An interesting idea that isn’t quite there yet – Blinkist: Book Summaries Daily Review

As someone with a disability that makes it hard to read, this concept is a welcome one and I can see it being extremely beneficial with some improvements. The interface is spartan. It could do with some sprucing up, but that’s only aesthetic and I could live with it in exchange for better functionality. The book selection seemed pretty limited. (EDIT: The selection is much broader than I initially thought. I was able to search for titles I didn’t see on the home page). I only saw a couple of books I recognized (though I did not look though all titles). The two free articles I read (On the history of the iPhone and the history of Airbnb) were just that. I didn’t get the sense I was getting a book but rather a Wired article. That may be because they choose less popular material for the free service. The use of the term “blink” seems an awkward attempt to be clever. Blink has a connotation of missing something rather than showing something. “Don’t blink or you’ll miss it”. I don’t know what a “blink” is. Is it supposed to be a chapter summary? Without hearing a better book, and possibly one I’ve already read, I don’t have a sense that I’m getting the meat of the book but just a few representative paragraphs. More of a sampler than a summation. I try to follow along with the audio and, while that is possible, it’s less than ideal. Since I’m looking at the text and listening to audio simultaneously it would be helpful to have audio controls on the text page as well as the audio page. Switching back and forth was a pain and often resulted in losing my place and starting a page over and using the scrubber back and forth several times to find my place. The only other negative was that the price seemed a bit steep. BUT, I want this to be better. Better interface. Better selection. Better place tracking.... If I could walk away feeling I have the essentials of the book this could be a great app!
Review by BenjPhoto on Blinkist: Book Summaries Daily.