When we read for pleasure we don’t, or shouldn’t, take notes: being rapt is then our only ambition. When we read for information—the paradigmatic case being the textbook on the contents of which we are about to be tested—we had better take notes. When we are reading for understanding, we may or may not take notes, depending on the context. Sometimes we wish to be rapt or are caught up in the book regardless of whether we wish to be or not; other times we will strive for a more detached analytical mode.
