Quote Notes - Reading Habits

We all have different reading habits - where we read, when we read, how we stack or store books. I love seeing annotated books - whether it's a passage a previous reader has underlined or one of those pretty social media images of books annotated with colourful post it notes.

I am quite a disorganised person. I rarely have pretty post it notes to hand when I am reading. But one thing I have done, for several years, is to write down quotes that I like, in a notebook I keep for the purpose.  They can be quotes that mean something to me, or I feel are helpful, or I just find really insightful or beautifully expressed. Sometimes I just like them...like this one

"Her pale hair lay against her head in doughy curves, like unbaked sausage rolls". 

I love that line, I can visualise her hair. The quote is from An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel. 

At one point, in a desperate, creative writing type focus on style, I started to write down just opening lines. Looking at the way they draw you in (or not), the technical elements of them - short, long, action packed, thoughtful. Like this:

"The night I watch Athena Liu die, we're celebrating her TV deal with Netflix."

from Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang

Or this:

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining board, which I have padded out with our dog's blanket and the tea cosy." 

from I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

But I found that a first line is often devoid of context as a reader. At that point I have invested no time, no thought, no attention into the story and characters that might follow. And, often, the lines I want to remember are not opening lines - they are deeper in the books, where writers have hit their stride and, as a reader, I am more invested. 

"Humans will resist no level of intrusion if it saves the trouble of walking across the room."

from The Every by Dave Eggers

"Tell someone your life story and what you have is exactly that, a story." 

from When I Lived In Modern Times by Linda Grant

Quotes go in my 'quote book' with the name of the book and the author. I used to put the date of reading as well, and sometimes other notes on the book. But gradually, over the years, the book has become simpler - a handy compilation of quotes that I love. For months I may not look in it, other than to jot down a quote from something I am reading. But now and again, I pick it up, flick through it and re-read the quotes I loved. They jog my memory, take me back to a book I may have forgotten or a time in my life when I read that book.

Any old notebook will do.  It's a reading habit that works for me. It might work for you too.