Keeping a Reader's Notebook

Last Monday, I suggested a few simple ways you could sq

ueeze a few extra books into your life. This week, I'd like to add another suggestion to help you get more from your reading life.

Reading Notebooks

You can call them many different things: reading notebooks, reading journals, book logs, commonplace books, etc. You can keep them in a variety of different ways, but they are infinitely useful.

I first learned about commonplace books (which I've discussed on this blog before) in Susan Wise Bauer's book, The Well-Educated Mind. Bauer shows readers how to educate themselves using a commonplace book and a stack of quality literature. She provides the reading list of "great books", along with a information about each book and genre. She encourages readers to keep commonplace books to being understand and remember what they are reading. She describes commonplace books as educational tools used by readers and scholars in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to Bauer, a commonplace book was, "a looseleaf or bound blank book in which readers copied down quotes or snippets that they wanted to remember." She compares it to a hand-copied version of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. However, some readers added their own thoughts in their books, beyond simply copying passages from published works. Bauer says a modern reading journal should be "the place where the reader takes external information and records it (through the use of quotes as in a commonplace book); appropriates it through a summary, written in the reader's own words; and then evaluates it through reflection and personal thoughts."

I was immediately smitten with the idea of a commonplace book, and tried to implement it almost immediately. However, it wasn't until I read Michael Gelb's How To Think Like Leonardo DaVinci that I really got the hang of it. In it, he discussed Davinci's famous notebooks and what they contained. He included drawings, plans, brainstorming, quotations, vocabulary words, questions, and lists. Gelb encourages readers to keep notebooks and to write down anything and everything. He especially promotes them as useful for capturing ideas and questions. Gelb's book sort of gave me permission to make my notebook a hodgepodge of sorts. I felt like my commonplace book had to be purely literary, but Gelb helped me understand that I can include all sorts of information, not just that which came from books.

So what does my notebook look like? I purchases a medium-sized, hard-back, spiral sketchbook from Michael's with blank pages on thick paper. I didn't want lines because I wanted to be able to change directions on the page or write in different sizes. I try to always use the same pen (because I am crazy like that), and then have a color-coded highlighting system for emphasizing certain types of notes later. I decorated the cover with maps, scrapbook paper and magazine clippings. I recommend the hard-back and the spiral because it makes it easy to write in. I can fold the pages back and use the hard cover to write on with the need for a separate hard surface.

What do I put in it, you ask? Well, I started with some brainstorming lists, then took notes on a few books I was reading. I include words and definitions of vocabulary I came across in my reading that I didn't know. I do copy some passages and quotations from books that I find particularly inspiring or thought-provoking. I tend to write in my notebook for my non-fiction reads, more than for novels. Bauer's book is primarily about fiction, and she encourages recording characters, themes, and other aspects of the literature that we read. I haven't tried it yet, but I see how it could be useful, especially if I was reading a particularly difficult text. It's also a useful place to keep track of books I want to read and where I learned about them. Writing things down about what I read is very helpful in understanding and remembering the books that I read.

Do you keep a reading journal or ideas notebook? Is it something you would consider.

Tips For a Better Reading Life: Read More Books

First of all, apologies (yet again) for my extended silence. I tend to blog in bursts, but I am working on a system that will keeping me blogging consistently and often. Here's to another try. Thanks to those who are still around.

In an effort to transform and refocus my blog, I am going to start gathering and sharing resources and tips for improving your reading life. I hope to learn many things as I share them.

Today, tips for getting more books into our lives. This will be an ongoing topic as I am sure there are many different approaches to this, but here are a few to get us started. When I set my reading goal of 50 books for 2010, I wasn't sure how (or even if) I would accomplish it, and I had no plan for significantly changing my reading habits. But I have learned somethings along the way that have helped me get close to my goal (6 books to go in 2 months!).

1. Watch less TV.

This one is obvious (as is its close cousin-spend less time online), but truly effective. I often have a hard time turning it off, so I try to get in the habit of just not turning it on. I have spent many evenings this year with no TV and little to no internet. I've read a couple of shorter books in a single evening this way. This principle can be applied to several different things (movies, video games-any time consuming distraction) that eat up time with little reward. Think hard about what activities hold your attention and see if reading can replace any of them.

2. Read more than one book at a time. Always have one of those books with you.

The first part of this is controversial. Some dedicated readers will say that it's distracting to read multiple books and that it will slow you down, but I disagree. One thing that does help me from getting confused is to read books of different genres simultaneous instead of three Jane Austen novels. The best way to use this strategy is to keep certain books in specific places. Say you are reading one novel, one memoir, and one detailed non-fiction book. You might keep the novel in your car, purse, or work bag for on-the-go reading. Then you might keep the memoir on your nightstand for before bed reading. Finally the non-fiction book might stay in your office, or in the family room for longer periods of sustained reading. This method works because you always have a book ready to read, and you don't have to worry about retrieving your book from the nightstand before you leave for work or to run errands. Which brings me to the second part of this tip. Always have a book with you. Stuck waiting at the DMV? Read your book. Waiting to pick someone up at the airport. Read your book. Waiting just about anywhere is made more pleasant by reading a book.

3. Audio books.

I wrote about them a few months ago, but let me reiterate. Audiobooks help to you to read books in times and places where you previously couldn't. The car is my primary audiobook venue. I still listen to podcasts, CDs, and the radio sometimes, but once every few months I listen to an audiobook. My commute is only 15 minutes, but that's 30 minutes a day, plus errands, and the occasional traffic jam. I typically finish books in about 2 weeks. It makes me way more relaxed about traffic or getting lost (as long as I'm not running late!). And I'd probably have nearly 9 or 10 fewer books on my yearly tally if it weren't for audiobooks. I get mine from the library and occasionally from iTunes. I've never tried audible.com, but I hear excellent things.

That's probably more than enough for today. I'll share some more next week. What are your tips for reading more? Where do you find time to read in unexpected places? Do you read more than one book at a time? What have you given up to squeeze in more books? Do you listen as well? Do tell. I'm dying to learn some more tips!