Afterpage vs book summary apps

If you want the ideas from a lot of books, in text or audio, a summary app gives you far more choice than we do. If there is one book you meant to act on and never did, Afterpage is built for that week.

What you get with us.

1. Library: 46 practical nonfiction books, and every one has a Key Ideas guide. You can request a book that isn't on the shelf.
2. Format: a Key Ideas PDF guide (the 12 key ideas, a one-page summary, worksheets and a cheat sheet), then a 7-day plan by email: the big ideas on day 1, then one small action a day, ten to twenty minutes each, with a two-minute version for busy days.
3. Where it lives: your inbox. There's no app to install.
4. Price: your first book is free, with no card. After that, the first 100 founding members pay $4.99 a month, locked in for as long as they stay. Then it's $9.99 a month or $79 a year (USD). Full refund within 30 days of your first payment, and within 7 days of any later charge.

From Shortform's website.

1. Library: 12,000+ books covered, plus 1,000+ article and topic guides. It says it adds 3+ new book guides every week.
2. Format: written book guides, with audio narrations, highlights and notes, PDF downloads, interactive exercises and community discussions, on the web and in iOS and Android apps.
3. Where it's stronger than us: a far bigger library, audio, an app, and article guides.

From Headway's website and FAQ.

1. Library: 1,700+ book summaries, mostly nonfiction, in text and audio, with three to five new titles added most weeks.
2. Format: summaries of about 15 minutes, plus quizzes, spaced repetition, streaks, highlights, and Shorts (short interactive formats). It also offers guided learning plans: you pick a goal and it lines up summaries in order. Some of these are labelled "7-day plan" on its site.
3. Where it lives: iOS and Android apps, plus a web app.
4. Where it's stronger than us: a much bigger library, audio, an app built for spare minutes, and many goal-based plans.

From getAbstract's products page.

1. Library: the Pro plan includes 27,000+ summaries for personal and professional development. The Student Starter plan includes 5,000 summaries for personal development.
2. Format: summaries it describes as about 15 minutes, with audio summaries, reading lists, highlighting, learning paths and micro-courses, plus PDF, ePub and MP3 downloads and Send to Kindle. It also sells to companies for workplace learning.
3. Where it's stronger than us: the largest library here, with strong business and leadership coverage, several formats, and team plans.

From Blinkist's home page.

1. Library: 9,000+ titles, book and podcast summaries, across business, personal development, science, psychology and more.
2. Format: about 15 minutes to read or listen. It also has Guides, which it describes as expert-led topics with interactive tools and activities, plus offline listening and apps for iOS, Android and the web.
3. Where it's stronger than us: a big library, audio for every summary, and podcast summaries.

Be honest about the job.

1. You want to decide whether a book is worth reading.
2. You like the gist of many books a month.
3. You want audio for a commute or a workout.
4. The book you want isn't one of our 46. Afterpage only covers practical nonfiction.

1. You already know a book's ideas and still haven't changed anything.
2. You want one small thing to do each day for a week, not more to read.
3. You'd rather use email than another app.
4. You want to finish the week with a decision: keep the change, adjust it, or drop it on purpose.

Yes, and it's a sensible way to work. Use a summary app to choose, then pick the one book you want to act on and spend a week with it. Your first book with us is free.

Comparing newsletters and email courses too? Read how to choose