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Something really helpful with marginal notes is when I find an empty page in the front or end of the book. When I mark something impactful, I go to the empty page, write a short phrase describing it and the page number so I can go back to that exact quote later. It’s soooo useful because there’s an index of quotes that are recorded in the book itself.
I personally love this style since it keeps the text "clean." It's often important to me that my ideas from reading are mainly influenced by the text and not by what I used to think. Keeping my ideas separate yet close has been a game changer! If there's no extra pages (or not enough), I will tape a blank booklet of pages in the back.
It must be a cultural difference that people don't write in their books, because I've been told to underline, circle, highlight, scribble, dogear, do everything I can in my books by teachers and elders my whole life. When my grandpa passed it was fascinating getting all his books and finding almost every page filled with his thoughts, they really are a treasure and I hope my books can be that way for my descendants.
I can't do it. I'll use other paper and make little 15-second videos, but I can't write in my books. I don't even like highlighting my school books, all of which I try to keep.
Maybe it’s growing up in lower income areas where books were shared with multiple people (likely cross different classes be inability to easily replace)? Just. Thought
I mean a lot of people grew up reading in the library and borrowing from the library. So you won’t develop a habit of writing in books, often quite the opposite, you tend to be careful not to damage it.
From a different pan, it has been proven by educational psychologists that marking up the text that you are reading and interacting with your notes that way greatly increases your chances of processing that information into your long-term memory. So, I whole-heartedly agree: mark your books! Fantastic video, Parker.
Hey ParkNotes! I only discovered you recently but thanks to you and your notebook system ive never felt so productive in my life. You genuinely saved my curiosity and goals and one day I will achieve them and it will be thanks to you.
@@ParkerNotes I couldn’t have done it without you. I was always interested in journaling and maintaining written information but I just never knew how to do it systematically, I lost a lot of money and ruined many good books doing so. Now I can start over and actually become the scholar I want to be!
📚 I like this idea of notebooks for different topics. Makes me feel like I’m back in school where I had a different notebook per topic. The main difference is that the topics are not things I am actually interested to learn about.
📚 Thanks for further igniting my strive for knowledge. Recently I’ve been at a loss of what to read and why even read, but your videos have been helping me rediscover the why and my love of wisdom. Thanks brother!
I came across your channel about a month ago and I just want to say a big thank you for the ideas you’re sharing. Since watching your videos I’ve started a commonplace book and a personal proverbs book. These are in addition to my personal journal and book reading records I have used for several years. Having a more deliberate method for interacting with the nonfiction texts I read has really helped me retain more of that information. It reminds me of how much I enjoyed it when I did my honours degree in Sociology about 12 years ago.
Let's go! That's so cool. Personal proverbs and commonplace books are probably my favorites. I love to see more people benefitting from them! Thanks for sharing 🫡
📚 Thanks to you. After watching your videos I've started maintaining pocket notebooks and commonplace notebooks which are helping me a lot specially pocket notebook. From the past few months I've been writing in my pocket notebook and it is a good substitute for a mobile phone in leisure and it helped me a lot to get some clarity in my thoughts. There a lot more things which I have to learn from you and your channel. Have a good day!
Been watching your videos after recovering from a chronic nerve issue, and I’m very grateful for all this notebook content. Ive always loved learning but have been out of commission for most of my hobbies for a long while and now with steps in better health these videos get me fired up to peruse my academia here in college again! God bless you bro keep up the great content-I’m gonna make my way through the rest of your videos love all this!🙏🏋️
Dune Messiah is my favorite too! It's so epic! The throne room scene, the palace imagery, trippiness as his prescience matures and the events after the stoneburner are all some of my favorite things in the series
We have our older homeschool students, ninth to twelvth grade, write lesson plans and teacher's guides. They really enjoy this and seemingly mature faster than their public school counterparts, nemeses. Our motto is a question: "Is it useful?" Beyond this we cite Abraham Flexner: "Use from useless things." We encourage something from Adler and Hutchins: "The Great Conversation." Think, speak, write. And always listen.
hey parker, I'm from brazil and about a month ago (inspired by you) I started a commonplace book and a catch all notebook. And now i'm all into it and already having a lot of ideas to buy and use more pocket notebooks. Thank you a lot and keep going!
Your video always encourages me to learn philosophy. I am not an English native speaker, but your video is very clear and easy to understand for me. Thanks a lot!
@@ParkerNotes your welcome! By the way, just a quick question, have you any episode on your podcast that kind of deal with the difference between something and the philosophy of that thing like, For example, difference between productivity and the philosophy of productivity
I watch a lot of booktube content, and it definitely inspired me to start a reading journal. There are so many different ways of setting it up (some people are super into tracking all the minute stats of what they read, and others just want a really aesthetic memory page), and I've tried a few different ways over the past few years. I read a pretty high volume of books in every format, and I like writing out reviews for books I really loved or really hated, but I think keeping up with my quote book is the most consistent thing I do. I've got a variety of highlighters, tabs, and sticky notes decorating most of my physical books, though.
explaining something to someone who doesn’t know much on the subject in general but is very critical about what you are saying is the most effective way to really understand it. they ask questions you never thought of and they point out every gap in your concept. ❤ but it’s not easy to find people who also enjoy this process on a regular basis 😂
📚 I've struggled with writing in books for so long...I was always taught not to, and I've always been concerned that underlining or making notes would be more distracting than helpful. But maybe I can adopt some of those symbols you mentioned -- subtle marginalia -- and keep my actual notes somewhere else. Also, ironically, the need to take notes and read slowly often keeps me from reading at all because it feels like a chore to sit down with a book. And yet it's still so easy for me to forget what I read if I just read without taking notes (at least in nonfiction books).
I feel this. You might consider using pencils for your light marginalia. And a lot of times I'll just dog ear the pages while I'm reading fiction and come back later to mark it up or pull quotes so I'm more free to read and so it feels less chore like
Hey, notebook addict here from Spain! I love your channel, it's very interesting and I appreciate that you express yourself in a very natural way. I started with a journal, then added a bullet journal and then a reading journal, and now I'm starting something that could be what you call a commonplace book for other deep reflexions. So I think I'm in the right place :)
New subscriber and fellow Christian here. I'm finishing up a BA in Biblical Studies and looking forward to my MDiv. Great tips. I wish I had this video back when I started my undergrad. 📚
📚 Thank you for another informative video, good sir! I take notes on my commonplace book whenever I watch your videos to remember and re-read 😊 All the best in your pursuits!
📚 Couple of questions: First, what is the difference between how you use a common place book (especially a “specific” common place book, and how you use a compendium? Second, how often do you find yourself referencing information in your notebooks? Great video, thanks for sharing!!
Great question! A true compendium, in my view, it's just information and it's meant to be comprehensive in scope and systematically presented. A commonplace book is a collection of quotations. So if you were to read Dune for instance and wanted to make a compendium of it, you'd have a character list, maybe some visuals on the relationships between them like a family tree, a lost of the major political powers, a list of the people groups, etc. A commonplace book for Dune will be a book where you collect your favorite quotes from Dune. If you're adding your own thoughts and analysis to the quotations then I'd call it a manuscript commonplace book. If you add quotations to your compendium then it'd be a blended compendium/commonplace book. Or atleast that's how I see it right now 😅
Hi Parker. I bump into your channel some weeks ago and I like how you tackle your knowledge management system. While I’m back to hand-writing notes (for on-the-spot registering), I do gravitate to Obsidian to keep my own “compendium notebooks”. Maybe you’ve heard/seen this in other comments & videos and this hybrid analog/digital system has helped me to organize my learning & knowledge management. Keep it up! (love your philosophical podcasts too!) 📚
📚 this was a great video. I’m thankful for your ideas on how to retain the material I read. Starting to push myself to markup books. You are inspiring. The legend was gold!!! 😊❤🙏
Hey, Parker. Another excellent video. Thank you. Oddly enough, I’ve done the notebook thing on and off over the years but have started it again for life. So it’s an interesting coincidence that I came across you and your channel. Personally, the marginalia thing has stuck w me for decades and is the tip I find most useful. Awesome work and very informative! Can’t wait to review more of your content. 😊
📚 I just want to say thank you. Reading log gave me the final push , i needed to read somewhat on a daily basis. I started my own dictionary while watching British TV shows in mid Jan.It's funny watching you mention it because I thought I have watched all of your videos on this channel , must have missed that one.
I love that! I'm very glad to have played a role in your intellectual life! Yeah my whole audience missed that dictionary one and my video on a journal of love. UA-cam hasn't been pushing my stuff in 2024 for some reason
📚 I've been using few of them from a years and its really something that helped me to get myself together. Thanks for these other helpful tips, I'll definitely try them.
I want to analytically read because I tend to talk to myself when I'm reading for fun. It be nice to remember how i felt reading a book. And remember to read more often. Whenever i talk about books or movies, I end up giving a summary.
📚 📚 📚I took my required précis from grad school and started using it with my recreational reading. So I was pleased to hear it was one of your suggestions.
I read House of leaves recently and I annotated the LIFE out of it, I watched videos, other reviews, and now I have to go back and read-read because I’m not done!
Loved all these tips! I like my Kindle for fiction, but if I can't get non-fiction in hardcopy, then I definitely keep more notes in a real notebook. I also write in regular books, but in special editions, rare or antique copies, I keep notes in a notebook. 📚
Stonking video. I love the style and the easy way you pass on the information. I have used a personal dictionary for years and found it filled out very quickly when I read Clark Ashton Smith. Talk about reading a book with a dictionary by your side. I am also a Zelazny fan as well. I write in all my books and my preferred way of keeping notes is Ryan Holliday's way using index cards. I use several colours of cards to denote different things, like new words that go on pink cards.
📚 Thanks to you i started using notebooks. Have midori a6 for everyday tasks, thoughts emotions plans literly everythink. Small moleskine a6 for quotes i would like to recall to become friends with boredom. Will start summary notebook for books i red, some have so much little markers they look like a pride flag. Also want to become master at sales be rly good at it so thinking at doing my own comepdium for sales when i want to include best tips, tactics, articles, lessons, life situations or shit ppl talk ho know way more than me. Teaching my self does feel great !
This video is very helpful. I watched your video on the best method to develop a reading habit and the reading log has helped a lot. Only started 2 weeks ago. Since implementing it, I noticed a shift from opening Instagram or UA-cam on my phone, to opening my Kindle or grabbing a paperback to read. I'm currently reading through 3 books right now, but in the last 2 weeks, I finished 2 books with the reading log. Thank you! I have a couple of questions: - For Kindle books (or eBooks in general), you use a reading compendium, correct? It's especially hard to write notes on a Kindle, even on an iPad. I find it difficult sometimes to track these notes down. - Generally speaking, do you have a notebook for *literally* everything? Or for compendiums, do you keep a notebook based on a topic or genre? - I didn't know that I've been doing "commonplace books" for quotes. I'm a pastor/teacher-preacher at my church, so I tend to collect quotes from books and articles on Obsidian. For commonplace books, are they just quotes or wise sayings of other authors? Do you put your own personal ideas/quotes in your commonplace books? Again, thank you for your insights. God bless! Edit: 📚
@@ParkerNotes Yeah, my wife is adamant I give it another go. I am really into Philosophy, Theology, and Literature but scared about the job prospects. Keep doing what you are doing! Love all the content!
📚😁 A bunch of cool ideas, thanks, Parker! A couple of months ago I started a couple of new notebooks (e.g. general reading log and seperate reading logs for short stories and essays). I've kind of fell behind with them, it has kind of become a chore for me but today I caught up and wrote down what I have been reading lately, and it's a cool, clarifing experience. But I think it's more natural for me to come back to notebooks if I feel like it, otherwise it becomes like a homework for me and I always hated homeworks 😅 Anyway, thank you again for the inspiration, I really like finding out new ways of thinking and filling up notebooks! Best wishes to you and your family!
📚Thank you for introducing me to the world of deep thinking! I have been implementing many of your tips and strategies and they have completely revolutionised the way I approach reading. Your book suggestions and podcasts are both treasures to me, and I sincerely appreciate all your efforts in sharing your wisdom. Keep inspiring!🍀
I would personally really appreciate a video about the best reasons to build a daily reading habit! I have often hesitated in my own life to begin developing a good habit because I feel that I can't articulate exactly why I should do it, or because I feel unable to answer the ultimate question of morality (i.e., what ought I to do/who ought I to be), and thus I am unable to justify a motivation in my own mind and heart. It's like when you can't mentally retrieve a certain fact perfectly, or cannot articulate an idea perfectly, but instead in my action-ing life. I hesitate to do something because I don't feel that my heart is set right in regards to that activity. But what's ironic is that reading would most likely be the best way to resolve that issue!
@@ParkerNotes Thank you. I watched (and liked) that one. Good video-I just meant a video more towards the motivation/philosophy of morality of reading habits. Like: 1. Why do you read the different things you read? (You want to be a sage, you want to be an expert in some ways, but... 2. Why, more specifically, and how do you relate your abstract, idealistic motivation/s for reading to the actual actions of reading?
It's not exactly what we were talking about in this comment thread, but I'm about to watch the video you just dropped on journalling because I have been considering developing that as a habit as well. I'm excited!
Hey @ParkNotes, I've got a question: how do you make a living out of studying? Because I dream to stay a live long learner but don't know how to make a living out of that. Thanks for your help
📚 Thanks for the informative video! I was searching for some tips/methods to help me improve my reading and learning experiences. I was "only" doing the commonplace book method in which I usually wrote down interesting quotes or information with a reference to where I got it from. After finishing the book, I usually took my handwritten notes and wrote them down digitally, but I'm not sure about the effectiveness of rewriting what I already wrote down. Thanks for the input!
This video is nice , summarizes and brings together alot of your other videos . btw , do you have your own discord.. I think the kind of people you attract to your channel would make a great discord community.
📚Love your obsession with notebooks. It is seriously contagious!🤣 I like the idea of a book of précises of papers summarizing the main arguments - I am going to try this, along with a subject specific commonplace book. I am trying to use the reading log in my bullet journal - with limited success so far, but I am going to persevere! Maybe the book of reviews will encourage me with my reading goals? Great video - great for idea generation!
Haha that's awesome, thank you! I feel the same way, philosophers who live up to their role in society instead if hiding away in obscurity. I'd love to be a philosopher who produces stuff that not only for other philosophers lol
I am very much a visual/hands on learner. So smid notes are drawings. My Sabbath book of sermon notes contains little beyond scripture ref... But I can look at the sketch and tell you the sermons main points
📚 I should steal your book review journal idea. It could make my book club thoughts more organized. As far as your marginalia and personal dictionary, I've started using index cards similar to what Scott Scheper talks about with his antinet zettlekasten for the marginalia: write the page number and either the quote or a short summery on the back of an index card and it works both as a notetaking system and bookmark, and for the dictionary in addition to the notebook with new words listed in no real order, index cards in their own box in alphabetical order makes things a little more organized when at home.
@@ParkerNotes So am I, which is why after taking the notes on my index card, I'll go and transfer them to their respective notebooks. I just really don't like the idea of writing in my books and I know I should, but I can't bring myself to do it... it probably doesn't help that I would run the risk of bleeding given the pens I use, but keeping the notes on a notecard gives me the best of both worlds, I think
maybe a good reason to build the habit? i’m speaking to myself here as well. the same applies to my journaling. i want to try and build a weekly review and “summarizing up,” lifting up into a weekly journal what was good for the past seven days, a monthly for the past four weeks, a yearly for the past 12. as with GTD, i am beginning to suspect that review is a super power.
I've been watching some of your videos, but I have this question: How can you have so many pocket notebooks on yourself throughout the day? Do you fit them all in your pocket? Do you carry a bag with you? I want to buy different pocket notebooks to write about different topics in each of them, but I'm not sure how to carry them all..
📚 Great video as always. Question: in your talks about note-taking, I couldn't find anything about zettelkasten. Is it something you've tried and didn't find it useful, or you just prefer commonplace books?
Thanks! So I bought all the key books on Zettelkasten and skimmed but I need to find time for a true deep dive. I could be wrong but from a cursory look, I think topic-specific commonplace books and compendiums are way more beneficial for reviewing, memorizing, and even generating new ideas. I'm totally open to being wrong because I know so many people have used them and love them but I wonder if they've tried using the CPBs and compendiums the way I do before
Lord of Light is such a good book. I think what I'd like to do is better synthesise my notes. I'm about to start my Ridiculous Reading Project, which is a kind of literary canon project starting with the Epic of Gilgamesh based on a long, long list I've pulled together from various sources. It started as a Western Canon exercise but I've tried to broaden it to include other parts of the Globe and I think some of your tips will really help me with that learning/reading process. I do love a notebook too. 📚
What an epic project! I have a video on self learning that may help you with the planning portion of this if you haven't seen it, it could be beneficial
Actually they need 😂. What do you think which way is better? For example, read in english and take notes in your native language or read in english and take notes in english?
Exams might be different. You don't need to remember everything your professor said but just what will be on the exam. Of course you may want to remember everything they said for the sake of your education and not just the exam
I recently watched your video on reading more and now carry a small pocket-sized notebook with me, primarily for a reading log and book notes. I tend to borrow from the public library, so no marginalia for me! 📚 Side-note: The notebook also started serving as a common-place book when I was on a business trip a few weeks ago and saw a quote I liked on a commemorative plaque. Now I have the quote in my pocket and have reflected on it from time to time since then whereas before I'm sure it would have been long forgotten by now. Thanks for your videos!
I'm reminded of a friend who also never wrote in his books, not because they came from a library, but because he had a policy of always giving away the books he read to someone he thought would enjoy it.
Damn, I wish I had the time to reread a book. I don't even have the free time to read things I love multiple times. There's just too much in the world. 📚
📚 great video. a quick question which you may have answered before - what are your thoughts for/against digital note taking? also how do you approach reading textbooks?
I mark up text books. I often read through them like any other book but sometimes I'll skip around to the most pertinent sections. I always try to read the whole book once I've started but that's a personal thing because the old me never finished any books so I make myself finish all of them now
I don't benefit from digital notes. I forget about them. And with analog I can remember which side of the page I wrote on but digital takes that away and I forget. I use my Kindle Scribe for marking up philosophy papers though
thank you! I have been an Evernote user for over 10 years (and tried other apps) but I am leaning towards trying analog methods. I definitely prefer to read a physical book! I have heard marginalia referred to as “tattooing” the book, and I do that too!
📚. I think I heard a guy mention you in his podcast the other day. Brian Suavé. He was needing some knowledge on simulation theory for a debate or something. Weird stuff. Was he talking about you? It's funny when your online mentors collide.
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i love your mustache
Your videos are awesome! Entertaining and educational at the same time! 🙏🙏🙏
Something really helpful with marginal notes is when I find an empty page in the front or end of the book. When I mark something impactful, I go to the empty page, write a short phrase describing it and the page number so I can go back to that exact quote later. It’s soooo useful because there’s an index of quotes that are recorded in the book itself.
I like that!
I personally love this style since it keeps the text "clean." It's often important to me that my ideas from reading are mainly influenced by the text and not by what I used to think. Keeping my ideas separate yet close has been a game changer! If there's no extra pages (or not enough), I will tape a blank booklet of pages in the back.
It must be a cultural difference that people don't write in their books, because I've been told to underline, circle, highlight, scribble, dogear, do everything I can in my books by teachers and elders my whole life. When my grandpa passed it was fascinating getting all his books and finding almost every page filled with his thoughts, they really are a treasure and I hope my books can be that way for my descendants.
This is so awesome! Yeah a bunch of my friends get angry at me for writing in my books lol
I can't do it. I'll use other paper and make little 15-second videos, but I can't write in my books. I don't even like highlighting my school books, all of which I try to keep.
Maybe it’s growing up in lower income areas where books were shared with multiple people (likely cross different classes be inability to easily replace)? Just. Thought
I mean a lot of people grew up reading in the library and borrowing from the library. So you won’t develop a habit of writing in books, often quite the opposite, you tend to be careful not to damage it.
Exactly!!
From a different pan, it has been proven by educational psychologists that marking up the text that you are reading and interacting with your notes that way greatly increases your chances of processing that information into your long-term memory. So, I whole-heartedly agree: mark your books!
Fantastic video, Parker.
My man! Thanks for this! I need to look that up, and then mark it up!
Hey ParkNotes! I only discovered you recently but thanks to you and your notebook system ive never felt so productive in my life. You genuinely saved my curiosity and goals and one day I will achieve them and it will be thanks to you.
Wow that's fantastic! I'm so glad to hear this. Curiosity is everything. So glad you've been able to restoke it
@@ParkerNotes I couldn’t have done it without you. I was always interested in journaling and maintaining written information but I just never knew how to do it systematically, I lost a lot of money and ruined many good books doing so. Now I can start over and actually become the scholar I want to be!
📚 I like this idea of notebooks for different topics. Makes me feel like I’m back in school where I had a different notebook per topic. The main difference is that the topics are not things I am actually interested to learn about.
Totally agree!
i love your content, you're literally my fav youtuber - keep on going! 💪
I am truly honored! Thank you 🤝🤝
I really love the techniques you shared. I need to adopt one of those as soon as possible! ❤✨
🙌🙌
📚 Thanks for further igniting my strive for knowledge. Recently I’ve been at a loss of what to read and why even read, but your videos have been helping me rediscover the why and my love of wisdom. Thanks brother!
Thanks incredible!! I'm so glad to help, truly!
I came across your channel about a month ago and I just want to say a big thank you for the ideas you’re sharing. Since watching your videos I’ve started a commonplace book and a personal proverbs book. These are in addition to my personal journal and book reading records I have used for several years. Having a more deliberate method for interacting with the nonfiction texts I read has really helped me retain more of that information. It reminds me of how much I enjoyed it when I did my honours degree in Sociology about 12 years ago.
Let's go! That's so cool. Personal proverbs and commonplace books are probably my favorites. I love to see more people benefitting from them! Thanks for sharing 🫡
📚 Thanks to you. After watching your videos I've started maintaining pocket notebooks and commonplace notebooks which are helping me a lot specially pocket notebook. From the past few months I've been writing in my pocket notebook and it is a good substitute for a mobile phone in leisure and it helped me a lot to get some clarity in my thoughts. There a lot more things which I have to learn from you and your channel. Have a good day!
Let's go!! This is a huge encouragement to read. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad others are using these tools and finding them valuable
Been watching your videos after recovering from a chronic nerve issue, and I’m very grateful for all this notebook content. Ive always loved learning but have been out of commission for most of my hobbies for a long while and now with steps in better health these videos get me fired up to peruse my academia here in college again! God bless you bro keep up the great content-I’m gonna make my way through the rest of your videos love all this!🙏🏋️
Dune Messiah is my favorite too! It's so epic! The throne room scene, the palace imagery, trippiness as his prescience matures and the events after the stoneburner are all some of my favorite things in the series
We have our older homeschool students, ninth to twelvth grade, write lesson plans and teacher's guides. They really enjoy this and seemingly mature faster than their public school counterparts, nemeses. Our motto is a question: "Is it useful?" Beyond this we cite Abraham Flexner: "Use from useless things." We encourage something from Adler and Hutchins: "The Great Conversation." Think, speak, write. And always listen.
hey parker, I'm from brazil and about a month ago (inspired by you) I started a commonplace book and a catch all notebook. And now i'm all into it and already having a lot of ideas to buy and use more pocket notebooks. Thank you a lot and keep going!
Let's goo! I love it. So glad you're enjoying it
Your video always encourages me to learn philosophy. I am not an English native speaker, but your video is very clear and easy to understand for me. Thanks a lot!
I am so glad!! Thank you too!
I love that you have a lot of notebooks for everything.
🙌🙌🙌
Always thrilled for your new videos! Keep making these great vids!
🙌🙌 thank you!
@@ParkerNotes your welcome! By the way, just a quick question, have you any episode on your podcast that kind of deal with the difference between something and the philosophy of that thing like, For example, difference between productivity and the philosophy of productivity
I watch a lot of booktube content, and it definitely inspired me to start a reading journal. There are so many different ways of setting it up (some people are super into tracking all the minute stats of what they read, and others just want a really aesthetic memory page), and I've tried a few different ways over the past few years. I read a pretty high volume of books in every format, and I like writing out reviews for books I really loved or really hated, but I think keeping up with my quote book is the most consistent thing I do. I've got a variety of highlighters, tabs, and sticky notes decorating most of my physical books, though.
Sounds like you're in deep 👏👏
Quote books are the best 🙌
explaining something to someone who doesn’t know much on the subject in general but is very critical about what you are saying is the most effective way to really understand it. they ask questions you never thought of and they point out every gap in your concept. ❤ but it’s not easy to find people who also enjoy this process on a regular basis 😂
📚 I've struggled with writing in books for so long...I was always taught not to, and I've always been concerned that underlining or making notes would be more distracting than helpful. But maybe I can adopt some of those symbols you mentioned -- subtle marginalia -- and keep my actual notes somewhere else. Also, ironically, the need to take notes and read slowly often keeps me from reading at all because it feels like a chore to sit down with a book. And yet it's still so easy for me to forget what I read if I just read without taking notes (at least in nonfiction books).
I feel this. You might consider using pencils for your light marginalia. And a lot of times I'll just dog ear the pages while I'm reading fiction and come back later to mark it up or pull quotes so I'm more free to read and so it feels less chore like
Hey, notebook addict here from Spain! I love your channel, it's very interesting and I appreciate that you express yourself in a very natural way.
I started with a journal, then added a bullet journal and then a reading journal, and now I'm starting something that could be what you call a commonplace book for other deep reflexions.
So I think I'm in the right place :)
Haha you definitely are in the right place! So glad you found my channel. Always great to meet a kindred soul!
📚 great stuff super helpful and inspirational.
New subscriber and fellow Christian here. I'm finishing up a BA in Biblical Studies and looking forward to my MDiv. Great tips. I wish I had this video back when I started my undergrad. 📚
🤝🤝 same here! I didn't start this stuff until my senior year of undergrad 🙃
📚 Thank you for another informative video, good sir! I take notes on my commonplace book whenever I watch your videos to remember and re-read 😊 All the best in your pursuits!
Thank you so much!! 🤝🤝
📚 Couple of questions: First, what is the difference between how you use a common place book (especially a “specific” common place book, and how you use a compendium? Second, how often do you find yourself referencing information in your notebooks? Great video, thanks for sharing!!
Great question! A true compendium, in my view, it's just information and it's meant to be comprehensive in scope and systematically presented. A commonplace book is a collection of quotations. So if you were to read Dune for instance and wanted to make a compendium of it, you'd have a character list, maybe some visuals on the relationships between them like a family tree, a lost of the major political powers, a list of the people groups, etc. A commonplace book for Dune will be a book where you collect your favorite quotes from Dune. If you're adding your own thoughts and analysis to the quotations then I'd call it a manuscript commonplace book. If you add quotations to your compendium then it'd be a blended compendium/commonplace book. Or atleast that's how I see it right now 😅
Thanks. learned a lot of things from you. 📚📚📚
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Hi Parker. I bump into your channel some weeks ago and I like how you tackle your knowledge management system. While I’m back to hand-writing notes (for on-the-spot registering), I do gravitate to Obsidian to keep my own “compendium notebooks”. Maybe you’ve heard/seen this in other comments & videos and this hybrid analog/digital system has helped me to organize my learning & knowledge management. Keep it up! (love your philosophical podcasts too!) 📚
So glad you found my channel! Thanks for this. If obsidian reaches out I'll definitely try them.
📚Thanks for getting the tips organized :) Gem!
My pleasure 🫡
📚 this was a great video. I’m thankful for your ideas on how to retain the material I read. Starting to push myself to markup books. You are inspiring. The legend was gold!!! 😊❤🙏
🫡🫡🫡 I'm pumped my stuff can inspire you bro!
Hey, Parker. Another excellent video. Thank you. Oddly enough, I’ve done the notebook thing on and off over the years but have started it again for life. So it’s an interesting coincidence that I came across you and your channel. Personally, the marginalia thing has stuck w me for decades and is the tip I find most useful. Awesome work and very informative! Can’t wait to review more of your content. 😊
The book reviews and reading log notebooks are brilliant ideas 📚
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📚 I just want to say thank you.
Reading log gave me the final push , i needed to read somewhat on a daily basis.
I started my own dictionary while watching British TV shows in mid Jan.It's funny watching you mention it because I thought I have watched all of your videos on this channel , must have missed that one.
I love that! I'm very glad to have played a role in your intellectual life! Yeah my whole audience missed that dictionary one and my video on a journal of love. UA-cam hasn't been pushing my stuff in 2024 for some reason
Thank you. Love your contents from Nigeria ❤
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📚 I've been using few of them from a years and its really something that helped me to get myself together. Thanks for these other helpful tips, I'll definitely try them.
I'm so glad!! 🫡🫡
Great video! Thank you for the information! 😊📚
Finally you are back bro...🥺
Haha let's go!
I want to analytically read because I tend to talk to myself when I'm reading for fun. It be nice to remember how i felt reading a book. And remember to read more often. Whenever i talk about books or movies, I end up giving a summary.
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📚 📚 📚I took my required précis from grad school and started using it with my recreational reading. So I was pleased to hear it was one of your suggestions.
I would love a shelf tour. It seems you have a lot to show and I think it would be interesting.
I'll do it
@@ParkerNotes yesss
📚 great video here, I've been getting into reading more and more and these methods are great! Thank you!
Awesome!!
I read House of leaves recently and I annotated the LIFE out of it, I watched videos, other reviews, and now I have to go back and read-read because I’m not done!
📚📚📚. Gonna be a memorization champ after this video
Haha let's go!
Loved all these tips! I like my Kindle for fiction, but if I can't get non-fiction in hardcopy, then I definitely keep more notes in a real notebook. I also write in regular books, but in special editions, rare or antique copies, I keep notes in a notebook. 📚
I used to read fiction in bed on my kindle paper white and I could read much faster but forgot so much more
Thanks for this comment btw🙌
Hope to find one of your books to be rewarded friendship!! Absolutely love this, and will implement this and variations as well. 😊
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This video came just in time for me!
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Stonking video. I love the style and the easy way you pass on the information. I have used a personal dictionary for years and found it filled out very quickly when I read Clark Ashton Smith. Talk about reading a book with a dictionary by your side. I am also a Zelazny fan as well. I write in all my books and my preferred way of keeping notes is Ryan Holliday's way using index cards. I use several colours of cards to denote different things, like new words that go on pink cards.
📚 Thanks to you i started using notebooks. Have midori a6 for everyday tasks, thoughts emotions plans literly everythink. Small moleskine a6 for quotes i would like to recall to become friends with boredom. Will start summary notebook for books i red, some have so much little markers they look like a pride flag. Also want to become master at sales be rly good at it so thinking at doing my own comepdium for sales when i want to include best tips, tactics, articles, lessons, life situations or shit ppl talk ho know way more than me. Teaching my self does feel great !
This is so cool!! I'm blown away that people take my advice on notebooks. It's really encouraging to hear you've been helped by my stuff! Thank you
No. Thank you@@ParkerNotes
Thanks!
🙌🙌🙌 thank you!
This was EXACTLY what i was looking for 🎉
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This video is very helpful. I watched your video on the best method to develop a reading habit and the reading log has helped a lot. Only started 2 weeks ago. Since implementing it, I noticed a shift from opening Instagram or UA-cam on my phone, to opening my Kindle or grabbing a paperback to read. I'm currently reading through 3 books right now, but in the last 2 weeks, I finished 2 books with the reading log. Thank you!
I have a couple of questions:
- For Kindle books (or eBooks in general), you use a reading compendium, correct? It's especially hard to write notes on a Kindle, even on an iPad. I find it difficult sometimes to track these notes down.
- Generally speaking, do you have a notebook for *literally* everything? Or for compendiums, do you keep a notebook based on a topic or genre?
- I didn't know that I've been doing "commonplace books" for quotes. I'm a pastor/teacher-preacher at my church, so I tend to collect quotes from books and articles on Obsidian. For commonplace books, are they just quotes or wise sayings of other authors? Do you put your own personal ideas/quotes in your commonplace books?
Again, thank you for your insights. God bless!
Edit: 📚
Three master’s degrees!? Dang man! I feel like a peasant. I tried to sit through college 3 times and just hated it each time. 📚
I hated it until I started studying philosophy then I got sucked in and couldn't stop. But most of my friends can't stand school lol
@@ParkerNotes Yeah, my wife is adamant I give it another go. I am really into Philosophy, Theology, and Literature but scared about the job prospects. Keep doing what you are doing! Love all the content!
@@norvynhill there are none lol but we gotta find alternatives, like this 😅
📚😁 A bunch of cool ideas, thanks, Parker!
A couple of months ago I started a couple of new notebooks (e.g. general reading log and seperate reading logs for short stories and essays). I've kind of fell behind with them, it has kind of become a chore for me but today I caught up and wrote down what I have been reading lately, and it's a cool, clarifing experience. But I think it's more natural for me to come back to notebooks if I feel like it, otherwise it becomes like a homework for me and I always hated homeworks 😅
Anyway, thank you again for the inspiration, I really like finding out new ways of thinking and filling up notebooks! Best wishes to you and your family!
I actually do this with most of my notebooks 🙌
Thanks for everything! ♥️📚
🙌🤝🫡 my pleasure
1:25 - Ha! I have that book too! It's great. 😁
I’m enjoying your videos keep up the good work.
I'm so glad! Thank you!
Thanks!
🙌🙌🙌🫡🫡🤝🤝 thank you!
📚Thank you for introducing me to the world of deep thinking!
I have been implementing many of your tips and strategies and they have completely revolutionised the way I approach reading.
Your book suggestions and podcasts are both treasures to me, and I sincerely appreciate all your efforts in sharing your wisdom.
Keep inspiring!🍀
🙌🙌🙌🙌 thank you so much! I'm so glad you're benefiting from my stuff 🫡
I would personally really appreciate a video about the best reasons to build a daily reading habit!
I have often hesitated in my own life to begin developing a good habit because I feel that I can't articulate exactly why I should do it, or because I feel unable to answer the ultimate question of morality (i.e., what ought I to do/who ought I to be), and thus I am unable to justify a motivation in my own mind and heart. It's like when you can't mentally retrieve a certain fact perfectly, or cannot articulate an idea perfectly, but instead in my action-ing life. I hesitate to do something because I don't feel that my heart is set right in regards to that activity.
But what's ironic is that reading would most likely be the best way to resolve that issue!
ua-cam.com/video/LbVpVpgbywk/v-deo.html
@@ParkerNotes Thank you. I watched (and liked) that one. Good video-I just meant a video more towards the motivation/philosophy of morality of reading habits.
Like:
1. Why do you read the different things you read? (You want to be a sage, you want to be an expert in some ways, but...
2. Why, more specifically, and how do you relate your abstract, idealistic motivation/s for reading to the actual actions of reading?
@@jomamma4729 oh awesome! Okay I'll see what I can do 🫡🫡
It's not exactly what we were talking about in this comment thread, but I'm about to watch the video you just dropped on journalling because I have been considering developing that as a habit as well. I'm excited!
On a side note subscribed
I love this kind of content
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Hell yeah! Wake up babe, new ParkNotes video just dropped
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📚 Thanks for sharing your methodology :)
🫡🫡🫡 very glad to do so!
📚 Lots of great ideas. Thanks! I do recommend folks join at least one book club. It’s one of the best ways to engage with a book.
Do you prefer in-person local ones or are there good online ones?
📚 Thanks for another really helpful video :)
🙌 so glad you liked it!
Hey @ParkNotes,
I've got a question: how do you make a living out of studying? Because I dream to stay a live long learner but don't know how to make a living out of that.
Thanks for your help
You're looking at it 😅
@@ParkerNotes so you mean by doing youtube?
Edifying video. I had no idea this channel existed. Man, do you hustle, haha. Cheers!
Haha good to see you here bro! This is the bread and butter channel now
📚 Thanks for the informative video! I was searching for some tips/methods to help me improve my reading and learning experiences.
I was "only" doing the commonplace book method in which I usually wrote down interesting quotes or information with a reference to where I got it from. After finishing the book, I usually took my handwritten notes and wrote them down digitally, but I'm not sure about the effectiveness of rewriting what I already wrote down.
Thanks for the input!
This video is nice , summarizes and brings together alot of your other videos .
btw , do you have your own discord.. I think the kind of people you attract to your channel would make a great discord community.
Yeah check the description for the link. I need to have it reformatted for this audience more than my podcast audience but it's there still
📚Love your obsession with notebooks. It is seriously contagious!🤣
I like the idea of a book of précises of papers summarizing the main arguments - I am going to try this, along with a subject specific commonplace book. I am trying to use the reading log in my bullet journal - with limited success so far, but I am going to persevere! Maybe the book of reviews will encourage me with my reading goals? Great video - great for idea generation!
Fantastic!! Sorry about passing the notebook contagion haha your wallet probably hates me
@@ParkerNotes I think the bigger issue might be cramp from taking so many notes! 🤣Fun problems to have!
📚 Thanks for your videos!
🫡 so glad you enjoy them!
i am not going to take every single tip but it did help me come up with some cool new ideas. thanks!
Let's go! That's what I was hoping 🫡🫡🫡
📚dude I love your content you are literally who I’d love to be when I grow up 😂. I think the future needs to have more and more philosophers lol
Haha that's awesome, thank you! I feel the same way, philosophers who live up to their role in society instead if hiding away in obscurity. I'd love to be a philosopher who produces stuff that not only for other philosophers lol
I am very much a visual/hands on learner. So smid notes are drawings. My Sabbath book of sermon notes contains little beyond scripture ref... But I can look at the sketch and tell you the sermons main points
📚 another fire video
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📚 I should steal your book review journal idea. It could make my book club thoughts more organized. As far as your marginalia and personal dictionary, I've started using index cards similar to what Scott Scheper talks about with his antinet zettlekasten for the marginalia: write the page number and either the quote or a short summery on the back of an index card and it works both as a notetaking system and bookmark, and for the dictionary in addition to the notebook with new words listed in no real order, index cards in their own box in alphabetical order makes things a little more organized when at home.
This is great! I could see a dictionary Zettelkasten being really beneficial. I'm still a commonplace book over Zettelkasten for quotes
@@ParkerNotes So am I, which is why after taking the notes on my index card, I'll go and transfer them to their respective notebooks. I just really don't like the idea of writing in my books and I know I should, but I can't bring myself to do it... it probably doesn't help that I would run the risk of bleeding given the pens I use, but keeping the notes on a notecard gives me the best of both worlds, I think
@@TheGeeked1 ohhh nice!!! Okay your system is awesome. I may start this for books I don't wanna write in
@@ParkerNotes I look forward to seeing the new note taking video featuring that method, lol
📚 great stuff!
My problem is I never go back to read anything I write in my commonplace book, I don’t even remember I wrote something.
I keep mine in places where I'll see them or else I'll forget too
maybe a good reason to build the habit? i’m speaking to myself here as well. the same applies to my journaling. i want to try and build a weekly review and “summarizing up,” lifting up into a weekly journal what was good for the past seven days, a monthly for the past four weeks, a yearly for the past 12. as with GTD, i am beginning to suspect that review is a super power.
📚awesome content Amigo!
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I work in a bookstore and everyone else keeps their books as immaculate as possible while I'm sat there scribbling in the margins 😅
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I use loose leaves with a 3 hole binders and page separators.
I've been watching some of your videos, but I have this question: How can you have so many pocket notebooks on yourself throughout the day? Do you fit them all in your pocket? Do you carry a bag with you? I want to buy different pocket notebooks to write about different topics in each of them, but I'm not sure how to carry them all..
I usually carry 2 or 3 tops. I cycle them out. Always a catch-all though
@ParkerNotes i see, so one catch-all pocket notebook would be preferable over many
📚 Great video as always. Question: in your talks about note-taking, I couldn't find anything about zettelkasten. Is it something you've tried and didn't find it useful, or you just prefer commonplace books?
Thanks! So I bought all the key books on Zettelkasten and skimmed but I need to find time for a true deep dive. I could be wrong but from a cursory look, I think topic-specific commonplace books and compendiums are way more beneficial for reviewing, memorizing, and even generating new ideas. I'm totally open to being wrong because I know so many people have used them and love them but I wonder if they've tried using the CPBs and compendiums the way I do before
@@ParkerNotes Thank you very much. I'll have to dive deeper into CPBs and compendiums.
📚 Ordered my first Murdy Creative Co. journal. Hardest part is deciding what I'll use that one for. A lot of really good ideas.
Hope you used my discount code!
@@ParkerNotes I sure did! Basically paid for my engraving! Thanks!
Lord of Light is such a good book. I think what I'd like to do is better synthesise my notes. I'm about to start my Ridiculous Reading Project, which is a kind of literary canon project starting with the Epic of Gilgamesh based on a long, long list I've pulled together from various sources. It started as a Western Canon exercise but I've tried to broaden it to include other parts of the Globe and I think some of your tips will really help me with that learning/reading process. I do love a notebook too. 📚
What an epic project! I have a video on self learning that may help you with the planning portion of this if you haven't seen it, it could be beneficial
ua-cam.com/video/nudbUMr9pXY/v-deo.html
📚 Great video.
🙌 thanks!
📚 A red Leuchtturm 1917 A6 is now my catch all pocket book.
It's interesting how it will affect on the taking notes in different languages. Will it be messed up?
Germans and Dutch folks may need more notebooks? Longer words?
Actually they need 😂. What do you think which way is better? For example, read in english and take notes in your native language or read in english and take notes in english?
Honestly I was looking forward for this one
Would you recommend the same process for exams?
Exams might be different. You don't need to remember everything your professor said but just what will be on the exam. Of course you may want to remember everything they said for the sake of your education and not just the exam
@@ParkerNotes Makes sense, I’m studying psychology and have to know main ideas as well as the supporting arguments
I recently watched your video on reading more and now carry a small pocket-sized notebook with me, primarily for a reading log and book notes. I tend to borrow from the public library, so no marginalia for me! 📚
Side-note: The notebook also started serving as a common-place book when I was on a business trip a few weeks ago and saw a quote I liked on a commemorative plaque. Now I have the quote in my pocket and have reflected on it from time to time since then whereas before I'm sure it would have been long forgotten by now.
Thanks for your videos!
This is so awesome! Great work. That notebook sounds like it's becoming more and more precious to you by the day. I love it
I'm reminded of a friend who also never wrote in his books, not because they came from a library, but because he had a policy of always giving away the books he read to someone he thought would enjoy it.
"I wanna be a good analytic philosopher....." - 5:37.
.....so much to say.
Legend!!
😅🤝🤝
Hi! Did you notice there's a typo in the video title? "Your" instead of "You". Nobody else seems to have pointed it out!
Oh, thanks!
Damn, I wish I had the time to reread a book. I don't even have the free time to read things I love multiple times. There's just too much in the world. 📚
Sometimes I can't even remember WHAT book I recently read.
Been there
📚 great video. a quick question which you may have answered before - what are your thoughts for/against digital note taking? also how do you approach reading textbooks?
I mark up text books. I often read through them like any other book but sometimes I'll skip around to the most pertinent sections. I always try to read the whole book once I've started but that's a personal thing because the old me never finished any books so I make myself finish all of them now
I don't benefit from digital notes. I forget about them. And with analog I can remember which side of the page I wrote on but digital takes that away and I forget. I use my Kindle Scribe for marking up philosophy papers though
thank you! I have been an Evernote user for over 10 years (and tried other apps) but I am leaning towards trying analog methods. I definitely prefer to read a physical book! I have heard marginalia referred to as “tattooing” the book, and I do that too!
📚Very helpful.
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What are your thoughts on Jonathan Edwards's Miscellanies? I've used this method for years now to log and study my theological topics.
📚. I think I heard a guy mention you in his podcast the other day. Brian Suavé. He was needing some knowledge on simulation theory for a debate or something. Weird stuff. Was he talking about you? It's funny when your online mentors collide.
Haha yeah we talked a little and he read my arguments and listened to my podcast episodes
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I actually like marking up "collectible" books. If I sought it out and found it, it's got to become truly mine right?
I'm not there yet haha
انا العربي الوحيد 😢