Using ChatGPT to read smarter

I have a con­fes­sion. I still enjoy read­ing print­ed books: most­ly non-fic­tion. But I am now using Chat­G­PT to sum­ma­rize the chap­ters of a book before I open the cover.

Our soci­ety is not read­ing like it once did. A 2021 Pew Research study found that 23 per­cent of U.S. adults hadn’t read any part of a book (print, dig­i­tal, or audio) in the past year—up from 16 per­cent in 2011. Young adults, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Gen Z, are less like­ly to read print books com­pared to pre­vi­ous gen­er­a­tions at their age.

A few anec­do­tal obser­va­tions seem to sup­port that the read­ing tra­di­tion­al books is wan­ing. Two Indi­go book­stores have closed in my neigh­bor­hood over the years. When I vis­it an Indi­go, Canada’s biggest chain of book­stores, the store seems to be increas­ing­ly focused on sell­ing mugs, sta­tionery, and blan­kets instead of print­ed books. An inde­pen­dent, finan­cial­ly suc­cess­ful book­store is a rar­i­ty. And when I vis­it our neigh­bor­hood library, it seems qui­eter than decades past.

Even blogs, like this one, are not being read as much as read­ers pre­fer social media sites like X, Insta­gram, and Tik­Tok. While I am not about to embrace Tik­Tok, I will post news arti­cles on X more fre­quent­ly than draft­ing a blog from scratch.

Here are some ways you can use Chat­G­PT to aug­ment your reading:

• Get a sum­ma­ry first
  Ask Chat­G­PT for a detailed or high-lev­el sum­ma­ry of the book to get the big pic­ture.
  Exam­ple of a prompt: “Can you give me a sum­ma­ry of Think­ing, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman?”
  
• Request a chap­ter-by-chap­ter break­down
  Request a chap­ter-by-chap­ter sum­ma­ry to iden­ti­fy key parts you want to focus on. This is one of my favourite uses of Chat­G­PT. A friend of mine once said that soci­ety tends to read con­tent that we already know. A chap­ter-by-chap­ter break­down gives me a sense if I might learn some­thing new.
  Exam­ple of a prompt: “Can you sum­ma­rize each chap­ter of Atom­ic Habits by James Clear?”
  
• Explain dif­fi­cult con­cepts
  If you hit a con­fus­ing sec­tion, paste it into Chat­G­PT and ask for a sim­pler expla­na­tion.
  Exam­ple of a prompt: “What does this para­graph mean in sim­pler terms?” [paste text]
  A cau­tion­ary note: Be care­ful that you are not copy­ing pro­pri­etary work-relat­ed con­tent into ChatGPT.
  
• Ask for real-life exam­ples
  Turn abstract ideas into relat­able exam­ples.
  Exam­ple of a prompt: “Give me a real-life exam­ple of the ‘sunk cost fal­la­cy’ from Think­ing, Fast and Slow.”
  
• Sum­ma­rize key take­aways
  Find the the main ideas of a book with a bul­let­ed list of key insights.
  Exam­ple of a prompt: “What are the main take­aways from 12 Rules for Life by Jor­dan B Peter­son?”
  
• Quote find­er: Ask for the most impact­ful quotes to deep­en your mem­o­ry or dis­cus­sion points.
  Exam­ple of a prompt: “Include ten quotes from Every­thing is Tuber­cu­lo­sis by John Green.”

In sum­ma­ry, I still crack open a book, under­line with a pen­cil, and fold the occa­sion­al cor­ner. But now, I do it with a dig­i­tal assis­tant by my side—one that doesn’t mind spoil­ers, thrives on sum­maries, and nev­er judges me for skip­ping a chap­ter. In an age where few­er peo­ple are read­ing, maybe it’s not about read­ing less, but read­ing smarter.