I agree. I have been reading/listening to 60+ books a year (~60% books, 40% audiobooks on Audible) for the past 3 years, and I rarely find a tech book more valuable that a collection of blog posts of authors that I already know and trust. I actually find that a good blog post with many insightful comments has much more depth of a book. A nice exception would be one of these short books by O'Reilly (https://gist.github.com/augbog/d65f6600188fece854cb341734c5f...). I always reach for them when I want a quick overview of a technology I'm not familiar with.
Many other non-fiction books - e.g. almost all self-help books - are also not worth reading, and you could summarize them in a few pages.
A few tips:
- try Audible if you don't find the time to sit and read a book. I always listen to an audiobook when I go for a walk or do some light exercise.
- read book summaries with something like Blinkist (https://www.blinkist.com) before deciding to read a book.
- don't feel guilty leaving a book unfinished. If it sucks, or if it starts repeating itself, stop reading it.
- in the case of a non-fiction book, always take notes.