The main issue that I have with self-help and pop-business books is that they are always way too long. They are forced to be because "books" are expected to be a certain length.

There's always one or two good ideas that you get early in the book, and then the rest is repetition and filler.

Because this issue is so common, I think that it actually is okay to just listen to a youtube video summary of most of these books.

My other trick is to always get the first edition version of the book; they tend to be shorter and clearer.