Musing Mondays (Oct.26)

 This week, Rebecca asks:

Do you take notes while reading – either for your reviews or for yourself? How/where do you make these notes (on the page, post-its, scrap paper, notebooks etc)?

Yep, I’m a note-taker. I used to underline while reading, but then found that that doesn’t work — if I underline, I can’t go back to reread the book ’cause nothing new can jump out at me. All I see, then, is what I’ve underlined.

Writing in the margins would be the same, for me, as underlining. Nothing new would be able to jump out at me in a re-read because all I’d see would be the notes written there.

So, now I stock up on notebooks, and I keep one handy… usually when I’m reading nonfiction. And, I take LOTS of notes! I take them just for my own, personal use, not for anything specific. I’m now giving away a lot of the books I have once I’m finished reading them (unless they were so good that I have to keep the copy to reference back to later, that is!), so I take notes so that I can still go back and have stuff speak to me, even if I no longer own the book itself. That, and I borrow a lot of books from the library, so it helps to have the notes from those so that I can go back to them, without having to check the book out again.

When I write my notes, mostly they consist of quotes that jumped out at me while I was reading (for example: In a recent book, I loved this quote… “As long as you insist on comfort, you forfeit change.”). I’ve also made note of TBR titles; if –while reading– the author mentions another book, I’ll definitely jot down the title, and make sure to look it up at a later date. Recently, I’ve started adding some personal thoughts to my notes… if a passage sparks an idea, I will jot that down so that I don’t lose it. Goodness knows how many times I’ve NOT done this, and I’ll try to recall it later and can’t. I did this (jotted down the ideas) while reading a recent nonfiction book, and wouldn’t you know it, I wanted to recall that idea when I’d gotten to the end of the book, and wouldn’t have been able to, had I not written it down! So, this is definitely a good thing for me to do!

My most recent notes came from “Only Nuns Change Habits Overnight” by Karen Scalf Linamen, and “No Idea” by Greg Garrett. I took about 8 pages of notes for the first, and only 2 for the second.

Occasionally I will take notes for my reviewing… I’ll get a thought of what I want to say in my review when I’m half-way through a book, so I’ll write those thoughts in pencil on the inside of the back cover of the book, or on the last (blank) page. But, I’ll go back and erase those notes after I’ve written my review so that I can pass the book on to someone else.

My family thinks I have too many notebooks… but see, I don’t understand this. What is “too many”? It’s the same with books — they say that about my book collection, and I ask, “What is this “too many” of which you speak? I don’t understand!” (LOL). I NEED all of these notes & notebooks! I really do!

Okay, so yes, I might be a little obsessive when it comes to my notebooks… but it’s for a good cause! And, honestly? It could be worse! There are worse addictions out there! LOL

(a small portion of my notebook collection).

Edited to add, after reading others’ responses: I have to write my reviews immediately after closing a book. I can’t wait a couple of hours, or until the next day. I’ll lose my feelings about the book, otherwise. So, I always write out my review right away. Sometimes my notebooks come in handy for this, but most of the time I just write my reviews from how I feel when I close the last page.

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For more answers to this week’s question,
please visit Rebecca’s blog!

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