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Comment by chrismartin | Hacker News Reader

I recently picked up a delightfully pre-digital habit: read books with a red pen in your hand (or any color different from the print). In the margins of the pages, ask questions, note points of confusion, or challenge the author. Mark sections to revisit (or skip entirely) later. Fidget with the pen to engage your motor neurons.

At the end of each chapter, there's usually a mostly-blank page. That's your spot to summarize or react to what you just absorbed.

The only downside is it requires your own dead tree copy, and anyone who borrows it later will inherit your goofy notes.

I've even tried printing out blog articles that I want to read more actively (2 pages per sheet, double sided).

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I was doing this but missed the travel convenience/searchability/instant purchase from Kindle.

I ended up buying a Supernote A5X and it has proven to be one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. The Digest feature is fantastic for the workflow you’re describing. Ripping the DRM from Kindle books is trivial and you can export them with Calibre to include oversized margins if you’d like more space.

I take similar notes in post-its on the relevant pages. They don't damage the book and can be easily removed later. The other advantage is that I can easily read the notes later as a way to revisit key ideas.

Writing in a book is abhorrent to me, but it's a personal preference.

I am doing something similar with online courses but digitally (so maybe it is not as effective as what you described). As each section of the video finishes, I write a summary in an Obsidian notebook. So everytime I resume the course, I use those notes as recap before I continue (also an opportunity to add additional thoughts or insights to the notes). Do it often times and you basically have ingested the summary of the course. If you have forgotten the details after an year, you just need to re-read the notes.

The biggest advantage I see in this approach is that it works with multiple mediums and provides sufficient space, flexibility of formatting and ability to search.

Of course, feeling of a real book in hand is something else.

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