question for those who take notes while reading


what do you take notes on?

when do you read the notes?

what do you gain from the notes?


is this the same as those who underline passages in novels, i've never understood that either

I take different types of notes. I do some for memory retention so I can recall things better, I will probably never look at them ever again.



I enjoy really long fantasy series, and often take breaks in between books, so I will also take some quick notes on what happened and which character is which so I can go over them when I go back to the series.

I have a loose outline for a story I'd like to write at some point. Just in case I ever actually do it, if I run across a passage that is similar, good inspiration, etc. I will connect it to that area in my loose outline to come back to later.



For non fiction I'll organize notes on different things and with obsidian link them to the books they're in. For example I've read a bit on Ukraine now so I have a note for Maidan Revolution and then links to the various passages in the books on the event.

I'll highlight stuff I want to look up later. I don't want to break the momentum of what I'm reading, so I'll just double-tap it and keep moving. It could be an interesting word or usage, an interesting person or location, a translation I question--anything.

Sometimes when I want to figure out how a book was written I will draw a diagram of the book, so I'll note everything that I want on the diagram. For example, I did this for Catch-22. It turned out that its plot spiraled inward. Heller had a good vision of the action. If he said the Hospital was a furlong from Major Major Major's tent, it was always a furlong away. This isn't true of all writers.

My preference would be to take notes on 3x5 cards and keep them together with binder clips. I never have the luxury of doing that anymore. When I read on a Kindle I use the native app. When I read B&M, I use a pocket notebook.

I have a curious nature and want to understand things. Hence notes.

Recs? Only complete ones, lol. FU Robert Jordan and double FU to GRR Martin.

Want some big ones (both in length and critical acclaim):
Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
The Black Company - Glen Cook
Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb
Mistborn Saga and The Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson

One of my favourites is the Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin, which she won three consecutive Hugo Award for Best Novel for.

I haven't finished all of these, but here are some I like and would recommend to most:

Mists of Avalon
Book of the New Sun
First Law
Broken Earth Trilogy
Earthsea


Ones I would recommend with some caveats:

Pretty much anything Robin Hobb. I've read Soldier's Son and Farseer trilogies. I enjoyed them, but they aren't for everyone.

Malazan book of the Fallen had its up and downs. Probably the most epic and amazing worldbuilding, but the cast of characters is huge and it's got some pretty low low points. It also starts off incredibly difficult.

Thanks guys. I've read some of those, but definitely some I can add to my list. I just started Cycle of Arawn/Cycle of Galand.

I'm not sure how far I made it into the Malazan books, but no way I'm getting back into that. I don't know if it's just me and my decaying memory or not, but I really don't want to have to write an outline as I read just to keep track.

When I was in my teens and twenties, I re-read David Eddings' Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli series many times. They're like fantasy comfort food - some fun characters and stories but many flaws. The world building is superficial, and Eddings recycles plots and characters. The writing gets worse as David's wife Leigh starts contributing more.

I only became aware of the couple's horrific abuse of their adopted children after reading the books. I don't usually conflate art with the artist, but what they did was so bad that it put me completely off ever touching their books again.

I haven't been reading much with a toddler in the house now, but with the nice weather starting to come around I've found some time.

Read "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern and thought it was pretty terrible. Quick read was the saving grace but feel like a juvenile, predictable young adult novel. I wasn't moved by it at all.

I've followed that with finally giving "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss a go, which I've seen mentioned in here among the elite books of that genre. About 2/3 of the way through and really enjoying it, despite not a whole lot really "happening". Usually the build up of books bore me but this one is different and it's probably down to the way Rothfuss writes and brings us in to Kvothe's life and world. I've been binge reading and can't wait to finish.

I recommend Night Circus to everyone. I think it's some of the best writing in the fantasy genre and it's a great story for pretty much anybody.

I've read the Name of the Wind twice now, unfortunately it falls in the "not completed" category. It must be over 10 years since the second book came out.

Yes, this was my experience as well. Wanted to like it after hearing good things in this thread, but it just wasn't for me.

Now I did think the publisher did a great job with the physical book; my copy was very attractive indeed.

Agreed on the great story part, def enjoyed it.

The Magician trilogy/4ogy by Raymond Feist is pretty goaty [and famous]. I think he's up to 17 books in that world now and some of the others are pretty good but nothing stands up to the original trilogy [they later split Magician book 1 into two books].

I'm currently re-reading it for the nth time but first in two decades. Still holds up. Everything is resolved so you don't need to commit to the later series with different characters.

Tad Williams borrowed a lot from the beginning of this series. To his credit the main characters end up entirely different.

Well this isn't the news I wanted to hear. The two fantasy series I really loved/am loving (Locke Lamora and Kvothe) are both unfinished for years and likely never will be, while the one fantasy series I committed the full trilogy knowing there's a million more books (the Abercrombie series) ended up being really boring, drawn out and terrible. Maybe it's for the best Locke Lamora and Kvothe are never finished. I'll only have fond memories of them, despite Locke Lamora book 2 being a drag.

Reading Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King. It tells the story of Thurgood Marshall's defense of the Groveland Boys and so much more. The writing is superb.

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I enjoyed Locke 2 more than Locke 3. But I haven't read them in a while.

annie jacobsen (fantastic investigative journalist and non fiction writer) has just published a book on nuclear war and it's fantasticly well researched as are all her books and just batshit insane.

highly recommend it as well as her entire library.

She was very interesting on Lex Fridman's podcast a couple of months ago.

rbk I'm replying to your post in the tv thread here:


Game of Thrones is pretty light on the fantasy elements, especially at the start. It's not at all surprising that you didn't like Name of the Wind which is very much in the "High Fantasy" genre. “Between Two Fires” by Christopher Buehlman might be something you enjoy more. It is dark fantasy set in Europe. The audiobook is good too.



Before we talked about The Hedge Knight I would have just recommended historical fiction to you instead of fantasy. I think you really enjoyed The Sunne in Splendour for example.

She has some books on Area 51. Is she a UFO nut?

ya I did enjoy that quite a bit and you're right I'm probably much better off just going with historical fiction if you have any other recs pls share.

but ya I absolutely adore the dunk and egg stories esp 1&3 I have read and listened to the audiobooks a million times and will probably listen a million more times man the narrator is so fantastic (pretty sure it's the actor who played denarys brother who got the golden crown).

I did not get that vibe from her.
she seems incredibly smart and grounded and very meticulous in her research and seems to get interviews with ppl that are legit direct sources involved at a high level in whatever she's researching.

my 2 fav of her books are surprise vanish kill which is just like reading a movie in the best possible way you get sucked in and can't put it down and operation paperclip about the US top secret program to sneak nazi scientists into america to work for us.

If you want to try out some books with some fantasy elements you might enjoy the following:

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
Once and Future King
The Buried Giant (I loved this, but not for everyone and is quite slow)
Mists of Avalon







For historical fiction:


The Count of Monte Cristo
Pillars of the Earth

Anything by Penman:
"Here be Dragons" starts the Welsh Princes series
"When Christ and his Saints Slept" starts the Plantagenet series.

I enjoyed "The Last Kingdom", but don't think it's quite as good as the rest.





These have less action:

Wolf Hall
Name of the Rose

the count of monte cristo is my all time favorite book.

the once and future king sounds so familiar to me, but adding all these to my audible library ty so much im pretty sure I've never not enjoyed one of your recs

edit: when I was a kid I was really into irish and scottish and welsh legends I remember loving the king of Ireland's son and Percival along with bunch of king arthur stories but haven't read anything in that genre in many many years.

oh I recently bought the last duel and the winter king on audible but haven't started them yet.

Been reading voraciously this year. Pretty much knocking out 3 crap novels a week. I have had years of "monthly free reads" stacking up on my kindle and I want to clear them all so I can start reading stuff I really want to read. That said these novels (mostly thrillers and law/police procedurials) aren't all that bad and some of them are pretty good. But in another couple of weeks I should be back to base zero so I can start digging into some of the non-fiction stuff that exictes me more than this stuff as well as some of the fiction authors I have discovered.that I want to read more of.

Once and Future King is a great version of Arthur.

Mists of Avalon is a story told only from the pov of women in the series, it's incredible but different because of the povs.


I enjoyed Edward Rutherford's Princes of Ireland as well, which goes over a lot of interesting Irish history. Sharon K Penman's Welsh series is my favorite for historical fiction among Irish/Welsh though.

I'll check out the Last Duel and Winter King, thanks.

I haven't read either last duel or winter king yet so can't say how good they are/aren't but I did enjoy the movie adaptation of the last duel so I have high hopes.

pls let me know what you think whenever you read em.