Where to find free non-literary book summaries?

August 2, 2013 7:44 AM

This summer I have a lot of reading to do: some books about physics and math applied to sports, others about evidence-based sport conditioning, objectivism, ... stuff that built up because I didn't had to read it. When I read books I like to have a top down view of the subject but most books' introduction fail to do so, either because it is too short and not enough to give a good overview of each chapter or because they not even try to summarise the contents of the books and on how to use the book.

In an attempt to solve this problem I googled book summaries but the only I found was paid summaries (about 10$ each):
http://www.summary.com/book-summaries/

or summaries about literary books, that is not exactly what I'm looking for:
http://www.bookrags.com/
http://www.wikisummaries.org/Main_Page
(etc...)

I need your help to find a good source of non-literary book summaries like these ones I'm reading:
http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Strength-Training-Conditioning-Edition/dp/0736058036/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375454303&sr=8-1&keywords=strength+conditioning

or

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Curveball-Curves-Incredible-Mechanics/dp/1588167941/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375454329&sr=1-1&keywords=why+a+curveball+curves

(...)

Thanks for your help.

posted by tsuwal to Education (2 answers total)

I'd search for the book in worldcat.org, then click into the local library catalogs. Many local catalogs now include summaries from third parties like Syndetics.

For example, here's the record for Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning in WorldCat and in my local catalog. The summary is under the "A Look Inside" tab.
posted by cog_nate at 10:47 AM on August 2, 2013

And for the curveball book: summary in the record of a different local catalog, again from Syndetics.
posted by cog_nate at 10:53 AM on August 2, 2013