One way to read with more attention and more care is using the Book Journal.
You need a notebook and a pen at hand when you are reading. You read with the intention to write down at least one sentence of the book. The Daily Stillness recently published tips about slow reading. Slow reading aims to reconnect us with our love of reading. Wiki-How offers a step by step guide to start you off creating a book journal.
It is possible to steer your attention or improve your focus with the help of a Book Journal. This little task of writing down a memorable sentence does help to read slower and with more attention. Taking notes is a way to improve your attention and retention of the material you read. We tend to highlight and reread passively at best, research shows that it is effortful retrieval that helps us learn; taking time to read, recall and write our own interpretation of what we read. John Dunlosky a renowned researcher in this area can tell you more if you are interested in this research.
I use a paper notebook to write sentences down, as I find that using a phone or tablet would distract me from reading. You know that these devices distract you from reading, even just hearing a notification that you do not respond to has been shown to be distracting.
I keep this Book Journal close to my favorite reading place. I try to use my fountain pen to write in my Book Journal because that makes it more like a diary, I guess. Maybe you want to buy a very special notebook for your Book Journal. And sometimes when reading in other places I do use a post-it or a piece of paper for temporary storage. I used to travel a lot and always had a book to read with me.
My Book Journal is a real treasure. One sentence in the Book Journal can make me remember the whole book.
Sometimes I can use the quotes in speeches or when I write a letter on a special occasion. I started the Book Journal in 1993 and now I am writing a second one because the first is full of quotes. When I wrote my own book I was very happy I added the date of reading, title and author to my quotes and notes so I could use them in my writing. I also often added the page number of a quote. All very helpful to my own writing later.
One citation from my Book Journal:
“Of course, in order to practice this style of reading as an art, one thing is above all essential—something that today has been thoroughly forgotten (and so it will require still more time before my writings are “readable”) — something for which one almost needs to be a cow, at any rate not a modern man — rumination.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of moral, prologue.
Source of images: Book Girl Reading Book with Post-its
