Books

i’m an avid reader when i can find the time and focus amongst all my other projects. i enjoy all genres for the most part but tend to focus more heavily on sci-fi, fantasy, and academic/personal development books. as a neurodivergent, i do struggle with maintaining focus while reading as well as long term retention of those impactful, awe-inspiring ideas and insights, making it harder dedicate time to reading even when i want to. to cope with this, i use a method of note taking that encourages active reading, reflection and introspection, and long term retention. i don’t do this for every book and some books lend themselves to a much higher volume of notes and thoughts than others but my goal with every book is to be present, active, and engage with the text in a meaningful way. here you will my reading list along with any notes i have taken.

Note each book note page includes an Amazon affiliate link if you would like to support my further reading, no obligations

Book Notes Method/Madness

i write in my books. get over it.

over it? ok cool, lets get started then. my note taking method starts with a highlighter, a pen, and the book. simple enough, right? moving on!

first things first, inside the front cover, i write my name and the date i started the book in the bottom left corner. why you may ask? if the book was meaningful and i read it again later, i like to compare my thoughts and feelings between readings and across periods in my life. i find that some things don’t quite hit the same or i glean new kernels from seemingly irrelevant passages the next time through. not everything gets a second or third reading but there are some that do. i also like to see how long it took me to get through something as an indicator of enjoyment and/or difficulty.

with that out of the way, i add a title to the same page inside the front cover called My Table of Contents and then i get to reading. as i work through the book, if something catches my eye, causes me to stop and think or feel, or inspires thought(s), i highlight it. once i’m done with the page, i note the page number and a few words or sentences in My Table of Contents and continue reading. by the time i finish the book, i have a nice TOC of what i found relevant and worth further exploration. further, months after reading, i can use this to quickly find that idea or quote when i need to reference it or refresh my mind. i find that doing creating this table as i read helps me not to forget the ideas and emotions generated compared to coming back later and trying to re-experience and remember. the idea is for the book to BECOME the notes: not just the raw concepts, ideas, and inspiration but to become fully realized through fulfilling its purpose with a specific reader (me).

now then, we have made it all the way through the book. what now? its time we do something with those highlighted passages. at the end of the book, i find where the extra blank pages begin and title the first page “Ideas, Thoughts, and Lessons Learned”. here, i make some notes on my overall impression of the book, expand upon the ideas i had, and explore the emotions i felt while reading, using My Table of Contents as a reference when needed. sometimes this only take a short paragraph, other times it takes up pages. i want to give myself the time and space to explore and develop the benefits of reading right there in the heat of the moment, as it were, and bind the book itself to the byproduct of me reading it and carry that forward in to my life insteadof losing the experience and wisdom to the distractions of life and time.

last part. i title the next empty page (or space if i’m running out of room) “Actionable Items”. here i contemplate those ideas, thoughts, emotions, and lessons learned and distill them in to specific ways in which i can apply them to my life. maybe there aren’t any because it was a trashy gas station romance novel. or maybe i’ve been inspired to explore agrarianism on my farm. who knows. but here is where i begin the journey of applying the book to my life. sometimes that may spawn whole new projects. sometimes it may just be a post-it note on my monitor saying “be less of an asshole today”. at the bottom of this page, i put my name and the date i finished. if i come back to this book later, i now have a picture of how i and my life may have been impacted as a result of reading it.

thats it. i know it adds overhead to reading but i’m busy and have limited time and energy. i want to make the most of my life and being intentional with my time and what i decide to spend my energy on is important to me.

My Pile of Books

Note the Read section only contains books i have read using the above active reading method

Reading

To Read

Read