In my spare time, when I'm not gaming or writing, I like to read fantasy books. But sometimes keeping up with epic fantasy series can be quite daunting.

I often take a break after finishing a massive book or wait for years for a new installment in a series to be released.

In such situations, I need a recap. To my surprise, I used Google Gemini to summarize one of my books, and it worked better than I expected.

Why I used Gemini to get a summary of books I've read

Making my life simpler

Due to the long gaps between books in the same series, I often don't remember the full story of a long book I've already read.

That prevented me from starting the next book, and out of fear of forgetting everything, I avoided it for as long as I could.

Sprawling fantasy books can feature numerous points of view, complex magic systems, maps, and countless locations to keep track of.

With years between installments, or long gaps between books because of my schedule, I always need a refresh before starting a new book.

Earlier, one would search blogs, re-read the book, and look up summaries on Wikipedia or Reddit, but these sources were never enough to get the full picture.

That's when I decided to experiment.

What if I used Gemini to recap the book I've already read and start reading the next book?

I'm currently reading The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, and if you've ever seen the physical books, you will understand my predicament.

I'm due to read Oathbringer in the series, and to avoid getting lost, I wanted a recap of Words of Radiance.

For perspective, Words of Radiance has 1,088 pages, and there was no way I was going to re-read the book.

Thankfully, Gemini saved the day.

I asked Gemini for a full recap. Here's the prompt I used:

Give a full synopsis of the fantasy book "Words of Radiance”

It was a simple prompt that yielded some incredible results. Gemini gave me a decent synopsis using the web as its source.

But I instantly noticed I wasn't getting all the information I needed. Intricate details were missing.

I needed spoilers.

You can instruct Gemini to withhold key spoilers in the prompt if you're looking for surface-level summaries, but in my situation, I needed more perspective.

Then I got the idea: What if I uploaded my e-book and got more details than a quick recap?

Since I had a DRM-free copy of Words of Radiance in my Google Drive, I uploaded the e-book and asked for a summary with spoilers.

To avoid issues, I always upload DRM-free e-books to Gemini. Plenty of online stores sell DRM-free e-books, including the Play Store.

Uploading an e-book gave me the results I wanted. It reminded me of the major events and key plot points, giving me more context as I start reading the next book.

It even explained the complex relationships among the characters and the motivations behind their actions. It also explained new developments in the magic system.

You can use this method if you leave a book midway and want to pick it up again.

If you ask Gemini to summarize up to a certain chapter, it can do that effortlessly. Make sure you ask it not to spoil anything beyond that.

Needless to say, Gemini saved me countless hours and made my life simpler by giving an accurate summary.

It's worth pointing out that I use Gemini more as a memory aid and do not rely on it fully for summaries of books I haven't read.

Because where's the fun in that?

Gemini isn't perfect, and like any LLM (Large Language Model), you should expect some oddities.

It often confuses titles within the same series and provides inaccurate summaries, especially for books that aren't well-known or are recent releases.

But in my case, it would be an understatement to say that Gemini saved me countless hours and made my life simpler.

If Gemini can handle fantasy books, it can handle your documents

A 200-page document will be a cakewalk

While my experiment worked for scanning and summarizing a fantasy book, the implications are far broader.

Gemini handled a 1,000-page book and gave me intricate details that would have taken me hours to re-read.

With that in mind, I am confident Gemini can summarize all sorts of documents.

As I mentioned earlier, fantasy books can be quite complex, but Gemini was able to handle it.

If you're apprehensive, try this experiment with an old document and verify Gemini's results to see if it works.

You can use it to summarize contracts, lease agreements, or long reports so you don't have to keep going back to the document.

I had to sign a lease recently, and I uploaded the document to ask which clauses should concern me. It pointed out every clause that I should clarify with the homeowner before signing.

If your experiment goes well, you may have found a tool that might help your daily workflow.

I may also experiment with other LLMs, such as Claude, to see which performs better.

Gemini might become my reading companion

My experiment with getting summaries of books I've already read has definitely helped me finish an epic fantasy series faster.

If it weren't for my experiment with Gemini, I would have gone on ignoring The Stormlight Archive for another few months.

My next step is to upload some old Warhammer 40K books to see if I can replicate the same results with Gemini and other LLMs.

For now, though, my only remaining question is: should I read The Wheel of Timeseries next?