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Scribd’s latest reading discovery feature is like CliffsNotes for the latest, best-selling books

Scribd’s latest reading discovery feature is like CliffsNotes for the latest, best-selling books

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If you want to check out a book to read later, or just pretend that you’ve read it

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Image: Scribd

Reading platform Scribd is introducing a new way for readers to discover nonfiction books. The feature is called Snapshots, and it’s akin to a CliffsNotes version of a book you can find on the company’s platform that’s designed to introduce potential readers to new works in quick fashion.

Originally founded as a document-sharing site, Scribd has branched out to become a subscription platform for reading. That vast amount of content means that there’s plenty of material to attract new subscribers but it also means that there’s a pitfall: how do you find what you’re looking for, or new books you didn’t know existed?

Scribd already provides recommendations to readers based on their preferences and reading history. But, as the site notes, while people feel that reading is important, it’s also a huge time commitment. Opening a book (physical or digital) is a risk; what happens if you get halfway through and find that it’s not for you? That’s where this feature seems to come in.

An in-house editorial team has produced more than 500 Snapshots so far

To find a Snapshot, you can go to an individual title’s page for the link, or to the platform’s sidebar, which provides links to other Snapshots, sorted by genre. Presently, the feature only includes nonfiction titles, rather than novels. The company says the individual Snapshots are generated by its “in-house editorial content team,” and that there are more than 500 available now, with more to come.

Selecting the one for Margot Lee Shetterly’s science history Hidden Figures brings up a 23-page document, with each page providing a summary of each of the book’s chapters. You can also listen to audiobook versions of the Snapshots. It’s a feature that’s good for checking whether you’d like to dive into the full book, or at the very least, if you just want to pretend that you’ve read Michelle Obama’s Becoming.

The feature is the latest in a handful of new tools the site has introduced in the last couple of years designed to boost the platform’s visibility among book readers. Scribd reintroduced its unlimited ebook and audiobook subscription a year ago, and it began producing its own original book-related content as well. Those features seem to have paid off — the site announced earlier this year that it surpassed a million paying subscribers. With this latest one, it looks as though Scribd wants those million readers to spend more time reading the right books, rather than plowing through a couple of chapters and giving up.