How to take notes while reading a book
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New strategies for taking notes will studying or reading a book
It appears that I am not the only one who struggles with how to take notes while reading a book. When I read a book I really have no set strategy on how to treat material that I want to remember. I own almost all of the books that I read, just because I like to make notes and mark on them. But I’ve never felt comfortable with a note taking strategy that makes any sense. If you saw my books, some have handwritten notes, some are highlighted, some with post-it notes hanging out of the sides. They really are a mess. I was delighted to find some strategies from what appears to be the academics that are using new technologies for a problem that has plagued mankind since Gutenberg.
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January 19, 2006 Researchers, academics, and readers: how do you deal with taking notes, recording passages, keeping a common-place book, and reading long books? What is your note-taking workflow?
I’m a graduate student in English just beginning to get seriously into the research phase of my dissertation. I try to read a novel a day, and a lot of criticism and other non-fiction as well, in fields like neuroscience, psychology, and theology that relate to my thesis topic.I have a pretty good memory, but nevertheless I find that I’m reading things and just not remembering them. In particular, I come across passages all the time that I’d like to save, and which I know that I won’t remember later. And, of course, once I’ve written these things down they are just that — written down in my notebook. In the past I’ve experimented with various solutions: carrying a Palm and portable keyboard; taking notes on index cards and sticking them in an alphabetical file; marking passages with post-its, and then transcribing them into something like DevonThink; or even just carrying my computer around and typing them in directly. But all of those options have been too much of a pain, with constant stopping and starting and/or equipment to lug around. I have a GTD-type workflow in other areas, but just can’t motivate myself to sit down and retype paragraph after paragraph once a day or once a week. I much prefer just carrying my notebook with me.posted by josh to education at 7:10 AM PST
I take paper notes as I read. These are either inthe margins of books, or since, many are library books, on a legal pad. I keep the paper notes but I also try to write summaries of articles / book chapters into plaintext files on the computer. This really helps focus *why* I’m saving things and to be able to recall it better later. It’s also serachable, which the handwritten notes are not.Maybe there’s an amazon-search-inside-this-book-and-cite-u-like-it! tool that I’m not aware of. Or should build.
posted by zpousman at 7:38 AM PST on January 19 One really basic, lo-tech tip: When you are reading a book, take a few notes on the inside back cover (stick a post-it on there if you don’t want to write on the actual cover). These notes should include page numbers (very important) for the crucial points in the book. Be very selective about what you write.
This is great for when you want to quote the key passage from a certain book- you’ve kept a note of where that passage occurs, and the note is in the book so you won’t lose it. posted by cushie at 7:45 AM PST on January 19 I don’t have any silver bullets. I’ve tried Tinderbox, but it didn’t really do it for me. Plus, it’s insanely expensive and they won’t give you an educational discount (I tried). The people who make it also publish a site called Notes About Notes which has some nice general suggestions, indep. of their particular software solution.In my own experience, copying passages out of books really is quite helpful. It takes a long time, but like with taking notes in class, typing it out a second time locks it in my memory more firmly than reading it and underlining it would. A teacher at school had a system where he would flag passages in a book to come back to when he was reading, and then when he ended the reading session he would copy the passages out of the book and into his notes. I haven’t tried that system, really, but it sounds like it might cut down on the frustration of switching out of reading mode to type.
posted by heresiarch at 7:50 AM PST on January 19 If it’s your book, make marks in the margin. If not, take notes on index cards (much handier than notebooks). And as heresiarch says, the very process of writing things down helps fix them in your memory.
posted by languagehat at 7:58 AM PST on January 19 It seems like your question isn’t so much about notetaking as it is about developing an efficient reading and retention process.Firstly, I think a novel a day is too much information to try to take in, if the purpose is long-term recall. I “read” three novels every two days during the summer I studied for my special field exams, and remembered their content just long enough to pass the exams. I ruined a number of good novels that way–it’s a good thing I don’t remember them, because going back to them (which I will eventually) will be like visiting them for the first time.
Notational Velocity and bookmarking with sticky notes.
posted by majick at 8:01 AM PST on January 19 I use Post-It flags and notes in margins and the back of books.(Self-link, but related.)
posted by unixrat at 8:16 AM PST on January 19 I read straight through with minimal note-taking, only making marks in the margins to remind me of a useful passage. At the end of the book, I go back and look at all the marginalia again and then write notes on whatever turned out to be important. Passages I identify as important before finishing the book more often than not are insignificant, so it’s a waste of time for me to take notes as I go.
posted by Hildago at 8:21 AM PST on January 19 I’m in a different field but I find that the combination of a research notebook and backpackit keep my notes and lists well organized. With backpackit I can organize lists of notes according to a topic and I can search them when needed. When I read a book or paper I write down the title, author, and page number and then a summary of whatever I need to know. Sometimes I back up whatever is in my research notebook online, but it is mostly for diagrams and things that I need when I am away from the computer. With this system I can access my notes from any computer and I have a paper backup if I need to be offline.Also, a digital camera can be your personal portable scanner with good light and high resolution. I’ve used one mainly for non-text notes like maps and figures that I’ll need later, but it saves me transcription time. Just make a note about the picture number with the author, title, and a short description.
posted by Alison at 8:21 AM PST on January 19 I was advised not to take notes, to trade my desktop PC in for a laptop and never read a thing when I wasn’t next to the computer. I was told to simply get writing, draft and redraft with each new piece of info and reading. It took me a while to realize that my advisor wasn’t insane but once I did, I skated to the finish. The most important lesson was asking myself ‘how does this literally change what I have to say’ and so realizing very quickly how much of the available material is not at all relevant. I remember she said something about the romance of the PhD being sustainable only as far as one ignored the invention of the word processor. And something else about writing and thinking being the same thing. I’m sure its not for everyone but I think she was right.
posted by anglophiliated at 8:28 AM PST on January 19 when i was writing my undergrad thesis (only 40-50 pages mind you) I would1) write down items/quotes/entire passages verbatim/citations/whatever into a SINGLE notebook which i took with me everywhere
td> 2) at least once a week i would type all the still relevant information into my laptop into one large text file 3) at least once a month i would then arrange/re-arrange these bits and pieces to reflect my skeletal thesis outline [which of course was an everchanging/evolving monstrosity] 4) i would email this file to myself for a back up copy I found that keeping the processing of information routine kept things fresh and integrated instead of continually having to revisit what I did 6 months ago. Also keeping a queue of emailed versions allowed me to return to particular thought patterns that I might have dis-integrated as I moved forward. This worked particularly well for me because I viewed the citations as discrete packages that I then interwove my own analysis among to create the thesis. This slowly processed itself into a damn fine paper if i do say so myself.
But, to answer your questions as I understand them: 1. In part, I credit the speed with which I finished my dissertation (in English) to limiting the number of books I used–I rarely had more than, say, four or five books out from the library at once. Fewer books to consider simultaneously mean that more material from those books will stick in long-term memory, which cuts out time wasted looking up things over and over again in books you don’t really remember because you read them too quickly the first time. In this case you may find that you don’t need a notetaking “system”–I certainly didn’t have much of one. I just remembered where important bits of text were when I needed them. (But in my case the research and writing phases of my dissertation were simultaneous. I’m not sure that, in English, there’s much need for a dissertation “research phase.”) 2. During my usual reading process I just use index cards for bookmarks–when I’m done with the book, the index card (or cards, on very rare occasions) stay in the back of the book and the book goes on the shelf. Try to limit the notes you make to a single index card–that way you’ll stick to the most important points. Not everything that you think is important at the moment you read it is actually important, or even meaningful–this is doubly the case for much academic prose. Slow and steady wins the race with dissertation writing; quality of reading trumps quantity of books read. One more thing: the idea of an English dissertation that uses both neuroscience and theology texts as secondary sources is oh so tasty, but perhaps a bit expansive. If you are reading specifically to narrow your dissertation topic, then you are better off not taking any notes at all right now, I think. Just read to see where your mind takes you. There’s no hurry. If an idea’s worth including in your dissertation, you’ll be sure to see it again somewhere else.
So, all that said — here are my questions: 1. Is it even useful to horde text like this? Am I better off just trusting to memory? Has anyone found it incredibly useful to have a ‘memex’ like this during the writing process, or found it useless? 2. If you think it’s useful – then what do you do? What’s your process for keeping track of what you read? What I’d really like is a minimally intrusive way that I can keep track of what I read and see important passages, and which strikes a balance between being comprehensive, powerful, and lightweight. That could mean something computerized, something analog. But I’m also unsure that it’s even worth it to be thinking about this stuff. Maybe I should just be reading? Many thanks MeFites!
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I do feel like the notes are helpful not only because it helps me think about what I am reading but also one day if I refer back to the reading I can just look over my notes and then refer to the reading in more detail IF necessary.
Hopefully there will be less cumbersome suggestions!
posted by TheLibrarian at 7:21 AM PST on January 19