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Time for another mojito while navel gazing. /sip
I've been thinking about my reading and keeping organized about it. It is less of a big deal with fiction where either I finish or drop it quickly. Then mark it accordingly on storygraph (https://app.thestorygraph.com/).
But when I'm reading non-fiction, and I am reading more of it lately, its less of a one and done situation. I want to take notes, and then at a later date be able to add on further/linking discoveries, but where?
Digitally I suppose I can just use a website and make a webgarden kind of thing. Maybe on Neocities. While I like Storygraph in terms of keeping track of what I complete, I find keeping track of where I am/progress in it obnoxious.
Print is more difficult as I am too lazy to type everything out (I like big quotes). I could take pictures but they end up stuck on my phone. Again lazy so I won't transfer them. Maybe I should get a system for this? I just default to Google Drive but I am slowly getting away from it. I did just switch to proton for email so I'd have to pony up for the Drive feature... But I'm not against it so long as I double check my finances...
Physical books are super cozy so I don't think I'll give them up but maybe give just get fiction books from the library and digital for non-fiction? Although with Proton Drive I could add back in physical non fiction notes. But still not as easy as digital.
Do you have a preferred notetaking setup? Any recommendations on this front?
Do you like reading fiction/nonfiction? Any recommendations?
~noisydeadlines wrote (thread):
I read a lot in a e-reader (Kobo) mostly books from the library (I get the epub files).
I have two ways of taking notes:
1) I use Standard Notes to register my own notes about what I'm reading. If it's a fiction book, I'll usually take note of characters names, places, interesting plot points, etc. I do that specially for books that I'm reading for my book club. I add my overall thoughts after I finished as well. These notes are not complex or long at all, I usually add them using my phone while I'm reading.
2) While I'm reading I highlight quotes/paragraphs that I find interesting in my Kobo and after I'm done I extract them the using a plugin in Calibre, and copy and paste it into the same notes file I created in point 1. This is specially true for non fiction books. Sometimes I don't even bother extracting quotes from fiction books.
I'm currently re-reading a non-fiction about writing that is quite interesting: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
Great sci-fi series I'm enjoying: Planetfall Series by Emma Newman - 4 books set in the same universe that you can read in any order because each book is set in different places and timelines. It's sci-fi with touches of thriller, mystery, psychological themes, very engaging.
I have different processes for notes on fiction and notes on essays.
For fictions, I like to note beautiful or touching quotes in a notebook. It's very nice to read them after a year or two, although some are just meaningless out of context. I don't need to refer to them or search in them so paper is good.
For essay, I take notes on my computer, because I want to be able to search, and connect notes. I use logseq, which is an outliner tool with bidirectional linking (local-based and free software). It's great for zettelkasten.
While we're doing reading recommendations :
The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin is one of the best novel I've read. It's "political and social SF".
I've become a better note-taker by going with a small notebook and a pen (I settled on the Uniball Jetstream after trying a bunch of different pens and pencils). I had to relearn how to write cursive, but after a few weeks it became easier and smoother and I didn't have to think about it much.
Analog note-taking engages a different part of your brain than fiddling around with tech. I find my thinking becomes more linear, my words more considered. It's probably slower, but the end product is more useful to me.
Latest non-fiction I really enjoyed: Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States, by James C. Scott.
Not my absolutely favorite authors, but I'd feel remiss in not adding that while thoroughly enjoying their stories, I felt I roughly quintupled my vocabulary reading John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates fiction decades ago.
in terms of note-taking, really just journals. or the notes app, if a journal is too intimidating. i try not take it too seriously and mark down whatever observations or analyses that i think are formative or outstanding, and mash out whatever comes... if i'm scared i'm wrong or i'm missing something, i cross-reference, fill in the gaps, and do extended research horizontally. if i'm especially vigorous i'd make a schoolworthy artgame project based on the work, but that's not recommendable, because i'm a neurotic edge-case and should not be counted.
my favourite non-fiction is actually an article: A Spider, an Arab, and a Muslim Walk into a Cave ( https://imagejournal.org/article/a-spider-an-arab-and-a-muslim-walk-into-a-cave/ ) by Fady Joudah. literally made me giddy reading it. that, and Shell Song ( https://shell-song.neocities.org/# ) by Everest Pipkin, which was formative me.