> Please wait for the current search to finish.
This message modal appeared when I tried to select a book. I'm sure you know that's not the user experience anyone wants.
Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
#32As an ex-Blinkist I think the work here it's quite impressive.
From what I found based in some titles that I have read in the past and in comparison with Blinkist:
- The summaries here feels that has more "meat in the bone" in terms of bring complex ideas and have more bullet points
- Maybe it's about the prompting, but the language used you can definitely know that is generated by an LLM
- Having the direct quotes from the book after an initial definition of the theme of a chapter it's good
- The whole experience with the LLM kicking in on the fly, makes the whole experience quite bad; maybe you should consider have that pre-stored in some place
Honestly, I think your product it's 85% of theirs (and this is not something bad).
The pricing USD 79 for a lifetime it's OK, but without giving some kind of access or even make some library available it's quite hard to see someone paying for a library that you do not know the books that is in there.
From the legal perspective, I think you might be in some hot water since some publishers can dispute the fair use due to the fact that you're monetizing part of their content.
Re: Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would this ruin the internet?
It’s the very definition of autogenerated sometimes correct sometimes full of shit with no way to tell spam that isn’t even being honest with users that it’s AI nonsense.
I'm sorry to break this news to you, but your attitude ruins the internet/world more. Can you point out one instance of 'full of shit' content on the site?
Re: Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
#34I tried this with a non-fiction book I read recently and it honestly feels like a pretty generic LLM output. The summary roughly follows the text, but in many spots takes things out of context to a degree that the summary would be very misleading to anyone who hadn't already read the book.
The quotes at the start of each section were some of the worst offenders. I really have no idea what the first quote was referring to. It didn't relate to any of the themes of the book, or any of the following summary points, and I don't remember reading that line at all; it just seemed totally out of place.
I'm not really sure what I would use this service for. When I'm interested in a book that I haven't read it's generally the overarching concepts and takeaways that I want to know, not a spotty outline of the different sections of text. Perhaps students who want to skim through some assigned reading would find this useful. I'm also not that interested in Blinkist so I might not be the target audience here.
Re: Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
#35As an ex-Blinkist I think the work here it's quite impressive. From what I found based in some titles that I have read in the past and in comparison with Blinkist: - The summaries here feels that has more "meat in the bone" in terms of bring complex ideas and have more bullet points - Maybe it's about the prompting, but the language used you can definitely know that is generated by an LLM - Having the direct quotes f…
Okay, I really appreciate the feedback! Agree on the "meat in the bone," quotes, and LLM-like writing style (which is somewhat intended).
On-the-fly/cache: Yeah, I agree. We're only four months old—the number of on-the-fly summaries will go down significantly over time.
85%: What could make it 100%?
Pricing: I think that's fair. But considering Blinkist charges for $100+ for yearly, the $80 lifetime deal isn't that bad.
Legal: We actually drive a decent amount of traffic to Amazon, Audible, and Kindle. We're hoping to partner with the publishers and authors in the future whether in the form of revenue sharing or licsening.
Re: Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
#36> Please wait for the current search to finish. This message modal appeared when I tried to select a book. I'm sure you know that's not the user experience anyone wants.
Good point! Easy fix.
Re: Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
#37This is why no one buys books. Books are too long, too broad, the interface of books is the same since 868 CE and 90% of the text is just filler. Kindle brought some innovation into this space, but it's UI and support tools are still ridiculously cro magnon like. 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 pa…
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.
Re: Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
#38I tried this with a non-fiction book I read recently and it honestly feels like a pretty generic LLM output. The summary roughly follows the text, but in many spots takes things out of context to a degree that the summary would be very misleading to anyone who hadn't already read the book. The quotes at the start of each section were some of the worst offenders. I really have no idea what the first quote was referrin…
Hmm, which book was it? I can check. It is designed to complement the original work by allowing you to preview/review books before/after reading them, not to replace the need to read the original book.
Re: Show HN: 73,530 free book summaries in 40 languages (with paid audio)
#39This is why no one buys books. Books are too long, too broad, the interface of books is the same since 868 CE and 90% of the text is just filler. Kindle brought some innovation into this space, but it's UI and support tools are still ridiculously cro magnon like. 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 pa…
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 paid audio)
#40This is clean, nice work!