Taking Notes on Books

Arthur Schopenhauer once wrote:

“In reading, the work of thinking is, for the greater part, done for us…our head is, however, really only the arena of some one else’s thoughts.”

And so, he wrote, someone who only reads but never reflects or analyzes would have “have read themselves stupid”!

Not everyone is a passive reader, of course. As Shane Parrish pointed out:

“One of the ways we chew and digest what we’re reading is to comment on something someone else has written. We do this through Marginalia — the broken fragments of thought that appear scribbled in the margins of books. These fragments help us connect ideas, translate jargon, and spur critical thinking.”

I’ve never been able to get myself to write notes or even mark passages on a book. Besides, the margins aren’t always large enough to write enough, are they? So the ability to highlight passages and make notes on an e-book via a Kindle is like a God send for someone like me. Even better, the next time the Kindle syncs with the cloud, my notes become accessible anywhere…on any PC, tablet or smartphone.

So I was surprised by what Parrish wrote about the Kindle:

“By the time I’ve highlighted a section, clicked on make a note, and laboured intensively at the keyboard, I’ve often lost the very thought I was trying to capture.”

I don’t know which version of the Kindle and/or its software he has, but highlighting and bringing up the Notes window are so simple on the Kindle. But yes, typing on the Kindle is painful. No, not because of the (touch) keyboard size: after all, I’m used to the much smaller keyboard on my phone. Rather my problem is because the Kindle’s keyboard sucks at predicting the word I am trying to type, there’s no auto-correct and the commonly used comma is not on the main keyboard screen (I need to press the Alt key equivalent to see the punctuation marks other than the period/full-stop).

Funny thing is that all the problems I listed with the keyboard are easy to fix: Amazon just has to write better keyboard software or license a better keyboard from some 3^rd party or buy a company that wrote good keyboard software. C’mon Amazon, this is an easy pain point to address; so get moving!