Books and Reading

Occasionally, someone will ask me, "Do you really read all those books?" I guess it's a little out of the ordinary to read 3-5 books at a time. In return, I typically ask whether they are able to have 3-5 conversations in a day, and then the discussion ends. Sorry. That sounds rude, and I don't think I sound rude when we talk about it. But I do try to explain that I read a little in each one, perhaps 3-10 pages a day. On a good day, I might get 2 hours of reading in. Most of the time, people just can't fathom reading that much. It's too bad, too. I just think people watch too much television, or engage in other mindless activity, and so waste the time that's been given to them.

To give just a little more insight into my reading, I thought I would show how I also mark and digest my books.
Before I begin a book, I will prepare two things, a highlighter (mostly yellow), and the Post-It tabs that I'll use to "highlight my highlights." Here's a picture.



I then cut these useful little flags in half, to get twice as many.



After I have all the flags cut, I "stage" them in the back of the book.



This is really useful, because as I read, I like to highlight significant passages, words, sentences, paragraphs, that really resonate with my heart. Sometimes, those highlighted passages are things I want to be able to find quickly, so I'll take one of these prepared flags, and tape it next to the highlighted section. I let the flag just barely stick out of the book when it's closed, that way I can turn to it quickly.



I've been doing this for just over a year now, and it works really great for me. Let me know what you do.