Re:Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with...
by jazz3020 on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @04:16PM
(#41713614)
I have mixed feelings. I generally agree—the industry tends to incentivize writers to fill a certain amount of space, much like college essays. However, there are quite a few books I've enjoyed in their entirety, discovering new insights when re-reading them.
Re:Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with...
by lofaszvanitt on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @05:55PM
(#41714678)
Yeah, but I'm talking in a broad way, and would want the average people to read more books. Relevant books, something that clicks with them, but in order to do so, this current, outdated and sloggy format books have must go.
Re:Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with...
by braza on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @04:11PM
(#41713560)
I used to buy books personal development, management and productivity books and a very sad transition in that space in the last 15 years is that most of the time the author needs to used a lot of anecdotes and make a narrative instead to do directly do the point.
I used to call that as a "Talebnization" of business/management writing that everyone uses more or less the same format to convey a idea: - Some random quote to support the point
- 1 paragraph with the point
- 1 or 2 anecdotes or researched case about the point
- Some broad cherry-picked statistic to bring some rigor
- A success case due to the point
- Closing thoughts without any counterpoint, critique, or presence of any downside in the main point of the chapter.
Do that for 20 chapters and you have a book.
The invisible hand that somehow forces authors to bloat their 3 paragraph gist into 200 pages kills the whole industry. I don't care if a book is only 15 pages long and costs $10, just leave the filler out or separate it with a blank page, then could come the 200 page long bs.