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When I was a boy, I came to the realization that I could not hope to remember everything I've read.
This was most unfortunate.
So I started taking notes. Early on in the books themselves, but after I became an adult and was forced to acqurie books using my own capitial I started using notepads. I'll jot down qoutes and page numbers and general thoughts.
Does anyone else do this or do I just have a shoddy memory?
I don't, although I wonder if I should. I guess my theory is that if I don't have it in my memory it isn't much good having it written down somewhere.
I find it helps me remember the book better and if I can't quite recall something its just a page flip away.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sasaki Kojiro
You read allot of books. Do you remember the majority of what you read?
I remember the stuff that seems important enough and interesting enough as I read it, the kind of stuff that you put down the book and think about. And a random smattering of the other stuff, and a good sense of the overall picture. I copy down quotes sometimes where I want to preserve the exact wording, usually when it's an aphorism (so mostly hoffer and nietzsche).Quote:
Originally Posted by Strike For The South
Basically though I remember reading books a few years back that I thought were super interesting, that I now see were pretty narrow or silly. So I'm not necessarily worried about preserving the book in my memory. For all I know in a few years I'll think that the book wasn't that good.
On the whole I figure if I get why it's important to remember something while reading the book I'll remember it, and if I don't get why it's important then I don't know what to copy down.
That's fair
For me it's just an excersise. Helps me remember and understand
I recently started reading on a kindle, and I found out that ebooks will already have sections highlighted for you if a sufficient number of other users have highlighted the same section. It's very odd having the thesis of every introduction pointed at with a big obvious arrow saying "1,200 people noted this."
An ereader? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT RUNING THE WRITTEN WORD? OUT, GET OUTQuote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
-cries- I still have 25 paper books I am reading. Why...why do you have beeeee so meaaaaaaaaaaan.Quote:
Originally Posted by Strike For The South
I used to have a diary for this sort of stuff, then at age 16 I gave it to the girl I had fallen in love with.Quote:
Originally Posted by Strike For The South
Only very recently in the last couple of years have I started to keep a "thought" notebook again.
It's called the KINDLE because they intended it to be the flame that begins the inferno that turns all real books into ASHES.
For your own good - and by God, CORRECT YOR DRAFTS BY HAND!Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
No. Allthough if a book is especially enjoyable, I'll probably read it again after a couple of years. I've read Frank Herbert's Dune and its sequals 4 times now (not the "new books" by his son and that other guy, they're crap) When I re-read it, it strikes me that I've not only "forgotten" some interesting parts, but also discover things that I'm sure I simply missed the last time I read it. So basically, every time provokes new thoughts.
As for non pleasure books, when I was in uni I made handwritten notes for every book that I was reading. Initially, this was to summarize the truly important or hard to remember stuff for exams, but these notes eventually became so long and thorough that they almost became books themselves. Ironically once I had read a book and made voluminous notes for every chapter it was almost never necessary to look at either ever again - writing is an excellent mnemonic technique.
Did she give it back when she broke your heart?Quote:
Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla
I have been thinking about keeping a journal. I have dozens of notepads laying around for certain books
I don't read because I prefer TV, it's just more relaxing.
She did, as it happens. I destroyed it publically and dramatically, I was 16 and oddly it no longer embareses me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Strike For The South
Lesson learned, when I finally recovered I actually tried to tell the next one how I felt three years later.
Lesson learned, I gave up.
I didn't find it that useful to be honest, finding stuff to write becomes arbitery, if you write regularly you eventually end up creating a tome of your innermost feelings and realising you've been in love with Jean all these years but she doesn't feel the same.Quote:
I have been thinking about keeping a journal. I have dozens of notepads laying around for certain books
I actually don't think that kind of self-reflection is healthy, you're better talking to a real person. On the other hand, I have a notebook for when I actually want to write something, be it a few lines of poetry or twelve systematic rules for practising good lay theology.
If I don't remember a book, I read it again.
You always discover something new when you reread a book you read years ago.
Also, you're all nerds for reading books. Rhy is cool though.
Kralizec basically summed up my experience. My Uni notes were so thorough ppl would photocopy them instead of reading the book, which was fine by me.
Pleasure reading is usually different though. The act of reading and visualizing the story is hard to "capture" in notes. Some philosophy and history books I will make marginal notes so I can keep track of arguments or events as they develop.