…and how to do that correctly.
If you have interesting quotes, ideas and spectacular data written out from books regularly, you’ll have your own Wisdom Book you can ask for help in any life issue you meet.
Humans have been collecting wise quotes since ancient times. Notes of such famous persons like Marcus Aurelius, Petrarch, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, became a public treasure long ago. Bill Gates is one of those people who live in our times, and is worth to be mentioned in this article. He collects notes about books he liked in his blog - The Gates Notes.
How can you do that right? Here are some useful recommendations you can try out on your own.
Advice List on Noting Book Quotes
- Read about everything and stay open for new things: this is the way how you find the most interesting things.
- While reading, mark everything that attracts your attention: partial phrases, complete paragraphs, interesting stories. Mark parts of a text you would like to come back to later, with a pencil or a text marker.
- Put notes on page margins while reading. This is kind of a conversation with the author and the book. Don’t be afraid to criticize, doubt and admire, write down anything that comes to your mind.
- Write wise thoughts, but not facts. The point of these notes is not to collect the info, but to gather tips that you can use for getting a support or inspiration in different life situations.
- Once the book is read, put it away for nearly a week. Let the info to stay in your head for a bit. Then, look through all the places you marked and margin notes put, and write them into your notebook.
- Make paper notes. Of course, it is easier to save favorite quotes on a computer hard drive. But “easier” does not mean “better”. When you use energy to write words on a paper, you are more likely to get use from them. Long text parts can be printed.
- If you don’t like the idea with a notebook, try using small cards. Write quotes on them, and later sort those cards by categories.
- At least when you start, don’t worry about organization of your notes. Write out what is important for you, topics will come on their own.
- Don’t gather lots of books. Try writing out the text you liked in a week after reading the book. If there will be lots of books with marks, quote writing will become an unpleasant obligation you’ll wish to refuse.
- Write not only book quotes, but those from talks, films, your own thoughts etc.
- Use what is wrote. Even if you are neither a journalist, nor a writer, you write messages, letters, greetings, give someone a piece of advice, communicate with people. Those are excellent possibilities to use wise thoughts you’ve found while reading good books.
- Start right now. Do not postpone that saying you have got no time.