SmarterReads
What is SmarterReads?
SmarterReads turns the LinkedIn reading list into a reading program.
Your reading list becomes a curated reading room. Each book carries your reasoning for putting it there. Employees buy the format they prefer, mark their progress, and review what changed. You see what they read, what they finished, and what they want to read next.
You bring the reasoning. This is the answer to "Then?."
Reading Rooms are a place. A curated shelf for a subject. The learner walks in, chooses a book, reads it, and reviews it. Open-ended and invitational.
Literary Trails are a path. The same full books, set in deliberate sequence toward a development outcome. You do not browse a trail. You walk it.
Experience a Sample Reading Room
and Literary Trail
Here is the uncomfortable part. The list was right. Reading is the one thing that builds the mind capable of directing AI instead of being directed by it. The instinct was correct. There was just no way to act on it.
A recommendation is not a program. A program has a place to read, a reason each book is there, a way to see who finished, and a record of what changed.
This is
SmarterReads
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How it Works
SmarterReads connects employees to authentic human knowledge.
Curate it.
You decide which books belong, in what room or trail, and in what order. Editorial guidance helps shape it, or you start from a room or trail we have already curated. Never an algorithm. The selection is the human part, and it stays human.
Launch it.
Not a reading list that gets likes. A working reading room or literary trail, built into your LMS, your network, your reporting. Your commitment to authentic knowledge, made real instead of posted.
Select it.
The employee starts a trail or picks a book, and the choice itself signals a direction. They find their preferred version. Hardcover, ebook, audiobook, library copy.
Reimburse it.
Purchase links are built in, and SmarterReads never sells or ships a book. The employee buys through the link you provide, or from the resellers they already use: Bookshop.org, Apple, Google, Kindle, OverDrive. Your reimbursement budget funds the copy. No inventory, no procurement, no new spend mechanism.
Read it.
A full book. No summaries. Turn the pages, scroll, or listen. On their own time. In a room, read what they choose. On a trail, read in order. It pulls rather than pushes.
Review it.
Mark it read. Rate it. Answer one question: what did this book change about how you think? The review is theirs, in their own words, never an AI's. That one question is what makes the reading stick.
Report on it.
Completion, reviews, want-to-read intent, trail progress, and reading signals flow into your LMS reporting. The loop closes.
SmarterReads Reading Rooms
How to Purchase?
Three tiers. Bring the books. Own the room.
You provide the full list and the strategic reasoning behind each selection. SmarterReads provides the path to purchase. Employees buy real books, ebooks, or audio, not fifteen-minute summaries. They track their progress and review the texts. You measure the impact.
Start here. Build the reading habit. Start with a Reading Room. Add the Pack. Scale to the Library.
How a Book Helped Build SmarterReads
SmarterReads FAQs
How does SmarterReads work?
It runs in six steps: you bring the intent and the list, we build and package a Reading Room or Literary Trail for your LMS, the learner selects a title and reads the full book, reimbursement is handled through the built-in purchase links, the learner reviews and rates the book, and reading signals flow into your LMS reporting. There are no quizzes and no summaries.
What is the difference between a Reading Room and a Literary Trail?
A Reading Room is a curated shelf you read from in any order. A Literary Trail is the same idea, but arranged as a deliberate sequence of full books aimed at a specific development outcome. A room asks what you want to read. A trail asks where you are trying to get to.
Who curates the rooms and trails?
Your People do. An AI can pick the books, summarize the chapters, and write the employee's review. It is a closed loop where zero knowledge is ventured, and zero knowledge is gained.
SmarterReads is about creating the deep structural knowledge only full books can provide. Because the value of the room is the human judgment behind the selection, we never use AI to pick the books, and we refuse to do the thinking for you. You can deploy one of our pre-curated canons, but if you want a custom room tailored to your challenges, your leaders must curate it. The human intent behind the selection is the entire point.
SmarterReads is about creating the deep structural knowledge only full books can provide. Because the value of the room is the human judgment behind the selection, we never use AI to pick the books, and we refuse to do the thinking for you. You can deploy one of our pre-curated canons, but if you want a custom room tailored to your challenges, your leaders must curate it. The human intent behind the selection is the entire point.
Why the LMS?
Because the LMS is ready-made to close the loop. A CEO's reading list goes out via email and disappears without a return signal. Inside the LMS, the reading happens where your other learning lives, and the data flows into the reporting you already run. The connection is direct. Furthermore, because it operates as a content package on the platform you already own, there is no new platform to integrate, and no learner data flows back to us, which makes the security review simpler than any hosted tool.
Do you sell or ship the books?
No. Purchase links are built in. The learner chooses a book and finds their preferred version. Hardcover, ebook, audiobook, library copy. Your employees expense the books just like they do today. Use our default links or point the room to your internal procurement portal. The reading still happens, and the data still flows into your LMS.
Should the curator have read the books?
Yes. Every selection carries a first-person note: why this book, why now, what it is for. You cannot write an honest justification for a book you have not read. That note provides the human intent the program requires. The list is a vouch, not a feed.
How many books go in a room?
Twelve at most. Often fewer. The limit is intentional and strategic, not technical. If you cannot defend a room book by book, you have built a catalog, not a canon. Literary Trails are tighter—three to seven books—because a trail is designed to be finished. The Corporate tier scales the number of rooms you can build, but it does not change the discipline of the room.
What stops people from using AI to write the review?
You cannot stop an AI from reading the book. That is why we do not measure performance. There are no quizzes, no badges, and no scores. You aren’t performing for a grade. The review asks for what an AI cannot invent: exactly how these ideas change your work. It is an invitation to think, not a requirement to report.
What about security and data?
The program runs where your data lives safe on your network. Because SmarterReads is a content package inside your LMS, no employee data flows outside. This makes the security review simpler than any hosted tool, and the real advantage is strategic: You own the signals. When reading occurs within your own reporting, you see where knowledge accumulates and where the bandwidth for deep thought exists. You aren't just protecting data; you are capturing the strategic knowledge that a third-party platform would otherwise own.
People won't read books at work.
Some won't. This program isn't for them. The room is invitational, and the people who show up are signaling readiness to move beyond the shallow stream of information. Reading commitments with progress tracking and peer reviews provides a return signal. Those who finish are not just checking a box; they are building the strategic knowledge canon your organization needs to direct AI.
Do books have to be about "work"?
No. If you only read technical manuals, you are merely becoming a more efficient component in a machine. SmarterReads expands the definition of "work reading" because the educated mind multiplies AI while the merely informed mind is replaced by it. This program was born out of a book on the history of the Renaissance, not a business text. Perspective is the only thing a machine cannot synthesize.
Build Yours
Built around your program, your team, your discipline.
The L&D leader extending an existing program into authentic reading. The manager or director who wants their team thinking deeper, especially now. The partner deploying reading programs into the organizations they serve.
If you can put a course on the LMS, you can launch now.
What are you building?