If you've ever done both of those things before, you will have realized that the Pareto Principle kicks in and you've got almost all of the value from just the lecture. Books as a medium actively encourage unnecessary verbosity.
This doesn't work with technical texts, obviously. But for those 150 page pop-sci type books, it's fine.
> Books as a medium actively encourage unnecessary verbosity.
I think most people call that "literary style". :P
From memory that is the main thesis of this article by Sam Harris (from the article):
>If your book is 600 pages long, you are demanding more of my time than I feel free to give. And if I could accomplish the same change in my view of the world by reading a 60-page version of your argument, why didn’t you just publish a book this length instead?
Older books, the sort that were copied by hand onto calf skin, tend to have a lot less meandering filler than contemporary literature.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientifi...
The contents of the book is quite good albeit not revolutionary. But it should have been around 60 pages not 270.
I actually found a fantastic short form version at https://www.chrisbehan.ca/posts/atomic-habits which is just as good as the book at explaining the concepts at a fraction of the read time. I advise anyone read that over the book.