Using ChatGPT for Book and Article Summaries: What I’ve Learned
If you’ve ever wondered whether ChatGPT can summarize a book or an article for you, the short answer is yes. It can. And it’s one of the easiest, most useful things you can do with it, especially if you’re just getting started.
If you’re anything like me, your reading list is always growing, but finding time to get through everything is another story. There are so many business books and articles I want to read, but between work and life, I rarely make it through as many as I’d like.
So I started experimenting. Could ChatGPT help me get the key ideas without reading cover to cover? Would the summaries actually be useful? Turns out, yes on both counts. Here’s what I’ve learned, starting with the simplest version and building up from there.
You Can Absolutely Do This
Let’s start with the basics, because this is genuinely all it takes.
Open ChatGPT and ask it something like this:
“Can you give me a summary of Brian Tracy’s book Goals!?”
That’s it. You’ll get back a structured breakdown with the main points. No special setup, no complicated prompt, no tricks. If you’ve been wondering whether this works, now you know. It does.
When I first tried it, it worked right away. The summary was fine. It gave me the main ideas, and for a lot of situations, that’s all you need. If you just want the gist of a book before a meeting, or a quick sense of whether it’s worth your time, you can stop right here and you’ve already got something useful.
So if you take nothing else from this article: you can do this today, and it’s easy. Go try it with a book you’ve been curious about.
Why You Might Want to Use This
Once you see how easy it is, the natural question is, what’s it actually good for?
A couple of things, in my experience.
The obvious one is time. You can get the core of a book in a couple of minutes instead of a couple of weeks. That alone helps you get through more of what you’ve been meaning to read.
But the one I find more valuable is this: you can turn what you read into something you actually use. Not just a list of ideas you nod at and forget, but takeaways that connect to your work, your business, or whatever you’re trying to figure out. A summary can help you make a decision, shape a plan, or spark an idea for something you’re working on.
That’s the difference between reading for trivia and reading for action. And the good news is, getting there isn’t complicated. It mostly comes down to how you ask.
How to Do It Well
Here’s the part that took me a little experimenting to figure out. The basic summary is a great start, but with a couple of small adjustments, you can get a lot more out of it. Think of these as levels. You can climb as high as you want.
Level One: Just Ask
You’ve already got this one. Ask for a summary, get the key points. It’s the foundation, and it’s perfectly good on its own.
“Can you give me a summary of Brian Tracy’s book Goals!?”
Start here. Get comfortable. There’s no rush to do anything fancier until this feels easy.
Level Two: Add a Little Context
When I wanted summaries that felt more useful and less like a book jacket, I started adding context to my request.
First, I tried tailoring it to a specific industry. I wanted to see how the lessons in Goals! might apply to a business owner in banking. So I asked for that. Instead of just listing the book’s ideas, ChatGPT connected them to real banking challenges, like customer retention and goal-setting.
Then I took it one step further and added a specific challenge. What if that banker was struggling to attract younger customers? I added that detail, and the summary got even more practical. Instead of “write down your goals,” it suggested setting a measurable target for new accounts from younger clients and building a strategy to reach them.
That’s when it clicked for me. The more specific I was, the more useful the summary became. You’re not just asking what the book says. You’re asking what the book means for you.
So a level-two version of that first prompt might be:
“Can you summarize Brian Tracy’s book Goals! and explain how the ideas might apply to a small business owner trying to attract younger customers?”
Same book. Much more useful answer.
Level Three: Turn It Into a Conversation
Here’s the level that’s made the biggest difference for me, and it’s simpler than it sounds. Instead of treating the summary as the finish line, treat it as the start of a conversation.
After you get the summary, just keep talking. Tell ChatGPT what you’re actually working on, and ask it to help you apply the ideas. You might say:
“Thanks. Here’s my situation: I run a small business and I’m trying to figure out my goals for next year. Based on this book, what questions should I be asking myself? And feel free to ask me anything you need to give me a better answer.”
Now it’s not just summarizing. It’s helping you think. And when it asks you questions back, that’s a good thing. Answer them. Keep going. You’re in charge, and the more you tell it, the more useful it gets.
You don’t have to start here. But once the first two levels feel comfortable, this is where summaries stop being something you read and start being something you use.
A Few Ways People Put This to Work
To give you a sense of what’s possible, here are a few ways the same approach plays out depending on what you do:
- If you run a business, a leadership book can be summarized with a focus on the challenge you’re actually facing, whether that’s managing your team, making a tough decision, or keeping customers.
- If you create content, a summary can become the seed for a blog post, a podcast episode, or a few social posts, so you can share an idea without reading the whole book first.
- If you’re studying or researching, you can ask for study guides, key themes, or even points for and against an argument, depending on what you need.
The thread running through all of these is the same: a little customization makes the summary work for your specific goal.
Give It a Try
If you’re curious, start simple:
- Pick a book or article you’ve been meaning to get to.
- Ask ChatGPT for a basic summary. That’s level one, and it’s a real win on its own.
- When you’re ready, add some context, your industry, your situation, the challenge you’re working on.
- And when you want more, keep the conversation going. Tell it what you’re trying to do and let it help you think it through.
There’s no single right way to do this. You can stay at level one forever and still get plenty of value, or climb as high as you like. The point is just to start.
I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible here, but it’s been a game-changer for getting through more of what I want to read and actually putting it to use. If you give it a shot, I’d love to hear what you discover.
As always, the most important thing in getting value out of any tool is your own curiosity. So until we talk again, stay curious.