Week 20 - Notes and Annotating

[Joanna]

Happy mid-May, everyone! Hope you all are well and that your week is off to a great start.

Do you take notes or annotate while reading (yes, I know, writing in books, sacrilege!)? What is your process if you do?

I wasn't ever much of a note taker while reading (not counting school, of course). I used to just read without trying to have extraneous thoughts. Over the last couple of years, though, that has changed. Now, I'm a massive note taker while I read. Everything from quotes that stand out to plot questions to gushing over characters, it's all in the note section on my phone.

And I've discovered that this helps me remember plot so much better. For a lot of books, I read and enjoy but down the line, I forget what the book was about or what happened. When I look back at books I took notes for, though, I actually remember plot! The books are no longer hazy recollections. Which is of course very useful when talking about or recommending a book.

Obviously, some books will have more in depth notes (and more notes in general) than others but I've still found it to be a very helpful practice.

What about you? What are your thoughts on note taking or annotating?

Feel free to also tell us what books you're reading this week!

[Chama]

Thank you for sharing this! I tend to forget books the same way you described, so I'm going to try taking notes now too. : )

[Ashley]

I never used to take notes, but I've started doing it when reviewing advanced copies of books. I read one recently that specifically mentioned taking place during 2020 (and the coronavirus did exist in this novel), yet there were so many mentions of sneers and what color lipstick people were wearing and things like that. I kept track on my phone of each instance because it was so jarring to read about an entire school of people going maskless in a 2020 COVID world. I realized how helpful that was when writing my review, so now I definitely plan on doing it more often.

[[deleted user]]

I am currently reading "The Pelican Brief" by John Grisham. I rarely take notes while reading. I have not really done any notetaking since I was in school.

[Ann]

I'm not a big note taker, not even when I was in school. I think I will have to start, especially any books I write reviews for. I used to be better about remembering plot points (and faster about finding them again in the books), but between ebooks that I buy and ebooks that I check out from the library- looking back is not always an option.

I'm currently reading His Majesty's Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal (awesome series!). After that is Boyfriend Material.

[Zachary]

I typically don't take notes while reading--unless I am writing a review or something similar.

Currently, I'm reading Slay, by Brittney Morris, and I'm about to start The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. I just finished Later by Stephen King, The Last Mrs. Parrish, by Liv Constantine (actually the nom de plume of two sisters), and When We Were Vikings by Andrew MacDonald. I recommend all three. I'm on a roll!.