Do you ever have a moment that you really want to remember? Even to the point that you get really anxious thinking that you might not remember the moment or thing if something prevents you from commemorating it in someway? This happens to me all the time. Usually I feel an incessant need to write everything down. Especially when I'm studying or reading; I copy large sections of books and essays that I really want to remember and know. Sometimes I think it really does help to copy things out; there's something comforting about scrawling new ideas into your own notebook with your own ink; it feels like they become part of you. But most of the time it just slows everything down so that a book you love and are trying to really absorb takes you way longer to read than something you hate. And then you can't cover nearly as much ground - which is so discouraging, no?
I'm working on a new system of reading now. For some books I force myself to not take a pen or a pencil with me, so that I have to read and absorb and just trust that the things that are really important I will remember. For other books, I not only take a pencil with me but I completely indulge myself; the last novel I read has something underlined on nearly every page and I think I've got a good 5% of the whole thing scribbled into my notebook.
Now I just need to fill in the middle. Somewhere in between forcefully prohibiting myself and completely indulging myself - that's where I'm going to get alot of work done. Now, I know some might offer some systems as suggestions, and I'm going to be honest right now: I generally resist, fiercly, any system I haven't come up with on my own. I'm just egotistical that way.
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