it thoroughly.
This ties in with another problem readers have been facing lately.
Paper books or e-books?
Paper, without a doubt. If I remember correctly, we’ve already had this debate here. I can’t remember where I read a study saying that people now have 500 books on a device but don’t even read 30% of a book. In fact, roughly 70% of people who use electronic devices for reading don’t finish a single book.
And this has a lot to do with the gift effect. E-books are often obtained free or very cheaply. The result: people don’t value them.
And since we like stories, here’s one based on real events.
In the past, I used to give Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor to people who were interested in investing in the stock market. As it happens, hardly anyone read it. So I started recommending it without giving it away. In other words, I would order the book for them, but they had to pay me the almost 40 euros it cost. And, as it happens, they all read it. Let’s say the latter felt a sense of obligation after spending a considerable amount of money on a book.
Basically, that’s what tends to happen to the vast majority of people who buy e-books instead of paper books.
Why a paper book isn’t really more expensive than an e-book
Most readers who buy books in electronic format do so because of the price. And yes, it could also be because of a lack of space at home or not wanting to carry 20 kilos on holiday.
But if price is the reason, the truth is that paper books work out cheaper than e-books, because we can resell paper books second-hand at some point. That’s something we can’t do with e-books.
Still, as I always say, this is just my personal opinion.
Featured image: Second-hand book stall, Faversham Market by Matt Harrop, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
