5 Common Mistakes Professionals Make With Book Summaries

In this blog post, you'll find five common mistakes professionals make with book summaries. And the information I include is based on my experience.

Introduction: Common Mistakes Professionals Make With Book Summaries

Over the past two days, I wrote about 5 things you know about book summaries, and how I came to use book summaries to teach a course. Today, I turn my attention to 5 Common Mistakes Professionals Make With Book Summaries. These mistakes have to do with how professionals are using them.

Before I dive into today's topic, I want to state that I'm grateful for book summaries because they have a place in our lives. And I've been using them off and on for over two decades. In fact, I got my book summaries in the mail, back in the day. Now everything is online, which is a good thing and makes our lives easier.

Common Mistakes Professionals Make With Book Summaries

Common Mistake Number 1

Busy professionals often use book summaries as a substitute to reading the book. A book summary is concise knowledge. Remember that someone or a team of people read a book, then cut through the fluff and noise to get through to the main points. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but why would you want to outsource your thinking to another person?

Critical thinking is an essential skill for any professional who expects to succeed. Book summaries won’t enable you to elevate your thinking. So don't take the easy route by reading only book summaries.

Common Mistake Number 2

A book summary doesn't allow you to think for yourself and draw your own conclusions about a book. It is second hand reading and thinking. This is related to the point above. A summary is a distillation of another person's thoughts, so you’re getting a gist of what the book is about.. If you don't think for yourself and form your own opinions, how can you make intelligent decisions?

Cultivate the habit of thinking about what you are reading and tying the new information to what you already know. True understanding of a text comes from longer reflection of the words on the page.

Common Mistake Number 3

Book summaries don't go deep enough. A book summary is concise knowledge. And it’s short, allowing the reader to go wide because she can read so many of them. However, depth is missing from book summaries. They're meant to save time, so something has to give. And that something may be the exact text you need to complete that critical assignment.

There are times when you don't know what you don't know. But you'll recognize what's missing when you see it. That may not happen with book summaries, but it’s a real possibility that it may. I’ve talked to several people who have access to book summaries through the company they work for, and a big criticism they have is that often they cannot find the specific piece of information they need in a book summary. A book is long and goes deep.

I teach executives to read selectively, meaning they read only the sections that align with their purpose for reading, as well as answer the questions they have. In this instance, the experience for the reader is short and deep, which is preferable to short and wide. So, if you’re looking to save time, practice selective reading.

Common Mistake Number 4

Reading only one book summary on a topic. This is also a common mistake with reading only one book on a topic, but it’s amplified when you do it with a book summary. To understand a topic, it’s important to read at least five good books on the subject. Since a book summary is a distillation of a book, to get more from the reading experience, read more than five book summaries on the topic. This makes you more knowledgeable on the topic.

But you’re also getting diversity in thought. This is important because you’ll get exposed to diverse perspectives, which helps you to creatively problem solve and make better decisions.

Common Mistake Number 5

Reading book summaries for professional development is taking the easy path. That’s what many people do, so why not take the road less travelled? I recommend to my clients to read a book summary before reading a book. This gives them a place to hang the information when they read the book because they have seen the helicopter view. This allows them to read the book faster because they understand the main points in the book.

Many book summary services summarize books chapter by chapter, which allows the reader to determine which chapters and sections of a book to focus on. In 30 to 60 minutes, you can learn a lot from a nonfiction book, if you know how to read strategically and selectively. So it’s unnecessary to rely solely on book summaries. Book summaries play an important role in the way you consume books

Final Thoughts: Common Mistakes Professionals Make With Book Summaries

Based on what I’ve written on this blog post, the reader can tell that I’m not against book summaries. What I have a problem with is how most professionals use them. Book summary services have done a great job on marketing the service. And because life is so busy, professionals believe they don’t have a choice because of lack of time, so they rely solely on book summaries.

But when you start to delve more deeply into effective reading strategies, you’ll discover better ways to consume the essential information in books. I must caution you though, that what’s essential information to one person may not be essential information to you because you may have different purposes for reading the book.

One of the things you could do, if you insist on reading only book summaries, is to read more than one summary of a book. And read at least five book summaries on a topic that’s of interest to you. This is important because you want different perspectives on the topic. And don’t just read summaries of bestsellers, mix in some books off the beaten path.

And this is where I come in. Though I’m an introvert, I’m also a rebel, and I love to read great books that are not bestsellers. I’m building a membership site where I have what are called Bookish Notes. A Bookish Note includes a book summary, but it has a lot more information such as book pairing and groupings, core ideas, insights, takeaways, and a section called Avil’s Musings where I bring my wisdom into the mix.

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Categories: : Reading, book summaries, personal development