Wholeheartedly agree. And I think the problem has gotten worse for a few reasons. One is that if you’re interested in a subject, you likely follow it closely online, so reading a book-length treatment feels like learning a lot of stuff you already know. Two is that publishers try to find authors with social media audiences who likely already published all their good ideas for free and now have to dredge for additional material that’s usually less interesting.

When I was a child and teenager I loved science fiction. When I became an adult I shunned fiction as a waste of time and read only nonfiction books. Then I started to find that most nonfiction books could be summarized in a blog post or Wikipedia entry, regurgitated well established ideas, or spewed unfounded bullshit. I’ve since flipped my perspective again. I think good fiction is worth reading at book length while most nonfiction is better consumed in blog posts, articles, journal papers, or via a ChatGPT tutoring session.

I will highlight one consistent exception. I love every book I’ve read by Yuval Noah Harari.