Last Updated on February 22, 2023
If you are looking for websites for book summaries, this is for you. These websites offer all the key information you need in a highly condensed version so you can decide if you want to read the full text or save that time for books you’re truly excited about.
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Free Book Summary Sites
The following sites allow free access to their libraries of insightful book summaries.
1. Four Minute Books
Niklas Göke founded Four Minute Books with a mission to help you get smarter “in four minutes or less.”
Nik and his team read the best nonfiction books and book summaries from Blinkist. They take all that information and compress it into 3 key takeaways, along with a short review of who the ideal reader for that particular book would be.
2. FightMediocrity
FightMediocrity is a YouTube channel that works with some of the best authors to create short, powerful book summaries.
They’ve created videos explaining the works of Dr. Joe Dispenza, James Clear, David Goggins, and many more top nonfiction authors.
The host often incorporates personal, relatable stories that make the summaries more memorable for audiences.
3. Nat Eliason
Nat Eliason’s book summaries, notes, and reviews offer concise, honest insights to some of the most popular nonfiction books. However, he also summarizes speeches, articles, and other things he’s read.
Unlike many other sites on this list, Nat doesn’t try to stay neutral, but provides his own personal (and sometimes brutally honest) opinions. He rates each work on a scale of 10 (and isn’t afraid to hand out 3’s, or even 1’s!).
Books are roughly categorized by topic and usually include short snippets from the original texts.
4. 12Min.com
12Min.com follows a format similar to that of Four Minute Books, but, as you can probably guess, the summaries are longer and explore some ideas in more depth.
There’s an audio version of each summary, and you’ll also get a list of key quotes from the original text. At the end of each summary is a critical review for a more personal touch.
Summaries of hundreds of titles are currently available, with new summaries added each week.
5. The Book Summary Club
Also like Four Minute Books, The Book Summary Club includes “3 Lessons Learned” for each of its selected readings.
Summaries often include embedded videos, pictures, and helpful notes from the author. Vince, the site’s founder, also adds his own personal touch (often with humor) to provide honest and relatable reviews.
6. Optimize.me
On Optimize.me, Brian Johnson offers videos showcasing “meta-summaries,” or summaries of a handful of books on a given topic so readers can get a condensed, comprehensive version of the literature.
You can enjoy free video summaries on Brian’s YouTube channel, but many of the site’s features are now paid.
Paid Book Summary Sites
These sites charge a fee for accessing their book summaries.
7. ReadinGraphics
ReadinGraphics mixes pictures, content, and data to capture the most important parts of a book in creative infographics.
The site selects the top business and personal development books, then recreates their key ideas in a way that can be digested in a fraction of the time.
Price: $19.97/month
8. Athena
Athena’s Reading Lists are curated from their library of celebrated books. Their summaries, which come in both audio and text formats, are concise and easy to understand.
The fact that summaries can be accessed in audio format means you can truly learn quickly, anywhere at anytime.
Examples of top categories include Leadership, Healthy Relationships, and Mental Health.
Price: $4.99/month
9. Blinkist
Blinkist is one of the original book summary services that offers subscribers condensed, easy-to-digest summaries of the best nonfiction books.
The Blinkist app is free to download and create an account. You’ll also get one summary, their “daily pick,” for free each day.
However, if you want to access all of their features and summaries (which include over 4,000 titles), you’ll need to upgrade to Blinkist Premium.
Premium Price: $12.99/month (or $6.67/month with an annual subscription)
10. Instaread
Instaread includes summaries for fiction and nonfiction books, which is one feature that sets it apart from most others on this list.
Subscribers get summaries of bestselling titles, which are available in 15-minute audio or text segments.
Price: $7.99/month
What Is the Website that Gives You Chapter Summaries?
SparkNotes is a popular site among high school and university students because it provides chapter by chapter summaries and analyses of some of the most famous works of literature.
Get clear, concise breakdowns of works such as Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, and Lord of the Flies in plain English, plus explanations of important themes and symbols from those texts.
Are Book Summaries Legal?
Generally speaking, summaries that include the summarizer’s own thoughts, interpretations, and ideas are considered fair use.
However, if the summarizer includes lots of direct quotes or copies chunks of the text verbatim, they may eventually find themselves in legal trouble, unless they obtained permission to reproduce the work.