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Why I Don’t Prefer Book Summaries

Bianca Zagan
2 min readDec 3, 2020

Not any words will do it.

Woman holding a book that sparks light
@niserin on Shotzr

Words have power.

Maybe you’d think I take this either from a journalism manual or from some new age copy. Perhaps it’s both.

What I’m trying to say is different. When I read (or listen), I read because the content has captured my attention. I’m in for the whole idea the author is trying to convey, but mostly, I’m in for A-ha moments.

Perhaps I’ve heard a message one thousand different ways, but it bounced right off my ear, and didn’t enter my brain.

But that one specific wording broke through the noise and rang true to me. It made me stop and wonder.

Swiftly, I made connections with my own experiences and I can see through progression, where that is leading.

Therefore, millions and millions of writers, of all calibers, have their place in the writing world. Because if their words inspire one other individual, they have helped somebody else.

With book summaries, we lose the exact wording. The core idea gets through, but the ‘magical’ effect of the author’s exact phrasing gets out.

Even if I have less time, I always prefer the original works, as much as possible. That can’t be an option when the author writes in a different language, and translation is the…

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Bianca Zagan
Bianca Zagan

Written by Bianca Zagan

Passionate about understanding how the irrational human mind creates our reality in 8 billion versions

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