How to Setup a Reading Notes Notebook

Do you do reading notes or annotate your books?

I’ve never done it consistently in the past but have tried a few times to make notes. I have never been successful. I usually take too many notes and I hate writing in books. Recently I got curious and fell down the Google rabbit hole of book annotation. I love seeing other people annotate books but as I read and researched it, I realized 1. I still won’t write or highlight in books and 2. I read a lot of ebooks and audiobooks (many from the library). I thought a book notebook would be a great compromise!

Why should you annotate or make notes about what you’re reading?

For me, I partly wanted to start for book club, to feel more prepared. I also want to be more connected to the books and be present when I read. Lastly, I want to remember the things I read and specifically things I learn when reading non-fiction books, especially photography-related ones.

As I googled and mulled it over, I thought the new Erin Condren Priorities and Notes layout would be perfect for taking notes. I also went through my stash of accessories and built a reading kit which I put in an Erin Condren planny pack to easily carry with my notebook! I also grabbed my new snap-in pocket dashboards. I can stick notes on and in them. They also section out my notebook and I can easily flip to whichever book I am reading at the moment!

Shop Erin Condren (affiliate link I will receive a commission but it will not affect your shopping!)

What do I have in my kit?

Transparent sticky notes
Reusable sticky notes
Small notepad
Highlight strips
Pens
Highlighter
Sharpie (for those transparent sticky notes)

I have been picking pens and highlighters that coordinate with the colors on the book cover. I will have a fun, colorful notebook when I’m done!

The Priorities and Notes layout has six boxes on the left-hand side and lined notes pages on the right. I had hoped to fit a book into one set of boxes/lined page but I realized that will never work for me. I ended up using three pages for my first book and decided that will be my limit for each book.

My first book, The Great Alone, was a little trial and error. Of course, I will make adjustments as needed but I’ve got a good setup now for fiction and non-fiction books. The first page will be the same for all books. The six boxes will be:

About the Book – Title, Author, Fiction/Non-Fiction, Genre, format, and where I got it
Other Books by the Author
What Others are Saying – I like to google after I read and see if there is anything interesting
My Summary
Final Thoughts
My Rating – How many coffees, if I’d recommend it

For fiction books, the next set of six boxes are:

Characters (two boxes)
Relationships – between characters
Setting
Main Theme
Connections – what does it remind me of, does the book mention other media

The final six boxes are:

Quotes (two boxes)
Questions – either that come up as I read or after
What stood out to me
Likes
Dislikes

For non-fiction, the second set of six boxes will be (two each):

Key Ideas
References to review
Questions

The last six will be (two each):

What resonated with me
What did I find Interesting
My Ideas – what can I do with this new knowledge or how can I incorporate what I’ve learned

Each book will have three lined pages. Before starting I will review the chapters and/or sections and divide my three-lined pages evenly. I hope this will help keep me from writing down EVERYTHING. I will use transparent sticky notes to highlight or pop out key moments or ideas. I would like to be more succinct with what I write down. I’ve always taken too many notes, not knowing what is important (maybe because of ADHD?). I do want to have a set number of pages because I often have more than one book going at once and want to be able to set up each book in my notebook.