Hi Ashwin, > I have terrible memory, so how best to take notes and be able to search and > find them later is probably something I worry about every single day. > > Your current query is about: books and long-form online articles. I am > guessing you mean non-fiction works.
Most of the time it is non-fiction indeed. But I am also trying to capture some rather eloquent passages in fiction. > - *Non-fiction books* > - *Physical*: I use highlighter/pen/pencil to underline and take > notes on the pages. Decades ago, I used to consider writing in a book a > sacrilege. Now I am the polar opposite :-) > - *Ebook*: I avoid epub/ebook formats and get the PDF version. If > there is no PDF, I export ebook to PDF. The PDF format supports > annotations. You can annotate (highlight, underline, text, draw, > jot) on a > PDF using PDF programs on desktop (Windows/Linux) and tablets (Android). > And these annotated PDFs are viewable in standard PDF viewers on _all_ > platforms. I love this versatility of the PDF format. This is rather interesting workflow. I have not seen a lot of people convert from epub and other formats to PDF for reading. Is this in influenced by your academic reading workflow by any chance, as a way to unify both the process for all forms of reading? > - For both types of books, if I like the book, I usually write an > *online > post/review* <https://codeyarns.github.io/personal/> with a summary. > So this is the place I first head to. Wow, that is one disciplined record keeping! I am in awe. > - *Long-form online articles* > - After reading the article, if I like it, I keep a Markdown file > where I take notes (link to article and bullet list of my summary). This > used to be a ASCIIDoc file, but now that Markdown is supported > everywhere, > I use that. Recently I switched to a Git repo hosted on Github for these > Markdown files. Github has online Markdown viewer and editor, so I can > search, read and edit all in the browser itself! Thanks for sharing the process. Markdown is indeed rather useful in such context and makes search very easy. Regards, Srijith > > On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 8:36 AM Srijith Nair <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > I would like to pick your brains on how you organise and retrieve > > information that you read in books (physical or ebook) and long-form > > articles online. > > > > Over the years I have been getting increasingly frustrated at not being > > efficient in deriving meaningful value from what I have read and curated > > via notes and highlights from these readings. I wanted to get better at > > retaining what I read and also in being able to connect the dots and > > identifying overlapping and intersecting themes and topics across the > > various books and articles I have read. I also have the recurring problem > > of not being able to remember/find that quote or that impressive eloquent > > passage in a book or article that I read a few weeks or months ago. > > > > Attempts at using Evernote, Notion and other collect-everything tools have > > solved parts of the problem but it does get tedious and, because it is not > > a tool built-for-purpose, it involves a fair bit of personalisation. > > Services like readwise.io attack a slightly different problem from a > > different angle (helping learn by repetition etc). > > > > I was wondering what you have found useful in solving similar problems on > > your end. > > > > As I love to hack code, I have been working on a solution for the last few > > weeks but it is far from perfect or complete. Before I go further down this > > rabbit hole, I thought it makes sense to try and understand if there are > > existing solutions out there that works for you? > > > > Regards, > > Srijith > > > > >
