Sunday Conversation Topic 6/8

[Jason]

Do you take notes while reading or wait to reflect afterward?

Are you one how remembers characters names?

Do you save or highlight quotes?

Feel free to add to and ask your own questions. Conversation Time!!

[Jason]

I am terrible at remembering character's names. It always surprises me when I do remember. I don't take notes, but I am constantly thinking and analyzing what I'm reading. I mainly reflect afterwards or after a major part of the story.

I wish I was better at quotes and saving quotes, but I never do. I love books where a character incorporates quotes.

[Joy D]

I do not take notes, generally, but I do highlight passages if I'm reading an e-book. I will occasionally jot something down (usually in my laptop software) if it is something I want to make sure to include in my review.

I tend to recall character names, at least their first name or what they are called by other characters, especially in books I really enjoy.

[Robin P]

I am bad at remembering names as well. When the book is written in first person, often the name doesn't even get mentioned much. And embarrassingly, I am really bad at names that aren't typical American ones, for instance, Korean, African, etc., which doesn't match my supposed respect for diversity. And don't get me started on fantasy names! It's also a problem if I listen to an audiobook and then try to write the character's name in a review without ever seeing how it is spelled.

I hate that kindle books now come with passages that the most people have highlighted already underlined for you. In theory, you can turn this feature off but it keeps coming back. That's like getting a book from the library with someone else's markings in it.

I NEVER take notes, I'm too impatient. In nonfiction books that I read for my talks, I use sticky tabs to mark places I want to use. Sometimes there is a tab on almost every page! Then I go back through and take out those that are repetitive, not as central to my focus, etc. And I almost never stop to look up words or historical or geographical information, though I might do that later.

[Book Concierge]

I do not typically take notes while reading, but will occasionally jot down a particular phrase / quote or, like Robin, use sticky notes to mark the page, so I can go back later.

I'm pretty good at remembering character names, but if I let too much time pass before I write the review (something I have - sadly - been doing lately) I may have to go check the book to refresh my memory. And I recall one cozy mystery I read ages ago where the author used Robbie and Roddy as names for two brothers. Drove me crazy, as I kept getting them mixed up. Of course, I eventually realized this was intentional on the author's part. Still drove me crazy. (And before you ask .. I do NOT remember the name of the book and it was long before I was on Goodreads or Shelfari, so I doubt it's recorded here.)

[Karin]

What am I reading? Fiction? I almost never take notes, and I might not even reflect on it if it's light reading for fun (this doesn't mean I don't remember it or think about it a bit.) Why spoil the mood of a novel by stopping to write?

Nonfiction? If I take notes, it's usually during. Or, like Robin, I might use sticky notes or if none are handy, tear off bits of paper if I have some nearby that aren't important. Or I might stick paper in there and when I need more, tear some off. I'm also in too much of a hurry to write most of the time.

If I own the book, I might write notes in the book or mark things up. As for reflection, once again am I reading it for fun, to learn and/or to study? Some nonfiction is funny and I'm reading it just for the humour. Some books I do take my time with, particularly scholarly tomes.

[Jgrace]

I highlight my ebooks. It's one of the features I like best on my kindle. I'll look at those highlights when I write a review. I write reviews for my own satisfaction. Between highlighted passages and reviews, I have a backup for my failing memory. It isn't just about remembering details of a specific book. I want to remember how I responded to the book. I reread books frequently. I like to track how my understanding and response changes. ( It's all very nerdy. But I'm happy with my nerdiness. )

I'd like to know how to turn off the previously highlighted passages of my ebooks. Although I do sometimes find it interesting.

I don't like to mark up my DTBs and I can't mark up a library book so I'll use post it notes and bookmarks until I can write down the quotes or my thoughts. I had dozens of little post-its stuck in This Is How You Lose the Time War when I was reading it.

Lately, I tried to have an ebook or a paper text when I listen to a book (which I do constantly. It's an addiction) I like to switch back and forth, and I also need to see the names of characters so I can spell them correctly.

[Joanne]

I use sticky notes, and I try to remember that I used them to help with writing a review. But, 8 times out of 10, I usually forget....

[Theresa]

To turn off showing other people's highlights, click on the font layout theme tab. Click on more and go down the list until you see Popular Highlights. Make sure this button is off.

That is all you need to do. I do believe it stays off but sometime updates turn it back on. Since I'm always adjusting background color and such, if it's popped back on, easy fix.

There might be a way to do it from the settings on your kindle, but I was in the kindle app on my phone.

[Theresa]

For me, it depends on many things. Obviously professionally I'm always taking notes, highlighting, using sticky tabs, even paperclips. Nothing is color coordinated in any way because I can remember what code I set up!

However, for pleasure reading ... I use sticky tabs in print books and I adore the highlighting and notation features in ebooks - use highlight all the time and the note feature occasionally. I will jot a thought in the private comments section on the review page for the book if there's a turn of phrase or thought I want to be sure I keep track for review purposes. That is rare though.

I don't remember names or titles particularly well, though I do remember plot and setting details generally -- well not so with very light escapist reads - cozies/romances. But I have excellent recognition when I see things in print, so even if it's been a few years or even decades, I'll recognize a setting or key plot elements.

For work, I have to remember, but for pleasure reading, I don't and so I just don't. '

There are exceptions on the notetaking ... Books like Proust or even Dickens, or for some buddy reads and my Feminerdy Book Club, I have various small notebooks I jot things down in - often just referencing a page number and a quick note to job memory.

Some books really trigger my desire to track thoughts, connections, ideas and dives into rabbit holes. A few years ago, I started using my PBT Members Tracking for that -- books like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Rebecca, and even Death on the Nile. I park thoughts, web links, even images downloaded there.

The answer is that I do all of that but not on every book I read, not by a long shot.

[Booknblues]

I don't take notes but I do highlight on kindle where I do most of my reading. I review my notes before writing a review and occasionally use them in a review. Using the kindle and highlighting, I often look up information, maps and images that I am curious about.

If it is a library book, I do not take notes or highlights. If it is my book, I might stick a marker of some kind it and make light pencil marks by something I feel is significant.

Despite being able to remember 30 children's names in a day from my years as substituting and knowing 100 children's names and those of their parents and approximate birthdays of the children, I frequently do not remember the characters names. I had trained myself to remember names in real life but often found that in daily living, (rather than professionally) I often forgot people's names as soon as I met them. It is a matter of being mindful.

[NancyJ]

Throughout my life, I often used post-its or sometimes handwritten notes in nonfiction books I owned. It was essential when prepping to teach a class or seminar, and it was a good habit. I rarely highlighted novels though, even the ones I owned. (Until kindles). It would have been a dangerous habit. I might mistakenly write in a library book.

I really like the highlighting feature on kindle books, and I wish I used it more often. It really enhanced my enjoyment of several literary books with gorgeous writing. It’s great if I need to remember factual formation, which isn’t as important as it used to be. The software has gone through many changes, and it doesn’t work well on older library kindles. (I use the word kindle to describe an ebook, not the reader.) I’ve had some glitches trying to read my notes later on Goodreads,

I mostly listen to audios now and at this point I don’t even try to remember names. I used to be a visual learner, and seeing a name spelled out always reinforced it. Sometimes I don’t even remember the book’s title until I’ve typed it, discussed it, or seen it on lists.

I sometimes write notes in the notes section of my iPad, but it’s haphazard.

[Algernon (Darth Anyan)]

I didn't use to take notes, but even before the internet days I had some notebook somewhere where I wrote down my favorite quotes and poetry, even a sort of journal where I noted music, films and books and trips I took - one for each year.
In later years, I noticed my memory is starting to let me down, and I struggle to remember what books I've read even recently, like a year or two back. That's when I decided to join Goodreads, to replace my paper journals of old with a well organized timeline.

Pretty soon, I discovered that when you read about 150 books a year, not only character names but even plots start to mix and mesh and look alike. So I started to write down a couple of paragraphs to help me remember what the book is about. With a lot of positive feedback from friends, I became more ambitious and wrote in more detail about the experience and I decided to start bookmarking and highlighting quotes to help me organize my thoughts. So, in the end, I use quotes a lot more than when I used to read only paper books. I still don't write directly in the margins of the written page, even with books I own., but with ebooks I feel more free to mark them down

[Jen]

I highlight in non-fiction or make notes in margins where information is contradicted by other sources, or if information is new to me and very interesting (so I can go and research more later).
I never highlight or make notes in fiction, but I do generally have a very good memory (we shall see if that changes as I start the next step of treatment).

[Karin]

Joanne wrote: "I use sticky notes, and I try to remember that I used them to help with writing a review. But, 8 times out of 10, I usually forget...."

I've found sticky notes in some of my reference books that are years old. Sometimes they are books I haven't used in some time but didn't remove them; I can't always remember exactly what they were for if I put them at the top of the page.

[Karin]

Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "I didn't use to take notes, but even before the internet days I had some notebook somewhere where I wrote down my favorite quotes and poetry, even a sort of journal where I noted music, films and b..."

Your notebook reminds me of something my sister told me before there were online book sites. One of her friends had a notebook (well, probably had notebooks) where she recorded every book she read with, and I can't remember what it was, but thoughts or a summary or something.

I personally don't mind forgetting many of my books, but don't usually have a problem with story lines and characters intermeshing, thankfully. I often forget titles. You're relatively new to the group, so this will be new for you. When my eldest was in high school I thought I was reading The Good Earth for the first time, only to realize I'd read it as a teen because there were a couple of scenes that had stayed with me. I read a lot back then and remembered enough book I had thought I remembered everything I'd read, but it wasn't so.

[Algernon (Darth Anyan)]

Yes, I've realized myself a couple of times that I have started a book I already read, but this happens rarely. I did keep my notebooks from the early 1980s'and I plan one day to read through them and see how many of the plots of books and movies there I remember easily

[Robin P]

There was an essayist once that joked that he wanted to carry in his wallet a card that said, "if I am ever found with amnesia, have me read these books" - that is he wanted to read them again "for the first time". But now I find that if it has been long enough, it's almost like the first time. I have been surprised by how much I have forgotten even about books I loved - and it's great! Plus I am at a different age so that characters and events strike me differently.

[Karin]

Robin P wrote: "There was an essayist once that joked that he wanted to carry in his wallet a card that said, "if I am ever found with amnesia, have me read these books" - that is he wanted to read them again "for..."

What a great comedy bit!