How often have you given up on reading a book? Reading a book takes a lot of time, but with book summary apps, you can cut right through the fluff and get straight to the key insights. This way you get to discover more books in less time.
Whether you're a professional who has got no time to read or someone who has been looking to learn something quick, here is a list of some of the best book summary apps for you.
1. Blinkist
Blinkist is one of the must-have apps for book lovers. This popular book summary app covers around 4,500 non-fiction books on topics like psychology, productivity, management, and more.
Blinkist divides the book summaries into “blinks” which are key ideas you can choose to read or listen to. Each blink takes no more than 2-3 minutes. At the end of the book, you can find the final summary that sums up all the key ideas. On average, you can finish your book in 15 minutes or less.
The premium version of this app includes features like unlimited content, syncing with Evernote, full-length audiobooks, and “shortcasts” that provide key takeaways into podcasts for a monthly subscription at around $16 and a yearly subscription at $100.
As for the free version, you can enjoy a new blink every day. You can choose to receive a daily reminder to get notified whenever it is available.
Download: Blinkist for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)
2. Storyshots
Storyshots is another app that gives you key insights into your favorite books. Apart from audio and reading, the app also offers animated book summaries for better understanding.
Storyshots has a large collection of non-fiction books for you to choose from and supports multiple languages. Unlike Blinklist or any other app on this list, you'll find most of the book summaries here for free.
With the Discover tab, you can select your next book based on time length, categories, language, and even glance at recommended reads from genius minds like Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
Also, you can take up a reading challenge by entering the average amount of books you want to read and then mark your books as finished to keep track.
As long as you are fine with ads, the free version offers you pretty much everything you need in a book summary app. With a lifetime subscription starting at $8.99, however, the premium version is better value with no ads, offline reading, infographics, Kindle support, and more.
Download: StoryShots for iOS | Android (Free, premium version available)
3. 12min
12min comes with an impressive user interface covering over 2,500 non-fiction books with the new addition of titles every week. The app offers you quick and concise 12-minute breakdowns available in text and audio.
After signing up, the app asks you about your goals, book preferences, and your pace of learning to create a list of micro books that best match your needs.
Additionally, you can discover books with over 25 categories. If you're a curious reader, you can delve into well-researched content in categories like 12min Originals and 12min Personalities.
Another interesting feature of the app is it helps you track your reading progress and compete against users worldwide on ranking leaderboards.
Other features include Kindle support, offline downloads, the ability to highlight text as you read, and more. 12min offers you a 3-day trial before you can decide to buy the yearly subscription plan at around $89.
Download: 12min for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)
4. Bookey
Bookey is an excellent book summary app if you like to challenge yourself more when reading. The app gives you deeper 30-minute key insights into the books you want to read.
When you first launch the app, you're asked the number of books you read and your reading goals to create a personalized Bookey list with a 21 Day Personal Growth Challenge. Then you're directed to the Challenge tab where you can view, adjust, and keep a track of your daily goals.
Bookey is partnering with Books of Africa to help disadvantaged children. So, every time you complete the challenge, a book will be donated in your name. The app updates the list of the names who have completed the challenge so you can keep a track of the books you have donated by checking the list.
The app has around 12 categories of non-fiction book summaries to read, listen to, and download. You can try out the mind map to glance at the highlights of the book. After finishing a book, you can test your knowledge with a quiz.
The app gives you a random free pick to read every day. You can switch to the premium version for more features for a monthly subscription at $12.99 or a yearly subscription plan at $79.99.
Download: Bookey for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)
5. Instaread
With a collection of thousands of bestselling books, Instaread is another app you can try out for key insights in less than 15 minutes. The app has a minimalist interface making it easy to explore and keep a track of your reading list.
Like other apps on this list, Instaread offers you summaries in text and audio format. Furthermore, you can look for "cards" which is a collection of the best book quotes to remember.
While most of the book summary apps provide you only non-fiction categories, Instaread lets you read fiction too. On the Discover tab, you can scroll through a wide range of categories to help you find your favorite books including New, Popular, Originals, and more.
You can enjoy a free daily pick on the app. For additional features, you can upgrade to the monthly subscription plan at $8.99 per month or the yearly subscription plan at around $95.
Download: Instaread for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)
6. Koober
With Koober, you get condensed 20-minute key takeaways or “koobs” of over 1,500 best-selling non-fiction books, podcasts, and documentaries in text and audio format.
The app keeps adding new books every day and you can keep a track of them on the Home tab. If you can't find a book you're looking for, you can suggest it too.
The most interesting feature of this app is that it rounds up the summaries into mini-courses. For instance, if you take up a course on improving your focus, the steps involved to complete it would include summaries from popular books or podcasts followed by a quiz. You can track your progress and get a certificate too after finishing up the course.
Koober comes with a limited 7-day trial and a monthly subscription plan at $7.99 or a yearly subscription plan at $79.99 to choose from. You can go for a free plan too that includes a daily free book summary.
Download: Koober for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)
7. getAbstract
getAbstract offers you 10-minute key insights from more than 22,000 best-selling non-fiction books, podcasts, and articles.
You can explore summaries in a wide range of categories in text and audio format. Besides, you can create and share personal channels with your favorite summaries.
The app gives you recommendations, the latest summaries, editor picks, and more to help you decide your next read. Also, you can look for trending and popular summaries on the Explore tab.
You can get all these features for a 3-day free trial and choose to upgrade to one of the yearly subscription plans starting at around $99.
Download: getAbstract for iOS | Android (Subscription required, free trial available)
Learn on the Go With These Best Book Summary Apps
With these book summary apps, you can learn on the go and make the most out of your time. For avid readers, however, a 15-minute summary can seem to take the pleasure of reading the entire book.
In that case, you can think of it as one of the ways to preview books and decide on the ones that are interesting enough to read. This way you can use book summary apps as a strong complement to develop an effective reading habit.