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Until recently, when I wanted to investigate a book, I would just see what was said about it online. Most often, I would check what reviews there were on Amazon. In the case of popular or classic books, I could also often find information on Wikipedia, either about the book itself or at least about the author.

More recently, I started looking at one of least expensive commercial book summary services, Blinkist. My recent goal has been to write criticisms of books by authors I find questionable. One example is the books of Ta-Nehisi Coates. I had read his June 2014 article in The Atlantic Magazine, “The Case for Reparations” as well as his testimony at the House hearing about reparations. I also heard the opposing testimony of Coleman Hughes and watched John McWhorter's comments about Ta-Nehisi. Since Hughes and McWhorter made so much sense – and based their views on reliable data – I did not want to support Ta-Nehisi by buying his books. However, I did want to have an objective summary of his books, so that I could be clear in debates about exactly what Ta-Nehisi argues that just feels wrong to me.

The solution turned out to be Blinkist. During the 7-day free premium trial I found books by Ta-Nehisi as well as a number of others such as Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist and DiAngelo's White Fragility. Each gave me the text I needed to frame my criticism — as well as giving me audio to which I could listen while on my daily walk.

This led me to listen to a book I knew I'd never read, The Communist Manifesto. I found the summary very relevant to the arguments today about far leftists being communists and marxists. After listening to the Manifesto summary, I suddenly understood the thinking behind those accusations – and even, perhaps, an element of truth of which I had been unaware. What surprised me was how much of what was summarized seemed very reasonable to me as a old-style liberal. It also got me wondering exactly where it was that Marx was wrong, given that much of what he said still seems relevant today.

In any case, I then discovered a free book summary service, Four Minute Books that also provides book summaries, just not as many as Blinkist.

#100daystooffload Day 9.