How to read complex fantasy

[Chris]

After graduating college last year, I finally have much more free time to read. Fantasy is by far my favorite genre, and I started by reading the first five song of fire and ice books, now I am working on the Malazan series. Although I've understood the general gist of the books and storyline in the big picture, epic fantasies such as these really can become complex.

It seems weird, but I almost like having to "work" to read these books. I was just wondering how you guys tackle trying to remember all the less major storylines, characters, etc. when there's hundreds? Do you take notes, if so, how do you organize them? The problem is sometimes I'm reading places where I cannot take notes. I mainly read on kindle app on my iPad, which obviously has highlighting, but it can seem pretty tedious to do that whenever I come across a character, or something of importance.

Thanks guys!

[Doug]

I refuse to read any series so complex I have to take notes or highlight. I did enough of that in school.

The good thing about series that complex, is that there is always something else to discover on second or third reading.

[Baelor]

I do not write notes or anything. I just remember most/all of the characters. Occasionally I have to Google something, but it is never a big deal to me.

For books like ASoIaF, just put a bookmark or something at the back with the family trees and houses.

[Chris]

That is one thing I like about those books, the re-read factor is incredibly high compared to most other things I have read where the plot is straight forward.

That is the one downfall of reading on a kindle app, much harder to flip pages :(...doable, but much more of a pain.

[Lee]

I do tend to forget things when I don't read a series straight through. Last year I tried to finish Wheel of Time reading one book a month. It didn't work out well. There was too much time between books. I have thought about keeping notes but I never do. Next time I might keep a list of characters handy. I know there are sites online for this kind of thing but they're also full of spoilers. Something I try to avoid the first time I read a series.

[Talitha]

For the Malazan book I read, they had info in the back of the book I deferred to constantly. Otherwise I was completely lost.