read-book

---
name: read-book
description: When you want to read and extract structured notes from a book — PDF, EPUB, MOBI, markdown, .txt, pasted text, or URL to a public-domain work. Reads in chunks (by chapter when a TOC exists, by 50-page blocks otherwise), extracts per-chapter TL;DR + key concepts + quotes + action items + frameworks, and offers to capture to second-brain raw/ as a highlights- file. Four modes — notes (default, chapter-by-chapter), summary (whole-book TL;DR + 3–5 takeaways), quotes (pull-quote highlights only), study (notes + Q&A spaced-rep prep). Triggers on "/read-book," "read this book," "extract notes from this PDF," "what's in this book," "summarize this ebook," "pull quotes from this." Sibling to watch-video (same content-consumption pattern, different medium).
metadata:
  version: 0.1.1
---

# /read-book — Extract structured notes from books and long PDFs

Sibling to `watch-video`. Same content-consumption pattern: ingest → chunk → extract → optionally capture to second-brain.

## Step 1 — Parse input

Accept:
- **PDF**: file path (Claude reads PDFs natively in chunks via `Read pages:"X-Y"`)
- **EPUB / MOBI**: file path (needs `pandoc` or `ebook-convert` to extract — see `references/sources.md`)
- **Markdown / .txt**: file path (read directly)
- **Pasted text**: just use what was pasted
- **URL** to public-domain text: fetch it with your agent's URL-fetch tool or `curl` (Project Gutenberg, archive.org, etc.)

Detect type from file extension. If ambiguous, ask.

## Step 2 — Parse mode

| Invocation | Mode | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| `/read-book <input>` | **notes** (default) | Chapter-by-chapter: TL;DR + key concepts + quotes + action items + frameworks |
| `/read-book <input> summary` | summary | Whole-book TL;DR (1 paragraph) + 3–5 key takeaways + who-it's-for |
| `/read-book <input> quotes` | quotes | Pull-quote highlights only, with chapter context and page refs |
| `/read-book <input> study` | study | Notes mode + 10–20 spaced-repetition Q&A cards |

If the book is long (>200 pages) and mode is unspecified, default to `notes` but warn it'll take many tool calls.

## Step 3 — Get the text + chunk

See `references/sources.md` for per-source ingestion. Output of this step: text content + a chunking plan.

**Chunking strategy** (hybrid, in priority order):

1. **By chapter** if a TOC exists (PDF with bookmarks, EPUB/MOBI converted via pandoc preserves chapter headers)
   - Use `pdfinfo <pdf> | grep "Pages"` for PDFs
   - Use `pdftotext -layout <pdf> | grep -i "^chapter\|^part"` for chapter detection, or read TOC from page 1–5
   - EPUB: after `pandoc <epub> -o tmp.md`, chunks are between `# Chapter X` headers

2. **By page count** for PDFs without TOC: 50 pages per chunk

3. **By character count** for text/markdown: 30,000 chars per chunk (~7,500 words)

Save the chunking plan as `~/Documents/books/<author>-<title-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>/chunks.json`:

```json
{
  "source": "<path>",
  "title": "<book title>",
  "author": "<author>",
  "type": "pdf",
  "total_pages": 287,
  "chunking": "by-chapter",
  "chunks": [
    {"i": 0, "label": "Introduction", "pages": "1-12"},
    {"i": 1, "label": "Chapter 1: The Problem", "pages": "13-32"},
    ...
  ]
}
```

## Step 4 — Read each chunk

Loop:
1. Read chunk N (`Read` tool with `pages:` for PDF, full file for text/MD)
2. Extract per the chosen mode (see `references/output-modes.md` for templates)
3. Append the chunk's notes to `~/Documents/books/<workdir>/notes-<NNN>-<label-slug>.md`

For PDFs, **don't read the whole book in one call** — Claude's PDF tool maxes around 10 pages. Process chunks individually.

If a chunk fails to extract anything useful (e.g., it's mostly diagrams or front-matter), log the skip and continue.

## Step 5 — Aggregate into final notes file

Combine all chunk notes into a single `~/Documents/books/<workdir>/notes.md` matching the mode's full-book template (see `references/output-modes.md`).

Top of the file always has the metadata block + the second-brain-compatible frontmatter:

```markdown
source: <file path or URL>
captured: YYYY-MM-DD
type: book
book_title: <title>
author: <author>
mode: notes
chunks: <count>
chunking: <strategy>

# <title> by <author>

## TL;DR
<2–3 sentences>

## Key takeaways
1. ...

## Chapter notes
...

## Cross-references (suggested for wiki)
- Could connect to [[Longevity Biomarkers]] (per Chapter 3 discussion of biomarkers)
- Could connect to [[Productivity & Systems]] (per Chapter 7 framework)
```

The cross-reference suggestions are advisory — they're suggestions for `/sb compile` to act on, not auto-applied. Keep responsibilities separated.

## Step 6 — Offer to capture to second-brain

Ask:

> *"Want to capture this to second-brain? I'll write it to `${SECOND_BRAIN_VAULT:-$HOME/Documents/SecondBrain}/raw/highlights-<slug>.md` matching your vault's `highlights-` type prefix."*

Default is **ask**, never auto-write. If yes:
1. Copy the final `notes.md` (with the second-brain-compatible frontmatter at top) to `${SECOND_BRAIN_VAULT:-$HOME/Documents/SecondBrain}/raw/highlights-<slug>.md`
2. Tell the user the path
3. Suggest: *"Run `/sb compile` later to merge this into wiki pages — the cross-reference suggestions in the footer are starting points."*

If the user skips capture, the workdir still has everything — they can grab the file later.

## Step 7 — Report

In chat:
- One-line headline: `<title> · <author> · <total_pages or word count> · <mode> · <chunks processed>`
- Workdir path
- The TL;DR section
- For `notes` / `study` modes: brief list of top 3 takeaways
- For `quotes` mode: top 3 quotes
- If captured to second-brain: that path too

## Modes (quick invocations)

| Invocation | Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| `/read-book <input>` | notes | Full pipeline, default mode |
| `/read-book <input> summary` | summary | Just TL;DR + key takeaways (1 read pass for short books, sampled chapters for long) |
| `/read-book <input> quotes` | quotes | Chapter-by-chapter, but only output quotes |
| `/read-book <input> study` | study | Notes + Q&A spaced-rep cards |
| `/read-book <input> --capture` | (any) | Skip the ask step, auto-write to second-brain raw/ |
| `/read-book <input> --render pdf` | (any) | Also render the final `notes.md` to PDF via pandoc (uses `~/.local/share/makerskills/render.css`). See `references/output-modes.md`. |
| `/read-book <input> --render html` | (any) | Same as above but HTML |

## Composes with

- `second-brain` — primary integration: writes `highlights-<slug>.md` to `raw/`. Then `/sb compile` merges into wiki pages.
- `deep-research` — when a research question turns up a book, `/read-book` is the next step. Notes feed back into the research brief.
- `business-brainstorm` — when scoring an idea (e.g., business books on similar models), read-book provides the structured evidence.
- `decide` — when a decision hinges on what an authority has written (e.g., "should I take VC money?" → read Naval / Jason Cohen), `read-book` extracts the relevant chapter.
- `slide-deck` — book takeaways → talk material (book talk pattern).
- `watch-video` — sibling skill, same content-consumption pattern. Audiobook? Use `watch-video transcript` mode.
- `nonfictionskills` / `fictionskills` — when researching to *write* a book, this skill reads the comp titles.

## Error handling

| Failure | Response |
|---|---|
| EPUB/MOBI without pandoc / ebook-convert | Tell the user: `brew install pandoc` or `brew install calibre` (calibre includes `ebook-convert`) |
| PDF is scanned (no text layer) | Suggest OCR first: `brew install ocrmypdf && ocrmypdf <pdf> <pdf-ocr.pdf>` |
| PDF has no detectable TOC | Fall back to 50-page chunks. Note in the metadata. |
| Book is unusually long (>500 pages) | Warn cost / time, ask if the user wants summary mode instead of full notes |
| Chunk extraction empty | Skip the chunk, log, continue. Don't fail the whole run. |

## Notes on quality

- **Don't summarize beyond recognition.** A 30-page chapter should produce 8–15 lines of notes, not 3. Compression is good; flattening is bad.
- **Preserve specifics.** Names, numbers, dates, quotes — keep them. The whole point is later-the user can grep "what did Andy Wilkinson say about X" and find it.
- **Quotes are sacred.** When you flag a quote, copy it verbatim. Note the page if possible.
- **Action items are explicit.** If the book makes you think "I should do X," flag it explicitly. These are the highest-leverage outputs.
- **Frameworks deserve their own bullets.** When the author names a framework (e.g., "the 9-dimension filter," "Save the Cat beats"), call it out by name in the notes.