About my book notes

2022-01-26

At sive.rs/book I have a collection of my notes from the 320+ books I’ve read since 2007.

This page is just to answer some questions about it.

My notes are not a summary of the book!

When I’m reading and come across a surprising or inspiring idea, I save it.

That’s all my notes are. I’m not summarizing the book. I’m just saving ideas for myself, for later reflection.

If I’m reading a book about a subject I already know well, I’ll have very few notes, because not much surprised me.

I kept these notes private for years, but decided it couldn’t hurt to put them on my site.

Notes don’t replace the book

It makes me sad when people email to say thanks for my notes because it saved them time from reading the book.

My notes are just some tiny tidbits with no context. It’s like reading a punchline without the joke. If you hear an elaborate joke, then the punchline — (“The little piece of rope said, ‘No. I’m a frayed knot!’”) — is all you need to remember the full joke. But if you just hear the punchline, without the joke, it makes no sense. I just save the punchlines to remind myself what I’ve read.

Again: these notes are really just for me but I’m sharing them on my site.

If you look through a book’s notes and like the ideas, please go read the whole book. It gives so much more context and meaning.

“How do you choose the rating?”

My 0-10 rating is not just how much I liked the book. It’s how strongly I would recommend it to almost anyone. So I would give a little lower rating to a book I loved about an obscure subject, like the culture of Switzerland, because I wouldn’t recommend it to most people.

“How do you use these notes?”

This will always be changing.

For the past few years, when I have a few minutes, I’ll just pick some book from the past that might apply to a situation I’m working on now, and re-read all the notes on it.

I’ve also used them to research a certain subject, like discipline for example, I’ll go search all notes for any mention of discipline, and re-read the thoughts on that subject.

“How do you use your book notes?”

Save the ideas I find most interesting, and worthy of further thought.
Re-read those notes occasionally.
Reflect on one. I write the idea at the top of a page, then write at least a page of my own thoughts about this idea.

“Why don’t I see (some book)_?”

I do read fiction, but I don’t take notes on it. For fiction, I prefer audiobook.

I also read hundreds of books before 2007, but didn’t start taking notes until I realized I was forgetting what I had read.

And ultimately, I only read things that apply to my life or current interests right now. I say no to all requests, and publishers asking me to do reviews.

“Which one should I read?”

Whichever one seems to apply to your current situation. I find books most useful when they solve a problem I’m having now.

By default I have the list sorted with my top recommendations up top. But really the best one for you is the one that speaks to your current situation.

“Don’t the authors get mad?”

No, but this was my biggest surprise!

The main reason I didn’t post these for years is because I assumed it was against copyright law. But I quietly tried it, without announcing it.

Then as the site got more popular, I was scared I’d get in trouble, but instead I got emails of thanks from the authors of those books. Maybe especially since I really am trying to get people to go buy the books whose notes they like.

“Exactly how do you take these notes?”

When reading a paper book, I just underline or circle the bits I find surprising or useful. Then when I’m done reading the book, I type those bits into a text file.

On Kindle, I just highlight the bits I find surprising or useful. Then when I’m done reading the book, I connect the Kindle by USB, copy the «/documents/My Clippings.txt» file, and edit from there.

Either way, I tend to edit a lot, and re-shape the sentences into something that works for me.

“Hey you might like this other book summary site!”

No. I don’t want to read summaries of books. I like reading the whole book!

I aim to read even harder books, like “How to Read a Book” describes well.

“Why are there not more women authors?”

It’s a good question, and it bothers me too.

I’m kind of a feminist. Most of my friends are women. Most of my favorite musicians are women. When hiring, I try to hire only women. But yet the authors of the books I read are mostly men. Why?

It seems the publishing industry is biased that way. A female author sent her manuscrupt to twenty publishers, and all twenty rejected it. She sent it again to all twenty publishers using a male pen name, and half of them accepted it. I suspect that many men will only read books by men, whereas women will read books by men and women. So publishers are just meeting the market, expecting male authors to sell better, which then feeds the problem.

When I seek a book to solve a current problem or curiosity, I look for a book that seems to be the most highly recommended by the most people, or people I already admire. So whether it’s their bias or the publishing industry, these books are too-often by men.

But please also read my short article, “The mirror: It’s about you, not them.”, because ultimately I don’t care who the author is. When I read a book, it’s about me, not them.