I just realized talking to Chatgpt about books I finished helps me process and think about them

Submitted by QueenMackeral t3_122gkey in books

I know AI is often confidently incorrect about many things, but I had a positive experience just talking to it about a book I read. It's almost like talking to a smart friend (or a friend who pretends to be smart) about a book you both read, and helping each other analyze and think about the themes and meanings and riffing off each other's interpretations.

I asked it questions that I still had about the book, and asked it to give me examples from the book to support its explanations, and it did, I also gave it my own thoughts and theories and asked it to help me support them with the text. Some of the characters and chapters were wrong but since I read the book, I understood what it was trying to say anyway, and it really cleared up things I was confused about.

I know students are using AI to write essays, which is bad, but I'm not a student, I just read books for fun, so I feel like I unlocked a tool that makes processing books, especially harder literature, much more accessible and enjoyable.

Anyone do this? what has your experience been like?

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farseer4 t1_jdqkm9o wrote

You can only do this with books that have been reviewed/analyzed a lot, though. Otherwise the AI will not have enough training data to talk about it in a useful manner.

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QueenMackeral OP t1_jdsq493 wrote

yes that's true, so far I've only tried it with three books, two of them were well known enough but the other one was very niche (like 100 reviews on goodreads) and the ai admitted to not having enough information on it to talk about it.

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n3ws4cc t1_jdq77d7 wrote

This sounds cool! I'm gonna try that.

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GrudaAplam t1_jdqaml2 wrote

I find writing a review does that for me.

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Morasain t1_jdr3i6t wrote

Writing a review doesn't give you new perspectives

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GrudaAplam t1_jdsgute wrote

Why doesn't it? Anyway, see the title of the post. It helps me process and think about them.

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QueenMackeral OP t1_jdsmhtt wrote

I'm curious what do you do when the meaning or something about the book eludes you? do you do research into the book online?

There were moments when the ai told me something that I would have never thought of, and if I had written a review with my limited knowledge it would have been missing that key information.

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GrudaAplam t1_jdst0dz wrote

I think about it, mull it over. Writing it down helps me formulate and clarify my thoughts.

I don't read reviews or articles until after I've written mine. If I have missed something well that's too bad. I don't really expect anyone to read my reviews, anyway. They disappear in amongst the hundreds or thousands of other reviews.

To be fair, that's the way my brain works anyway. I have a Humanities degree and I am accustomed to thinking by writing.

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katietatey t1_jdqkdz3 wrote

I haven't had any interactions with ChatGPT but this does sound cool! I don't have any IRL friends that like the same types of books that I do and I have some of the same thoughts / issues as you when finishing a book. Thanks for the recommendation.

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[deleted] t1_jdr2ae8 wrote

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Morasain t1_jdr3kk8 wrote

That requires friends to have read the same book, and time, and the mind to do so right now.

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[deleted] t1_jdr71xt wrote

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Morasain t1_jdr78q1 wrote

Book clubs are never really at your own pace. Discord servers, sure.

Or, you just use a tool that does the job just fine.

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QueenMackeral OP t1_jdsny6f wrote

yes I am part of several book subreddits and book clubs and have discussions about books with others, however there is an expectation to your interactions there, if I went in and said "okay I didn't get this book at all, can someone explain the entire thing to me", that would probably not be appreciated in the club. I see using AI as a way to gather my thoughts and brainstorm my ideas before I take them into a discussion with others.

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[deleted] t1_jdr616v wrote

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QueenMackeral OP t1_jdspp7s wrote

Well for example the historical context of the book, what the author is trying to say, the symbolism of the characters, etc. I loved asking it questions like "considering the historical context of the book, and that character X symbolizes Y, what did X's action mean and what was the author trying to say?" I think I got a much better grasp of the characters and the bigger picture of the book this way.

And yeah it sometimes gets things wrong but I can always supplement it with googling and my own knowledge of the book.

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