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Deliberate Reading Notes

a book you've argued with

Mortimer Adler said you don't own a book because you paid for it, but when you've made it part of yourself, and the way to do that is to write in it. A few kinds of marks, used sparingly, then an index of them inside the back cover, so the book you finish is a book you can find your way back into.

  1. What is the book about, as a whole?
  2. What is being said in detail, and how?
  3. Is it true, in whole or in part?
  4. What of it?
  • Moderate to start
  • High impact
  • Learn it in 2-4 weeks
  • One book, start to finish
two pages of a marked book, and its back cover
An open book marked in pencil, with an index of the marks inside its back cover Above the book, a sticky note from a twenty-minute first look says it is an argument for walkable streets. On page 36, the line “A street is a room you share with strangers” is underlined and starred, a passage has a bar beside it, and the margin numbers three steps of an argument. On page 37 the phrase “desire lines” is circled with “cf. 12” beside it, a question mark and “only cars?” argue in the margin, and after the end of chapter 3 three lines are written from memory. Inside the back cover, an index lists the marks by kind and page: key lines, 36, 52, 88; the argument, 36–37, 61; talk-back, 37, 94; connects, 37 → 12. Beside it, the four questions are answered: What's it about? streets as shared rooms. How does it argue? traffic, then three fixes. Is it true? mostly; thin on cost, 94. What of it? count crossings on my walk. A street is a room you share with strangers. walkers follow desire lines — end of chapter 3 — 36 37 first look · 20 min an argument for walkable streets 1 2 3 cf. 12 ? only cars? from memory 1 streets are shared rooms 2 wide lanes, fast cars 3 fix: narrow, trees, doors inside back cover ★ key lines 36, 52, 88 1 2 3 the argument 36–37, 61 ? talk-back 37, 94 → connects 37 → 12 stars: only for the dozen passages that matter most when you finish 1 What's it about? streets as shared rooms 2 How does it argue? traffic, then three fixes 3 Is it true? mostly; thin on cost, 94 4 What of it? count crossings on my walk

The index is the part most readers skip, and the part that pays later. Six months on, “where was that line about streets as rooms?” takes ten seconds, not an afternoon.

With the next book you mean to keep

Try it now.

A pencil and a book you own. Adler and Charles Van Doren set out the marks in How to Read a Book; the chapter-end recall is what the memory research adds.

  1. Take a twenty-minute first look

    Before reading a page in order: the title, the contents, the preface, the index, the opening and closing of a couple of chapters. Then write one line: what kind of book is this, and what is it about?

  2. Read with a pencil, and few kinds of marks

    Underline key lines. A bar in the margin for a passage too long to underline. Numbers for the steps of an argument. A circle round a key word, with the page it connects to. A star only for the dozen passages that matter most in the whole book.

  3. Talk back in the margin

    A question mark where you doubt it, and a few words why. Write “no” where you disagree, and “yes, but” where it's half right. You can't ask whether a book is true if you never argued with it.

  4. Close the book at each chapter's end

    Before you turn the page, close it and write three lines from memory in the space after the chapter. Then open it and check. What you missed is what to look at again.

    Two minutes. It's the step the research says matters most.

  5. Index your marks inside the back cover

    As you go, or after each chapter: the page, the kind of mark and two or three words. Stars, the argument, questions and links each get their own line.

  6. Answer the four questions

    When you finish, write a line for each on the endpaper. The index does most of the work: the stars say what it's about, the numbers how it argues, the question marks whether it's true.

Reading on a screen? The same marks work as highlights in colours you fix in advance, one per kind, with a note on each. Export them at each chapter's end, and keep the index and the four answers in one note you can search.

Try it on yours

Build the back-cover index.

Add the marks from the book you're reading now, one at a time: the page, the kind, and a few words. The index sorts itself by kind and page, the way you'd write it inside the cover.

The kind of mark

When you finish the book

Inside back cover

Index

    Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. Copy the index into the book before you leave the page.

    Reading it again, or recalling it

    The rereaders were winning, for five minutes.

    In 2006 Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke gave 180 students a short passage of about 260 words, on the sun or on sea otters, and four periods to learn it. Some spent all four reading it. Some read it three times, then wrote down everything they could remember. Some read it once, then spent the other three periods recalling it, without looking back.

    Five minutes later, the rereaders remembered the most. A week later the order had flipped: the students who read it once and recalled it three times kept half as much again as those who only reread.

    The rereaders had been through the passage about fourteen times, and they were the most sure they'd remember it. That's the trap a well-marked book sets: flicking back through the underlines feels like studying. Closing the book at each chapter's end, and writing what you can, is the part that keeps it.

    Recall five minutes and one week after learning: read it four times, 83% then 40%; read three, recalled once, 78% then 56%; read once, recalled 3 times, 71% then 61%. 5 minutes later a week later 83% 40% read it four times 78% 56% read three, recalled once 71% 61% read once, recalled 3 times
    The groupTimes readSure they'd remember (1–7)
    read it four times14.24.8
    read three, recalled once10.34.2
    read once, recalled 3 times3.44.0
    Share of the passage's ideas recalled, Roediger & Karpicke, Psychological Science, 2006, Experiment 2. Times read is through the whole passage, across all study periods.

    The idea

    Why it works.

    A pencil keeps you awake. You can't mark a book without deciding, every page, what matters and what you think of it, and deciding is what reading is. The kinds of marks matter less than having few of them, so that each one means something when you come back.

    The index is what makes the marks last. Without it, a marked book is only searchable by flicking. With it, the book's argument, your doubts and its best lines are a page away, and the four questions at the end turn them into what you actually took from it.

    Keep it light

    Habits that help.

    • Mark on the second pass of a paragraph. Underlining as you read the first time marks everything.
    • Keep stars rare. If every chapter has five, they've stopped telling you anything.
    • Write words, not just lines. A bar in the margin with no note is a mystery in six months.
    • Pencil, not highlighter. You can write with it, and it doesn't bleed through to the next page.

    Go deeper

    Keep going.

    Practise this in HourLife.

    In Learning: Captures. Track the books, courses, podcasts, videos and articles you are working through, log where you are, and keep what you take from them.

    Download on the App Store Download on the Mac App Store How Learning works in HourLife