Pros and Cons of the Headway App

In this video, I'll share my thoughts on the non-fiction book summary app -- Headway.


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*** A full transcript can be found at www.marblejar.net. ***


Hi, everyone. This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share my thoughts on the non-fiction book summary app -- Headway.


I'm read a lot of non-fiction books and yet -- there will always books I never get to -- my eyes are always bigger than my stomach when it comes to reading. And here is the thing -- some books are worth reading every single word of, but some books I can live with just an overall summary. I would say probably most books fall into the latter category. So, that's where non-fiction book summary apps come in. They give you about a 15 minute summary of a book. This can help you determine whether you want to read more or whether that bare bones synopsis was enough.


A while back, I had a subscription to Blinkist, but recently I was approached by Headway to take a look at their app, so I'm going to give you my thoughts. First off, I love the concept. Take a 300 to 500 page book, boil it down into about 10 pages of summary, and present it attractively to the reader. I'm always reading several books, but I'd love to be the kind of person who, when I have a couple of minutes of downtime, I flip open Headway and just read half of a book summary. Unfortunately, I found that I was slightly resistant to this -- mostly because even this is a bit of a brain workout and when I have downtime, I just want to look at cute pictures of other people's pets. So, a better option for me is to make it a discipline of reading say 5 minutes a day of book summaries. Obviously, Headway has done most of the work for me, so just 5 minutes will get me 1/3 of the way through a book summary. That would be a great way to make some "headway" (see what I did there?) through my massive book pile.


Here's what I really like about the Headway app:
Good summaries - for one thing the book summaries are good! I started by reading a couple of books that I've already read and the summaries were spot on. Obviously in 15 minutes, you can't cover everything, but they definitely seem to hit the highlights. I also really like the
Audio option - if you are commuting or doing mindless chores, Headway allows you to listen to summaries rather than reading them. The reading voices are pleasant and the app allows you to speed them up or slow them down according to your preference. Also, if you have the app installed on a couple of different devices as I do, Headway
Syncs well - It saves your spot so that you can pick up where you left off on a different device. They also have some nice
Book Collections - where they group books together that might be appealing. Things like Nonfiction Classics, Top 10 Books to Become a High Performer, and Best Reads of 2020. They also allow you to search and find books by category. Headway also use some of the principles of online subscriber retention like
Streaks - to remind you to read a certain amount each day. Since it's a subscription service, this can be helpful to make sure you are getting your money's worth, but truth be told, I find this a little naggy and annoying and couldn't figure out a way to turn it off altogether.


Which brings me to what I would change in the app to make it better for me:
Export highlights - First I love that you can highlight sections of the summaries to view later, but I want the ability to export those highlights. I keep book comments and quotes in an Evernote notebook and would really like to be able to save my highlights there. I'd also like the ability to make my own
Notes - about a passage in a book OR about the entire book itself. Something like "Interesting premise, but disagreed with argument about cognitions." Or whatever. Something in my own words that encapsulates my views. My memory is atrocious and I read too many books, so being able to take these kinds of notes is crucial for me. Even if the app didn't give this ability, I'd love to be able to
Star or Rate - the books. Just so I know which books I really liked and which were kind of meh. Then I'd love to have all of my starred books in one place. As it is now, your library view only shows books you are reading and those that you've finished. One other thing from an iPad user, I'd love a
Landscape Mode - which is the way that I generally use my iPad. Having to flip my iPad around just for this app takes me out of my normal workflow. And finally, I'd love
More books - Headway has a lot of books and many are ones I have been meaning to read, but the books tend towards business-oriented self help, which is slightly outside of my core set of interest. That said, since I still have plenty to read, I'll keep my mouth shut on this point until I catch up!