Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com

6 days ago

I wish I could I was more surprised at a budding tech journalist using Google's "accurate, source grounded" Gemini skin to read entire books. 400-page YA novels (by Tracy Deonn)... that she doesn't really want to read... but feels like she HAS to read to keep up with friends? There's so much to say

Once the PDF version of the book was uploaded to my notebook and processed by NotebookLM, it was time to actually begin reading. Before diving into NotebookLM's most iconic features like Audio Overviews and Mind Maps, I decided it was best to start with the basics: just asking questions.

So, I started by sending the following in-depth prompt:

I’ve tried reading this book multiple times but I’ve never made it past the first few chapters. I’d really like to finally understand it, not just skim through, but actually absorb what it’s about.

Think of it like this: I want to walk away feeling like I’ve read the book, even if I didn’t read every single page myself. Can you help me get familiar with everything I need to know? I’m looking for a full overview. Tell me about key characters, plot points, themes, chapter summaries, and any important quotes or turning points. Tell me everything!

Adi Robertson @thedextriarchy.bsky.social

6 days ago

I'm so confused, she had NotebookLM... recap recaps, which she had to look up herself? How much time could this possibly have saved.

I recently watched an entire show using NotebookLM, and since the tool doesn't accept videos itself as sources, I needed to hunt down episode summaries and recaps to upload to my notebook. So compared to that, uploading a book was almost too easy.

Replies

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com
6 days ago

I guess even recaps are too long to spend time on now? Well, I'm sure Google will upgrade NotebookLM before long to just watch hours of video and summarize them for you. Probably expands the potential "audience" (not actual viewers) for some multi-hour Youtube series...

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