I argue in the margins, as we've done for millennia.
why is this an argument?
Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
11–20 of 65 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
#12[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
#13I underline and write in the margin, using my own symbolic shorthand for common words. I list all the symbols on the title page so I can decipher it in 5 years.
At the end of a chapter, I go back and make long-form notes in markdown, then commit to a git repo.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
#14I’ve a book where I keep notes on the books I read. Most of the time, I re-read the notes from the the last reading when I pick up the book again which is a great memory refresher. It’s works as great notes for the whole book when I need. I also make relationship maps to remember anything that has a lot of relationships.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
#15A project I want to build some day is a tool that pulls highlights from kindle / play books and turns them into a morning email to help recall. If you steal the idea I'll be your first customer :)
Looks like this will be right up your alley, then: https://readwise.io/
That looks perfect. Thanks!
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
#16Trello all day. Each book gets its own list. Each item in the list is something I want to remember.
Yes you have to write it out but this cost:
1. forces you to only save what matters 2. encourages you to compress the info which requires you to understand its essential parts
I record the notes as I encounter noteworthy things. At the end of a book the trello list is effectively a compressed book and index to the actual text.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
#17On the front inside cover, I write the page number of each thing I find interesting/ useful. Especially the diagrams.
Then on the page to the right of that I jot down the things I want to learn more about and the ideas I come up with.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
#18I don’t like to desecrate the book, I use small stickies notes to take notes and put them near the margin.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading a book?
#19I've been scriblling points on 3x5 in note cards which I use as a bookmark. Might go through several notecards in a book. I then summarize/transfer over to my Notion workspace.
Interesting in seeing what others do!