How to Create an Effective
Book Summary Mind Map
By Chuck Frey, The Mind Mapping Software Blog
By now, I’m sure you’ve seen mind maps that are summaries of business books. They can be
valuable, visual learning aids for your own use, as well as for sharing with others. But like other
types of mind maps, book maps need to be created with clarity and brevity in mind. There’s an
art to extracting the key points and nuggets of knowledge from a book that may be several
hundred pages in length and still end up with a visual summary that is understandable.
Source: http://litemind.com/made-to-stick/
Book Summary Mind Map Page 2
In this report, we’ll take a closer look at the principles of creating an effective book mind map
that will be memorable and useful for you and anyone with whom you may share it.
Principle #1: Capture the key points of the book – with clarity
Ideally, a book summary mind map is a memory jogger – a reminder of what you’ve learned
from a business book that you enjoyed. In other cases, you may have enjoyed a book so much
that you want to be able to share it with others – by e-mailing a PDF of it to the members of your
team or uploading it to a mind map gallery such as BiggerPlate.com or MapsForThat.com. In
either case, a book summary map needs to follow the rules that we have already discussed in
many of these Mind Mapping Insider reports:
They need to be well organized
Words and phrases you use for topics need to be brief and clear
Other people need to be able to understand the content of your map without the context
of reading the book, to which you have access
There’s an art to summarizing a book so that others can understand it and be motivated by it. A
case in point is Luciano Passuelo’s excellent mind map of Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi,
below:
Source: http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/d188199/never-eat-alone
Book Summary Mind Map Page 3
Note the way in which this mind map both intrigues and informs you as you drill down into it.
The topic “the genius of audacity” is so compelling that I can’t help but click to expand that
branch. I want to know what it contains:
Principle #2: Decide upon the scope of your mind map
The mind maps we’ve just explored cover entire business books. But if you want to capture
more detail, you can also create a mind map that covers only one chapter of a book. I can think
of two occasions when you may want to do this:
1. When a book contains so much useful information that placing all of its salient points in a
single mind map would result in a huge, overly cluttered visual summary.
2. When a book contains only a chapter or two that is relevant to your needs. That’s OK –
just focus on the knowledge you need, and ignore the rest.
In the first case, you could create a mind map for each chapter of an excellent business book,
and then join them together using a master map that links to each of the chapter maps.
A great example of a chapter map follows on the next page. It’s taken from Chris Griffith’s latest
book, GRASP the Solution.
Book Summary Mind Map Page 4
Source: http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/ogvlsWhV/grasp-the-solution-by-chris-griffiths-chapter-3-generative-thinking
Principle #3: Capture your thoughts and reactions, too
Don’t just capture the key points from the book in your mind maps – be sure to add your own
thoughts and reactions to what the author is teaching you, and how you plan to apply what
you’ve learned. In the example below, I added a task to the Never Eat Alone mind map to depict
how this could work:
Remember: If you’re sharing a book summary with members of your work team, many mind
mapping programs enable you to share tasks with them. In other words, this could become a
useful tool for sharing new knowledge with your team, and could serve as an excellent
foundation for group discussion during your next team meeting.
Book Summary Mind Map Page 5
Principle #4: Capture memorable quotes, too
As an avid blogger and user of social media, I’m constantly on the look-out for interesting
content I can share with my readers. One key type of content that fits in with many social
channels and which also shares useful wisdom with others is quotes. As you read through a
business book and formulate a visual summary of it, be sure to capture any relevant and
memorable quotes, too.
Some authors are very quotable, while others tend to stick to a plain, no-nonsense “just the
facts” style of writing. Just keep in mind that this is another type of book content you should
consider adding to your book summary maps.
Principle #5: Don’t be a slave to the radial map format
Many book mind maps follow the standard radial format – with topics sticking out in all
directions. But keep in mind that other formats may prove to be equally useful. For example,
top-down and right-facing maps can also be very useful, because they enable you to arrange
your book summary in a convenient left-to-right and top-to-bottom sequence, respectively.
Examples of both types of maps follow below. Notice how your tendency to read left to right and
top to bottom helps you to easily follow the sequence of the content of their subject books:
Source: http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/hXkDTEGc/the-leadership-mindmap
Book Summary Mind Map Page 6
Source: http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/KCF2bJpx/virtuoso-teams-lessons-from-teams-that-changed-their-worlds-andy-bounton-amp-bill-fischer
Principle #6: Have some fun with color and images
What do the mind maps I’ve featured in this report have in common? They all make creative and
effective use of images to add visual interest. One common practice is to place an image of the
book cover in the central topic. Many book covers are very colorful and feature distinctive
treatments of type and images. This makes them stand out, and immediately tells the reader
what the subject of the mind map is – especially if the name of the book or its author are well
known to the people who are viewing the map.
A perfect example of this approach can be found on page 1 of this report: Johan Dhaeseleer’s
excellent summary of Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, which was featured on the
Litemind Blog.
Book Summary Mind Map Page 7
Note how each first-level topic utilizes a colorful image to draw your interest, and then employs
icons to consistently guide you to specific types of content the map contains – such as a
megaphone to depict examples. Nicely done!
Principle #7: Adopt the authors’ subheadings as subtopic names
When you read a business book,
you will often discover that each
chapter contains subheadings
that break its content into
“chunks.” Headings or
subheadings are used to tell the
reader that the topic the author is
discussing is about to change. It’s
also a very useful visual device
for readers who simply want to
skim the book’s content, and zero
in on the key knowledge they need.
In either case, a lot of thought has usually gone into these headings and subheadings to make
them useful, clear and engaging. Therefore, it’s often in your best interest to adopt them
Book Summary Mind Map Page 8
verbatim as your map topics and subtopics, as the author has done with Keith Ferrazzi’s Never
Eat Alone, in the screen shot on the previous page.
Using this strategy not only helps to ensure that your mind map follows a common-sense
structure and follows the book’s content closely, it also increases the odds that readers will find
some topics of interest as they visually skim your book mind map. In this example, “Balance is
B.S.” and “Never Give in to Hubris” are real attention-getters!
Principle #8: Ultimately, do what works for you
If the book mind maps you create are only for your personal use, then create them in such a
way that they are most effective for you. Your visual style dictates what’s most meaningful,
relevant and memorable for you. So plan your book mind map accordingly.
Most of all, have fun capturing your new-found knowledge in this powerful visual format!
Questions?
Please contact Chuck Frey at [email protected].
Please visit the Mind Mapping Software Blog for all of the latest news, trends and resources
related to visual mapping.
You can also follow Chuck Frey on Twitter for even more insights and ideas.
Published 5/7/12