Blinkist – Site Review
Blinkist was started by four college friends in 2012 to create better way to read and learn without affecting your daily lifestyle. The team has hit a million users and blinked more than 1,500 titles of the world’s best nonfiction. Its catalog of non-fiction books is summarized down to 15-minute summaries, or ‘blinks’, focusing on key chapters and points, accessible on your desktop browser or via mobile apps.
With its short and sweet approach to consuming books, Blinkist emphasizes that its goal is not to replace but to spur an interest in books and the worthwhile ideas they contain. It also supports the pursuit of continuous learning even in the busiest of schedules. Rather than turn people off from reading, it might even inspire more people to read more books.
Blinkist cofounder Holger Seim says that the main key is the central takeaways of the book, not the act of reading or the digestion of the complex ideas throughout the text.
Overall, it offers complete solution to your learning and reading needs which save you precious time. A worth trying application for professionals and workers.
Users
Titles (Books & Audio), 40 new each month
Categories
Featured in
Categories
- Corporate Culture
- Technology & the Future
- Economics
- Science
- Biography & History
- Marketing & Sales
- Productivity & Time Management
- Relationships & Parenting
- Money & Investments
- Personal Growth & Self-Improvement
- Communication & Social Skills
- Motivation & Inspiration
- Health & Fitness
- Politics & Society
- Entrepreneurship & Small Business
- Management & Leadership
- Psychology
Some of the Popular Titles 
The Wellness Syndrome
Carl Cederström and André Spicer
Doing the Right Things Right
Laura Stack
Magic and Loss
Virginia Heffernan
Cat
Katharine M. Rogers
The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing
Thomas Nagle, John Hogan & Joseph Zale
What’s Going on in There?
Lise Eliot
Rethinking Prestige Branding
Wolfgang Schaefer and J.P. Kuehlwein
Changing the Subject
Sven Birkerts
Our experience
What we did, and what happened.
Signed-up for the 7-day free trial (full premium features).
Quick & easy – entered email and done.
Pick 3 (out of 27) categories that interest you.
Very straightforward, you can still browse all 17 categories later.
Select title of your choice or add to library.
You can also send it to your KINDLE directly.
Magic and Loss by Virgina Heffernan
Original Hardcover (272 pages) VS Blinkist (7 page read or multiple audio “blinks”)
Each title will provide:-
- Text and audio (full audio only available within the phone app).
- A synopsis.
- Who & why you should read.
- Similar books recommendation.
- Highlight and store important snippets (sorteable by Book & Date). Email them or share on Facebook / Twitter. You can even sync highlights with Evernote.
- Read your saved titles offline and even send them to your Kindle
- Key messages & suggested further reading on the last page.
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez
Original Hardcover (528 pages) VS Blinkist (9 page read or multiple audio “blinks”)
Ending Aging by Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D.
Original Hardcover (400 pages) VS Blinkist (9 page read or multiple audio “blinks”)
And more than 4,500 other titles to choose from.
Our Verdict
So far, Blinkist has been an awesome experience for us. The 7 day trial (Premium) does open up a whole range of possibilities on the concept of reading. Some would say this is even faster than speed reading, digesting crucial and important key-points in record time.
Blinkist comes with Free (Read one pre-selected book per day), Premium ($7.49/month – Paid Annually) subscription options, which come with a 30-day money back guarantee. One of the unadvertised offer is that you’re given a 50% discount on the yearly fees should you decide to subscribe during or after your trial period ends, so that’s something you can take advantage of.
The premium plan expands Blinkist features to a whole new level, allowing access to over 4,500 titles, with 40 new ones added monthly, with access to audio versions and features where you can sync all of your highlights to Evernote and send book summaries straight to your Kindle. Highlighting options is also available to keep essential snippets, where you can email or simply post it on your Twitter or Facebook.
Blinkist has a wishlist feature as well, in which you can suggest the books they should “Blink” next. They also have a comprehensive FAQ within their site which you can browse in case if you have any questions.
It has been an exciting adventure and to be honest, I’m extremely excited to get things going with Blinkist, learning more things and travel at the speed of light in terms of knowledge-digestion. Blinkist can also act as a great way to evaluate if you decide to purchase the book or eBook later.
Listen to the “blinks” while you commute, or before your sleep every night, I really can’t wait to see how thing goes after a month of using it. Try it yourself and let us know what you think!
Loved by 1 million users
Faster than speed-reading!
