Reading: Blinkist: Read 4 Books Per Hour (Really!)

As a working mom of three kids, trying to balance my work and life for maximal happiness, my daily diet of erudition consists of skimming the cover of The New York Times in the morning and more often than not, drifting off to sleep while listening to a TED Talk.

That is until I found Blinkist. Blinkist is an app that synthesizes 2000 popular books (mostly non-fiction) into 15-minute blinks”–or modern day Cliff notes. Designed with the busy, life-long learner (like us!) in mind, Blinkist strips the fluff and distills a book into the most essential take-away concepts, which you can consume in an easy-to-digest text or audio format.

The app offers 19 categories including personal growth & self-improvement, motivation & inspiration, business, health & fitness, sex & relationships, and mindfulness. It features works by best-selling authors such as Gretchen Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, and Bill Bryson; titles include The Anatomy of Peace, by The Arbinger Institute; You are a Badass at Making Money, by Jen Sincero; and Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder. New authors are onboarded on a regular basis (users are often invited to vote on who to invite). You also receive personalized recommendations for new reads based on your previous selections.

What I like about Blinkist (the first app I admit I’ve ever paid for) is that it encourages me to step out of my reading comfort zone and delve into unchartered waters–such as biography or science.

And in this increasingly wired society, Blinkist makes me feel good about binging–because those binges may actually spark a new interest or better yet, provide me with a sharper lens with which to view the world.

What’s not great about Blinkist? The cost.

Blinkist Plus is $49.99 per year which gives you read-only access with the exception of one pre-selected book- per day. Blinkist Premium is $79.99 – and provides total access to all 2000 volumes plus audio; you can sync up your reads or notes with Evernote and Kindle.

I also find Blinkist’s site-navigation a bit clunky to navigate and am a bit puzzled by the feature that increases the audio speed of a book: Geez! I’m not that rushed! It simply makes the reading sound warped and quite frankly, stressed me out.

But what I truly love about Blinkist is that it satiates my eternal quest for knowledge, self-empowerment and intellectual growth placing the opportunity for personal growth literally, at my fingertips.

Still not convinced? Check out this Blinkist review from Satori Studio and get a coupon code for 30% off!

Michelle Moskowitz is a reporter at the Greenwich Sentinel and a freelance writer.

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How To Decompress in the Digital Age (May 2018)

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