Want to Cram More Books Into Your Life? How Blinkist Can Overcome Your Reading Pain Points

Do you stare longingly at that ever-expanding reading list of must-read books by your nightstand? Does your heart sink realizing you‘ll never plow through them all at your current pace?

You‘re not alone, my friend.

In our rapid-fire digital era, reading for pleasure has become a luxury few have time to indulge in. Just look at the stats:

  • 53% of American adults confess they haven‘t read even a single book in the past year.
  • The average American spends under 16 minutes reading per day.
  • 40% would rather watch TV than crack open a book.

Yet extensive research confirms unleashing the power of reading pays tremendous dividends:

  • Readers enjoy a 17% lower risk of mortality.
  • Reading reduces stress levels by 68% better than music or walking.
  • Frequent brain training through reading prevents cognitive decline by 32%.

So what explains this confounding gap?

We all crave productivity and personal growth books to level up our lives. Not to mention escaping into engrossing novels.

But prying open precious free time to read amid our frenzied modern lives proves nearly impossible for all but the most zen monks among us.

Fortunately, an ingenious app called Blinkist just might offer deliverance from our reading woes…

What is Blinkist and is it Too Good to Be True?

Launched in 2012 by four book-loving German entrepreneurs, Blinkist specializes in distilling non-fiction books down to essential takeaways you can digest in 15 minutes.

These bite-sized summaries get right to the point so you efficiently absorb each book‘s core insights, aka "blinks."

Over 5 million struggling readers rely on Blinkist to quickly sample best-selling titles across disciplines like money, leadership, productivity, health, communication skills, time management, and habits.

But does removing all the filler and fluff come at the expense of depth and enjoyment?

Fair question. The answer lies in understating precisely how reading nourishes us cognitively and emotionally in the first place…

Why Reading Unlocks Such Astounding Brain Benefits

Beyond the obvious boons of gathering new information and expanding perspectives, reading uniquely strengthens 3 core mental capacities:

1. Focus – Following narrative threads demands sustained attention spanning chapters to connect plot points, themes, symbols.

2. Memory – Absorbing and recalling character names, events, concepts across hundreds of pages fortifies retention.

3. Visualization – Painting vivid settings and player movements inside our minds through descriptive language builds imaginative skills.

Science confirms exercising our mental muscles in these ways pays profound dividends:

  • Readers enjoy 7 years less cognitive decline over their lifetime compared to non-readers.
  • Frequent readers are 3 times less likely to develop Alzheimer‘s Disease.
  • Children who read just 20 minutes a day score in the 90th percentile for vocabulary tests.

In addition to bolstering brain health, getting lost inside great books transports our worries away so we feel 68% less anxious.

Given these extraordinary benefits, you can see why supplementing with blinks sparks skepticism for whether condensed summaries deliver the same perceptual gains.

After using Blinkist myself for the past year almost daily, I can assure you that while tradeoffs exist, blinks absolutely can replicate many of reading‘s advantages if utilized strategically.

Let me walk you through why I‘m now a Blinkist believer…

How Blinkist Helps You Read More Books

As an engineer lacking imagination, I lean on insightful business books and biographies to grow both professionally and personally.

But I‘d struggle to finish more than 8-12 books per year max while juggling work and family. Blinkist turbocharged my pace to gulping down blinks from over 60 books just last year!

Here‘s specifically how Blinkist empowers chronically busy readers like us to conquer their literary buckets lists:

Sampling Before Committing Saves Money and Time

Rather than judging books by their cover, blinks let you instantly preview whether a Hyped-Up bestseller actually deserves weeks of your time.

I can‘t tell you how many lame duds I endured before discovering Blinkist‘s vetting process. Never again!

Snackable Blinks Allow Reading In Stolen Moments

Now I listen handsfree to audio blinks during daily walk breaks, paying bills, washing dishes etc. Fitting in even 10-15 minutes while transitioning activities exposes me to way more titles.

Retaining Relevant Ideas Minimizes Forgetting

Let‘s be honest – barely remembered plot lines and obscure characters from books read months ago. I found blinks‘ tight crystallization of BIG core ideas far "stickier" for applying concepts.

Expanding Perspectives By Reading Broadly

I get bored miring down in slow-paced single titles for too long. Blinks let me briskly bounce between business, productivity, money, health, communication, and self-help insights daily.

Hopefully you can already envision weaving these little reading sprints into all those wasted gaps in your schedule too!

Now that I‘ve made my case for why blinks can make reading more manageable, here‘s a preview of how Blinkist actually works…

Key Features That Make Blinkist So Useful

Beyond mobility and microscopic reading commitments, which concrete functionality makes Blinkist so sticky and pleasing to use daily?

5,000+ Expert-Curated Book and Podcast Blinks

Over 1,500 non-fiction categories ensure endless content variety:

Hottest New Release Samplings – Stay impressively up-to-date on the latest influential books before others even hear about them.

All-Time Classics – Finally check off universally-praised mainstays you always meant to read like 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Getting Things Done.

Niche Deep Dives – Beyond surface-level blinks on universal evergreen topics, Blinkist really shines guiding discoveries into overlooked intellectual alleyways.

Blinkist Originals – In addition to summarizing other popular works, Blinkist produces its own ebooks with compilation insights you won‘t find anywhere else.

Trending Now – Cut through hype-fatigue figuring out what rising books deserve your limited bandwidth.

Podcast Blinks – Why just books? Digest mind-expanding podcast lessons during your commute too!

Reads and Listens On Any Device

I alternate between actively reading, listening handsfree, and highlighting memorable excerpts. Download to any phone, tablet, laptop etc.

Expert Tips From PhD Editors

Trust me, not all non-fiction books merit your precious time, even if popular. Count on Blinkist‘s credible curation process spotlighting quality.

Affordable Especially For Students

Unlimited access to distilled wisdom from $7.99/month? That‘s astonishing value compared to Audible credits costing $14.95 each.

As you can see, Blinkist functionally equips us to overcome the primary friction points sabotaging our reading resolutions.

But how does navigating the app itself flow?

Exploring The Intuitive Blinkist App

Let‘s briefly walk through the main sections guiding you to great books faster:

Discover Time-Tested Favorites or Hidden Gems

I prefer wandering through Expert Curations of all-time bestsellers or underrated Turning Points shaping intellectual history.

But more goal-oriented readers can directly search titles, topics, or categories too.

Revisit My Library To Recall Key Ideas

Having finished blinks consolidated together chronologically ensures crucial insights don‘t slip through the memory cracks over time.

Follow Recommendations Dialed Into My Tastes

The constantly updating For You feed serves up surprisingly spot-on, fresh book and podcast suggestions to continue exploring topics I‘ve previously gobbled up.

As much as blinks solve very real reading roadblocks for the time-crunched, compromises inevitably arise condensing books to such compact formats.

Let‘s examine the biggest pros and cons I‘ve discovered as a Blinkist power user…

The Pros: How I Apply Blinks For Maximum Benefit

While savvier readers could surely extract deeper meaning from full books given unlimited hours, in reality, busy professionals face painful tradeoff decisions around information consumption.

Here are 3 productivity superpowers granting me 80% of the wisdom at 5% of the time investment:

1. Crystallizing Only The Most Critical Insights

As an impatient reader, I used to feel overwhelmed by floods of anecdotes, scientific studies, meandering examples that bury central ideas under layers of fluff across hundreds of pages.

Blinks isolate out the truly seminal ideas and quotes severing the fat so I extract everything I need to retain.

2. Broaden Perspectives Rapidly Reading Widely

Rather than obsessing on a single topic through obsessive underlining and marginalia, blinks let me collect paradigm-shifting concepts from dozens of the latest influential thinkers across disciplines monthly.

3. Stickier Memorability Of Concentrated Takeaways

With no luxurious free hour for re-reading chapters when I inevitably forget details, blinks indelible stamp core ideas into my memory banks through succinct repetition free of confusing clutter.

While I could ramble for pages on why blinks rescue my personal reading journey from perpetual catchup mode, their measurable ROI proves harder denying…

Let‘s crunch some numbers.

Calculating the Remarkable Value From Reading More Books Through Blinks

If paying $15 for the average 300 page hardcover book then each page costs around $0.05.

At 15 minutes per blink that‘s $0.75 worth of insights from just a single book!

Now multiply that by the five thousand titles instantly accessible. That‘s over $3,750 value for just a $79 annual Blinkist subscription.

Even considering books vary widely in quality and importance, executing this same analysis with more realistic numbers still reveals how comically cheap unlocking ideas through blinks proves for invigorating intellectual growth Compared to leaden dusty paperweights straining your shelf!

But a balanced analysis demands scrutiny beyond the numbers too…

While blinks clearly stretch our time and money, we must examine the inherent downsides dimming the reading experience.

The Cons: Key Caveats To Consider

I‘ve waxed poetic about the upside of embracing blinks thus far while only briefly addressing their shortcomings.

Let‘s pull no punches on inherent limitations:

Missing Out On Nuance and Color

There‘s no questioning compromising intricacies, backstories, textured examples, meandering prose missing from condensed formats. Blinks inevitably flatten books into dull, skeletal frameworks.

Deprivation Of Art, Imagery and Wordplay

Literature lovers read to get swept away in poetic passages, clever dialogue, stirring language. Stripping out stylistic adornments leaves only the nude functional utility of ideas themselves.

Lack of Immersive Context Around Concepts

Without broader setup and continuity, retaining the relevance of isolated facts and statistics removed from their ecosystem proves challenging even for distinct blinks. Our recall depends deeply on narratives and through lines across chapters to embed structural meaning.

So if you see reading primarily as an artistic escape and creative force, excising books into such spartan abstractions will rightfully strike you as sacrilege!

Yet for pragmatically oriented self-improvers thirsty for actionable ideas allowing professional advancement and life enhancement, blinks check ALL the boxes.

Ultimately determining if blinks can redeem your reading resolutions requires ruthless clarity on intended goals fueling this dream of increased wisdom anyway…

So be honest –

Is reading the deepest Slow Literature classics a passionate hobby in itself?

Or rather an aspiration instrument for better ideas ultimately enabling richer experiences outside books?

How To Decide If Blinkist Fits Your Lifestyle

With perspective now on both blink benefits and blink pitfalls, let‘s crystallize some closing advice about realistically integrating this hero/villain reading app into daily information flow.

If You Love Reading For Artistic Escape

  • Stick to full-length works savoring delicious turns of phrase and imaginative prose transporting you away from worldly concerns.

If You Read To Sharpen Critical Thinking

  • Combine blinks for broad perspective while still fully reading select titles with rave reviews warranting deeper investment for sharper analytical abilities over time.

If Reading Drives Professional Skills and Life Lessons

  • Mainline blinks across both historic and recent works covering communication, leadership, productivity, technical, financial, health and relationships for constantly updated best practices and ideas.

As with most either/or dichotomies, both modes serve important needs for different circumstances.

Just be intentional choosing your ratio based on targeted outcomes aligned to current priorities.

If devouring fiction and epic sagas for pleasure rank high this season, minimize blinks.

But if consuming non-fiction knowledge to amplify effectiveness ranks urgent, mainline blinks for a turbocharged boost!

The beauty of Blinkist lies in flexibility toggling between modes fluidly as needs change.

Conclusion: How To Regain Control Of Your Reading Resolutions

Rather than experience recurring annual angst and shame over neglected reading goals, embrace Blinkist as personalized "Lifehacker" for overcoming the friction sabotaging your best laid plans.

Think of it as hunting primarily for informative ideas rather than losing yourself in artistic prose. Blinks make retaining game-changing lessons from bestselling books almost effortless.

While no true substitute for curling up with an engrossing novel, extracting value from so many life-changing works definitely relieves the compounding regret of missing out on exponential growth.

Blinkist can help you finally conquer that emotional reading list backlog once and for all!

So be wary of overly romanticizing yawning leisurely afternoons under a tree plowing through weighty tomes as the ONLY valid reading experience. That privileged existence simply doesn‘t align with crushing professional and family demands we face.

Sometimes extracting just the luminous insights through Blinkist proves not only the most efficient route, but the ONLY sustainable path to for continual learning amid chaos.

Sure you‘ll occasionally crave losing yourself in the intoxicating pull of an epic trilogy. I know I do!

But for staying impressively well-read across self-improvement disciplines day-to-day, Blinkist grants the closest experience reasonably possible for the time-starved.

Now crack open that very first blink and start numbing the Fear Of Missing Out as your understanding expands exponentially!

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