Table of contents
Over the past 6 years, I've tried almost every paid and free book summary app on the market.
I discovered Shortform about a year ago from Youtuber and author Ali Abdaal. Since then, I have been using Shortform weekly. (My mom, too bought it and cannot stop reading 🤓)
Shortform vs. other book summary apps
What are the features of Shortform that make it stand out from other book summary apps?
"Way more than book summaries" - Shortform
💎 Quality over quantity: By offering only a carefully chosen selection of book summaries, decision fatigue is reduced.
🔄 Book comparisons: The Authors' statements are analyzed and compared to other literature and current research.
❓ Reflection Questions: Acquired knowledge is tested through self-reflection questions helping to implement the learnings into your daily life.
🧅 Shortforms unique content structure: Shortform rarely follows the table of contents of the summarized book. They create their logical content structure.
🖨 Printable PDF downloads: Shortform offers printable PDF downloads. Full subscribers can access 3 new PDF downloads every 7 days.
🌲 Offline mode: Shortform has an offline mode that allows you to read without an internet connection.
📌 Recommendations feature: Shortform has a “Recommendations” feature that suggests books based on interests and reading preferences.
👁🗨 Sentence View feature: Shortform provides a “Sentence View” feature which allows you to read through a sentence-by-sentence breakdown of the book.
📙 Send to Kindle: Shortform has the option to send books to your Kindle device. I love this feature because I take my time to read the Shortform summary when social media isn't one click away, like with the phone.
My idea to improve Shortform's book summaries
I don't want to give the impression to possess the competence to do a better job than the people at Shortform. However, I have noticed 2 things that could be improved.
📹 A short 3-minute video summarizing the overall concept of the book.
🔎 When clicking the table of contents, no subheadings or headings are shown. Having a table of contents with hyperlinks to the corresponding paragraph would be nice.
Can you imagine having the key idea of so many great books just one click away?
A few books I have been reading lately (24.07.2024) are:
- How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
- No More Mr Nice Guy by Robert A. Glover
- Indistractable by Nir Eyal
A book I want to read next, which Ali Abdaal highly recommends is:
- Traction: Get a grip on your business by Gino Wickman
This post is not sponsored by Shortform. However, if someone from Shortform reads this, I am happy to collaborate :) - edit 27.10.23
I've been using Shortform for about 2 years and now I’ve partnered with them as an affiliate! Use my link for a 20% discount on the annual subscription. That’s about 2 and a half months of the service for free.
Shortform Book Summaries I am currently reading
Book Summaries I am currently reading (shown on computer browser)
Have a look at the post on my favourite Book Of 2023: The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey.