There’s no doubt that our attention spans have increasingly shrunk as a consequence of social media and new technologies. On top of that, our busy lives have made reading nearly impossible for some. As a result, more and more people are finding ways to make books palatable, and thousand-page works are becoming a thing of the past, as we’ve recently discovered. At the heart of this shift is the advent of book summary apps, which cater to this growing need. But does this harm our ability to think critically, and is it a problem for authors?
Book summary apps condense large chunks of text or provide a gist of a work to make it more accessible. These apps allow users to either read works on a device or listen to them on their phones while on the go. Most of these apps were founded in the past decade, and a whopping 30 million people already use Blinkist.
Are book summary apps exploitative?
Authors Susie Alegre and Amy Liptrot have voiced their concerns about the impact of book summarising apps on both their income and the value of their writings. They feel that apps such as Blinkist, Bookey, getAbstract, and the latest, Headway, may be undermining the book trade and misrepresenting content.
According to the Guardian, Liptrot consulted with the Society of Authors, seeking guidance on appropriate steps to take after she was disturbed to discover last week that her widely praised 2015 memoir, “The Outrun” was being sold in an abridged version on Bookey.
“It was unnerving to see a totally fictional quotation purporting to be from my book,” she told the Observer. “These apps are very anti-literary. They’re for people who want to absorb the key ideas without reading the book. I don’t mind a bland, soulless summary, but I do mind a false quotation.”
“Men at War” author Luke Turner responded to the news, calling it “depressing” while pointing out that it’s impossible to “boil books down and use them as medicine.”
“The trend towards apps that summarise books so that you can ‘think better’ is likely to have the opposite effect – if we don’t use our minds to reflect deeply, we may lose our ability to think critically at all,” Centre for International Governance Innovation senior fellow and author Susie Alegre writes.
While industry pundit Scott Pack, a former head book buyer for Waterstones, said the two main issues are “the concept of summarising or abridging an author’s work without their permission. The other is whether these apps cannibalise or reduce book sales.”
However, he also believes that “summary apps are actually more likely to turn someone onto a book than put them off.”
So why are people using book summary apps?
Firstly, readers mostly use these apps for nonfiction summaries. Many of these apps offer only this type anyway, and even when given the option, readers tend to favour business and informational reads.
Users on Apple’s App Store describe Blinkist as “indispensable for daily commutes, house-cleaning chores, wind-down time before sleep, and many other occasions.” However, others have complained that “more than 90 percent of the books here are self-development materials.” Another common complaint, which also applies to getAbstract, concerns the limited number of books in their collection and the general monotony of the books themselves. On Instaread, one user commented, “I really enjoy the summaries, but it seems like they should be a little shorter. Twelve to fifteen minutes is about my attention span, but that’s just me.”
An interesting comment came from a person with mild dyslexia who said that while “reading books is literally painful,” the app featured “plain bad writing.” Perhaps the nuance of books is lost when they are summarised, as prose and turns of phrase can be fundamental to enjoying a book.
How do book summary apps differ from the real thing?
“Handmaids are fertile women of childbearing age. Fertile women are a rarity in Gilead – in this world, fertility has sharply declined and the birthrate is perilously low. Handmaids are assigned to Commanders and have regular sex with them while the Commander’s wife looks on, with the objective of falling pregnant with their Commander’s child.”
Blinkist summary of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Margaret Atwood writes in her powerful novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.” Reading the Blinkist version, we get the basics of the story but lose the nuances of the language, as it simply states, “Handmaids are fertile women of childbearing age.” The good news is that there is some level of analysis about the book, providing context and explaining how Atwood “was inspired by recent and contemporary events, like World War II and the rise of the Iron Curtain.”
But it reminds me of being in school, cramming for an exam but secretly reading a CliffsNotes version just before being tested. The line “While Gilead is a patriarchal society, one of the novel’s themes is the complicity of other women in its misogyny and oppression” reads like the feeble essays we used to write. The wonderful imagery is lost in this stripped-down version.
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“I once had a garden. I can remember the smell of the turned earth, the plump shapes of bulbs held in the hands, fullness, the dry rustle of seeds through the fingers,” the Canadian novelist describes the authoritarian character, Serena Joy’s moment of humanity.
Blinkist only briefly mentions this figure: “On her arrival at the Waterfords’ house, Offred immediately recognizes Fred’s wife, Serena Joy. Before the coup, she was a prominent televangelist associated with the Sons of Jacob. Despite this, Serena seems unhappy with her lot in Gilead and regards Offred with a mix of bitterness, disdain, and envy.”
Book summary apps certainly serve a purpose. However, perhaps they should only be a starting point before actually exploring the real thing. BookThinkers on YouTube also believes that studying a subject “so intensely” can help it become “ingrained in your subconscious”, which is missing when reading a book summary app.
What the expert says: apps can be used in certain contexts
CJ Spataro, the author of the upcoming book “More Strange Than True,” which will be published by Sagging Meniscus on June 24, shared her views on the use of book summary apps in an interview with How To Be Books.
Spataro, a creative writing professor, expressed mixed feelings about these digital shortcuts. “There are a lot of things that blunt our critical thinking these days, but I’m not sure using a book summary app would necessarily be one of them,” she stated. According to Spataro, the context in which these apps are used significantly influences their impact.
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“If people are using these apps to familiarize themselves with a text instead of actually reading the book, then yes, they are definitely hurting authors and blunting the reader’s intellect,” Spataro explained. However, she also admitted to using such apps herself, albeit in a specific academic context.
“As a creative writing professor, I have been known to use a book summary app in preparation for a class discussion. This does not mean that I use the app in lieu of reading the book. Instead, I use it to help refresh my memory regarding specific characters or plot points.”
CJ Spataro, ‘More Strange Than True’ author
Spataro brings attention to the importance of engaging with the full text. “I usually read the novels I teach in my courses multiple times, but even then it’s not always possible for me to reread a text before a class,” she said. She suggested that summary apps could serve as useful tools for students, but stressed that they should not replace actual reading.
The author also touched on her experience with audiobooks, noting a distinct difference in the experience of consuming text through audio versus reading. “Engaging with a text on paper or on a reading device is very different from listening to it while you’re driving your car or doing the dishes—at least it is for me,” she remarked.
Spataro acknowledged that it’s challenging to control how people use these technological aids. “I know there’s no way to control how or why someone would use a book summary app. In a perfect world, they’d only be used as study guides,” she stated.
Read: Will publishers embrace AI chatbot reading companions?
In October 2023, I experimented with several AI chatbots that had a similar function. YouAI’s BookAI feature supposedly transforms any book into an AI conversationalist. However, when testing out Plato’s “The Republic,” it struggled somewhat, regurgitating responses.
What is clear is that book summary apps are a meagre substitute for reading an actual book. However, this doesn’t mean they should be banned entirely, as not everyone has the time, resources, or ability to sit down and read hundreds of pages. For those with busy lives, it’s crucial that we preserve individual choice—it’s ultimately their responsibility to support writers. The bottom line is that these tech companies should compensate authors fairly for their work and all books should be properly licensed. But we need to balance people’s choices with authors’ rights.