100+ Book Summaries: High Quality, Detailed, Nonfiction (FREE)

Sloww is your go-to book summary website for the highest quality and most detailed free book summaries anywhere online. This page is a comprehensive list of 100+ nonfiction book summaries. You may also enjoy my book recommendations and my full reading list (Google Sheet). Enjoy!

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Most Popular Book Summaries

Book Summaries by Category:

What makes Sloww summaries the most useful book summaries in the world?

Author Quotes: I always use the author’s original words—not filtered by my mind. Watch out for book “summaries” that are only or mostly in the reader’s words—you’re essentially playing the “telephone game” with these (you’re reading the reader’s mind, not the author’s words).

Key Themes: I group similar quotes into key themes, so you get the gist of the main themes from a book and see direct examples of original author quotes that support the themes. Key themes can then be synthesized across books to make you more of a interdisciplinary generalist.

Visual Formatting: I do a lot of extra work to provide intuitive visual organization. This is rarely seen in other book summaries online that are often long pages of unformatted text or bullet points. I use highlighting, bolding, visuals, and infographics to bring my book summaries to life.

Appropriate Length: There are far too many short summaries out there that only give you bits and pieces of a book. My summaries are “as long as they need to be” depending on the quality of the book. I offer both free summaries and 🔒Premium summaries (further distilled and more actionable). Here are some examples of how much fluff I cut out of a book to produce my summaries (free summaries cut ~90% out of a full book on average; 🔒Premium summaries then cut the free summaries in half):

Sloww Book Summaries: High Quality, Detailed, Nonfiction (& FREE)

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Book Summaries by Category

Intentional Living Book Summaries

Slow Living Book Summaries:

In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim | Book Summary
Slow by Brooke McAlary | Book Summary
Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner | Book Summary
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist | Book Summary
The Slow Fix by Carl Honoré | Book Summary
In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell | Essay Summary
Conspicuous Consumption of Time by Bellezza, Paharia, & Keinan | Research Summary

Simple Living Book Summaries:

The Quest of the Simple Life by William J. Dawson | Book Summary 1, 2
Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin | Book Summary
The Value of Voluntary Simplicity by Richard Gregg | Essay Summary
Voluntary Simplicity: Listening to the Quiet Revolution by Katie Barton | Thesis Summary

Minimalism Book Summaries:

Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki | Book Summary
Simplify by Joshua Becker | Book Summary

Decluttering Book Summaries:

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo | Book Summary

Art of Living & Human Potential Book Summaries

Art of Living Book Summaries:

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (Stephen Mitchell Version) | Book Summary
A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin | Book Summary
How to Live by Derek Sivers | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
Sum by David Eagleman | Book Summary

Human Potential Book Summaries:

A Theory of Everything by Ken Wilber | Book Summary
The Integral Vision by Ken Wilber | Book Summary

Meaning & Life Purpose Book Summaries

Meaning of Life Book Summaries:

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl | Book Summary 1, 2 | 🔒 How to Apply It
Yes to Life by Viktor Frankl | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch | Book Summary

Life Purpose Book Summaries:

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle | Book Summary 1, 2, 3 | 🔒 How to Apply It
Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren | Book Summary
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho | Book Summary 1, 2
Find Your Why by Simon Sinek | Book Summary
Ikigai by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles | Book Summary | My Ikigai 2.0 eBook
Awakening Your Ikigai by Ken Mogi | Book Summary | My Ikigai 2.0 eBook
The Path Made Clear by Oprah | Book Summary
The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna | Book Summary

Spirituality Book Summaries

Beginner Spirituality Book Summaries:

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply it
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz | Book Summary
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse | Book Summary
The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Riso & Hudson | Book Summary 1, 2

Advanced Spirituality Book Summaries:

Awareness by Anthony De Mello | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
The Way to Love by Anthony de Mello | Book Summary
Who Am I? by Sri Ramana Maharshi | Book Summary
Spiritual Enlightenment by Jed McKenna | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply it
Being Myself by Rupert Spira | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply it

Psychology & Philosophy Book Summaries

Psychology Book Summaries:

The Farther Reaches of Human Nature by Abraham Maslow | Book Summary 1, 2, 3, 4 | 🔒 How to Apply It 1, 2
Ego Development Theory by Susanne Cook-Greuter | Paper Summary 1, 2 | 🔒 How to Apply It
Transcend by Scott Barry Kaufman | Book Summary 1, 2
The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist | Book Summary
Whole Brain Living by Jill Bolte Taylor | Book Summary
Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows | Book Summary
The Great Mental Models Volume 1 by Farnam Street | Book Summary
Super Thinking by Gabriel Weinberg & Lauren McCann | Book Summary | 🔒 Premium Summary
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli | Book Summary | 🔒 Premium Summary
Range by David Epstein | Book Summary
A Synthesizing Mind by Howard Gardner | Book Summary
SQ21 (Spiritual Intelligence) by Cindy Wigglesworth | Book Summary
Lying by Sam Harris | Book Summary

Philosophy Book Summaries:

The Egg by Andy Weir | Book Summary
This is Water by David Foster Wallace | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant | Book Summary 1, 2 | 🔒 How to Apply It
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius | Book Summary 1, 2
On The Shortness Of Life by Seneca | Book Summary
Enchiridion by Epictetus | Book Summary
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen | Book Summary
Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday | Book Summary
The Existentialist’s Survival Guide by Gordon Marino | Book Summary

Life & Work Optimization Book Summaries

Reading & Note-Taking Book Summaries:

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens | Book Summary 1, 2 | 🔒 How to Apply It

Focus & Habit Book Summaries:

Essentialism by Greg McKeown | Book Summary | 🔒 How To Apply It
Atomic Habits by James Clear | Book Summary | 🔒 How To Apply It

TIME BOOK SUMMARIES:

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman | Book Summary
When by Daniel Pink | Book Summary

Money Book Summaries:

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel | Book Summary
Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Peter Kaufman & Charlie Munger | Book Summary
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker | Book Summary | 🔒 How to Apply It
Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren by John Maynard Keynes | Essay Summary
Die With Zero by Bill Perkins | Book Summary

Diet Book Summaries:

The Blue Zones Cookbook by Dan Buettner | Book Summary

You May Also Enjoy:

Book Recommendations

Full Reading List (Google Sheet)

Sloww Book Summaries: High Quality, Detailed, Nonfiction (& FREE)