The Best Executive Book Summary service is the one you use. Surely I am going to tell you about the best ones out there and which one is ahead, but if you still don’t use it…
When you put Book Summaries into Google, the first thing that comes up is Soundview Executive Book Summaries. This site has a large number of resources, all of which you have to pay for. They have membership services, summaries by category, a summaries store, and audio library. Basically, they are the Amazon of Book Summary sites, but when you get to the heart of the matter, their summaries are quite long and dramatic. His summary of John Maxwell’s 360 Degree Leader is 8 pages of text, but no analysis. They do advertise 20 minutes of reading, but that seems like more than 20 to me. Also, the summary without analysis seems like half of what you need.
Get Abstract on another service that is advertised a lot in Skymall magazine. Each of his summaries are 5 pages, about 10 minutes of reading. I love how their summaries begin: first the list of things you will learn from the book, second what you will learn from the book, and then a short paragraph of recommendation. All of that precedes the summary. On the list, GetAbstract is much easier to use than Soundview.
Finally, the newest member of the club is Go Brevity. This service combines the best of Get Abstract with analysis and video. Rick Raddatz reviews one book per week, although you can listen to any of them whenever you want. In a short 4-5 minute video, Rick talks about the book’s important points, highlights, and summarizes what the author wants you to learn. But most of the video explains how he can use this information in his business. Honestly, isn’t that what we really want out of these great books of insight anyway?
Of the three, Go Brevity combines the short summary, the analysis, and how you can best use the lessons. And since reading is what you can’t do right now, you do it in 4-5 minute video segments, with the printed transcript and analysis ready to view and download.