How to read the non-fiction books you can’t actually read

Sometimes, it’s the money. More often, it’s the time. Or the energy. Or the interest. For whatever reason, though, it seems there are hundreds of books I’d like to read but never do. So, this is what I’ve been doing lately.

I read Amazon reviews.

I look for the longer, more indepth reviews and read those. I pay attention to the five star reviews, the one star reviews, and the three star reviews too (if someone’s willing to write up more than a couple words for a three-star book, there must be a reason).

If I’m still curious, still interested in the book, I might google the title plus “review.” That usually gets some decent results.

Another option is to Wikipedia it.

Finally, I can always read the first chapter or so, depending on the book, via the Kindle app. Scanning the index this way can be helpful too.

Too many good books to read, too much to sacrifice to read them all. For the books that don’t quite make the read-list, especially the classics and the best-sellers, this is how to get the gist of them, at least how I do it now.