How To Take Book Notes
Three steps to turn your book notes into writing.
Hi Friends -
A reader asked me about my note-taking process.
Earlier this year I wrote about two books I read on Shackleton’s Endurance story. I had to review what I’d learned, take notes, and convert it to writing.
How did I do this?
I used the tried-and-true note-taking system I’ve been using since college:
1. Marginalia
First, I take notes while reading. This is the most important stage. If I don’t take notes while reading, I’ll probably have to read it again. I take notes in the margins, I underline or highlight text in the book, and dog-ear pages. I write on an index card or in a notebook.
2. Notes
After I finish reading I write a few paragraphs about the book, my impressions, and what I’ve learned, just to put what I’ve read into my own words.
Then I begin the process of converting my book marginalia, underlined text and dog-eared pages into notes that will form the basis of an essay. Usually I handwrite in a notebook first then type out the notes.
When I’ve finished going through the book, my notes contain important quotes, bullets and outlines of chapters plus my own thoughts and takeaways on the book.
3. Writing
When I’ve finished converting my book marginalia to notes I review them while looking for the main points I want to write about, highlighting the most important information to include in my essay.
With these main points I create an outline for my essay and start fleshing it out, crafting what I learned from the book into a finished essay.
By writing about what I’ve read I’ve completed the final, crucial step of converting the book’s knowledge into my own words, helping me to better understand the book.
I wrote this post using the above process:
One reason I started a newsletter was to gain a better understanding of the books I was reading by writing about them. Writing helps me order my thoughts into a cohesive, easily understandable package.
The most efficient way for me to learn from reading is to write about what I’ve read. My note-taking process is a crucial step to convert the book into manageable chunks I can understand.
I use this process even if I’m not planning to publish the essay, just to better understand what I’ve read.
Wisdom from great note-takers:
I love Goia’s point on being an attentive reader and how learning to write a ‘coherent summary and assessment’ on any topic helped him learn something even if the information wasn’t useful until years later.
Noted: Examining the notes of writers, thinkers, artists & more
If Noted has taught me anything it’s that everyone’s system is different and that I should use whatever system works best for me. But it’s still fun to see how other people take notes.
Ryan Holiday’s notecard system
Holiday marks up a book while reading then later goes back and puts his notes onto index cards to be filed in an organizer sorted by category. When it’s time for him to write a chapter on ‘temperance’, for example, he can refer back to the group of notecards sourced from various books that are marked with the ‘temperance’ tag.
Let me know what works for you!
Until next time,
Keith
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