Food for Thought: 3 Reasons Snack-Sized Reading is Good for You (and for Books, too!)
A literature major’s vindication of taking shortcuts through reading, explained through three culinary metaphors.
We love a good life hack, but scorn a slacker. We like eating slow food, but hate taking the time to cook it. There’s something about a shortcut that thrills both the competitor and the creature of leisure in every one of us. And yet, rooted deep within our 21st-century psyches, there also exists a reverence for those who’d, say, make their own soap or sew their own clothes.
The fact is that modern humans have a complicated relationship with cutting corners.
I work at Blinkist (where we distill the key ideas from great nonfiction books and turn them into digital digests), so I sometimes see this shortcut ambivalence reflected in our Twitter feed, or in the press.
Here’s a fact that might surprise you: only about 12% of adults manage to read everything they wish to. Given the data and the implied struggle that lurks behind it, it’s surprising that people have very strong negative feelings when it comes to learning sans intensive labor.
I’ve got two degrees in literature, so I understand the suspicion — and the anger, too. The purist in me also wishes everybody would go cover to cover. But please, hear me: this is not a zero-sum game. Reading the key ideas of a book in blinks doesn’t mean you cannot or will not read the whole book.
I know what I just told you sounds contradictory, but stay with me. I understand this complicated duality (“summary” reading versus book reading) the same way that I do most things in this world: through my belly.
So here, in three bundles of food-focused metaphor and image, is why microlearning services like Blinkist aren’t here to eat books’ lunch — and what the heck they actually bring to the table, anyway.
1. Blinkist is to books as snacks are to meals
Do you have time to shop for, cook, and eat a balanced 3-course meal any time, any place you happen to be hungry? Unless you’ve got a hotplate in your backpack and an extremely flexible boss, the answer’s probably no. And that, my friends, is why snacks exist!
A healthy snack is there for you when hunger strikes but you’re far from home. Nope, a snack isn’t a meal — it never had #mealgoals, anyway — but if you choose a wholesome one, it can keep your brain pumping until you’ve got the time to sit down for the full linen-and-china experience.
And here’s where the similarity lies: blinks are to books what snacks are to meals. Blinks are thoughtfully written by real, brainy people (actual dozens of us from all over the world!), so they nourish your mind even when you’ve only got a little bit of time. They have no grand pretension toward mealdom, but they do have a place in your diet.
Just as you can choose a healthy snack, like an apple, over a chili cheese dog or a fat danish, you can choose to spend your little periods of down time reading something smart — like a blink — rather than playing Candy Crush or grazing upon news feeds.
2. Choosing the right book is no piece of cake
Ever had a wedding? Ever known anybody who’s gotten hitched? No? Then you may not be aware that people taste anywhere from 4–8 different kinds of cakes (the agony!) before they decide which one is worth the 800-ish sheckles. Cakes are costly, time-consuming, and quite personal, so it’s worth it to find the right one by tasting around. The same goes for nonfiction books.
With microlearning services like Blinkist, you can have a nibble of all three of the management books your boss recommended to you and then put your money — and your time — towards the one you like best. You get a great read, none of the guilt associated with book abandonment, and save some space and weight next time you pack up to move. Everybody wins!
3. Picky eaters, picky readers
What was your favorite food when you were little? Mine was grilled cheese, but, more colorfully, I had a friend who once violently refused to eat anything but Chinese barbecue pork ribs (update: he did not actually turn into a monster. In fact, he’s now a peaceful vegan). The point is this: we’ve got ingrained likes that can make it hard for us to venture beyond our standards.
So how do you broaden your soft palate’s preferences? The same way you make any lasting change: with small doses and positive experiences.
With food, it’s usually our primary caregivers that finally convince us to give peas a chance. But as grown ups, we have to take responsibility for expanding our own horizons.
Reading a snippet of an article, or the highlights of a book on a topic we never knew we were into — like math if you’re a lit person, or investing if you usually couldn’t care less about what goes on in the financial world — can open up a whole new world of exploration, expanding your mind the same way that first brush with black licorice changed your mind about ink-colored candy.
Bagging it all up
Snacks keep us functioning, full of energy, and away from fits of hanger when it isn’t meal time or we’re on the go. They give us just enough of what we need to go boldly forth.
Meals, however, are different: they involve planning, commitment, greater chunks of time. They also let us fall deeper into the experience of eating. They become social functions and opportunities to reconnect to our bodies and our fellow diners. We need that more extended meal time and everything it implies.
But here’s the beautiful thing — our bellies are big enough to welcome both snacks and meals, because they serve different purposes for different times. So let me ask you this: don’t our minds have enough room to welcome a thoughtful short read and a book, too? Particularly when the short read can help us choose where to invest our intellectual resources, or spur us to discover a new idea or topic we never knew we loved?
I’ve probably taken this metaphor to the point of spoiling, so I’ll leave you with this. I swear — Lit-Major’s-Honor — that nobody at Blinkist wants to replace books any more than we want to stop having dinner for the rest of our lives. In fact, we’re all here precisely because we love to learn and love books (and dinner, too).
We believe in setting knowledge free from those piles of books you’ve never moved from your bedside table, and free from the libraries where only people with membership and scads of time can find them. We believe that ideas are important and delightful, and can make your mind healthier and happier, too. We believe that just as a taste of a new flavor might get you curious about a whole new cuisine, one great sentence can offer you new perspectives, enticing you to read more, not less. We believe that books are important, that reading is great, and that learning is the best use of time there is.
And we wholeheartedly believe in snacks.
Have a taste
If you’re still skeptical, that’s okay—have some quality brainfood on us. Try Blinkist and read (or listen!) to as many of our key insight packs as you like for 3 days, free. No strings attached. Come over here and sign up. We like sharing snacks. :)
