Tip of the Week: Take Notes on Books Using Gmail
Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion suggests a way to capture and archive your notes on books you read in Gmail for later search and retrieval:
I buy a lot of books and audiobooks. Almost all of them are about business or sports. I draw lessons from every single one and I want a way to capture it all. Once again, Gmail is a lifesaver here. This technique builds on the one prior.
Using the Google Toolbar trick outlined in Gmail PNC Part I, I find the book on Amazon.com and send my self a snippet of the title, author and summary to steverubel+secretword@gmail.com. I automatically label these “booknotes” using Gmail’s filters. Then as I go, I simply keep replying to myself with the notes I want to keep on the book. These all get archived as a conversation for later search/retrieval.
This sounds similar to Steven Berlin Johnson’s use of DevonThink to create a highly concentrated research library from snippets of books that can be mined for quotes or ideas. For more discussion on taking notes on the books you read, check out D*I*Y Planner’s forum topic on the subject.
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Interesting, but seems to be a bit of the old “when all you have is a hammer.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m a Gmail devotee, but why not use something like Google Notebook instead?
If you live in Gmail and never use Google Notebook, it may be more efficient to stick all your information in Gmail. This is Steve Rubel’s idea: using Gmail as his personal nerve center. He said in his first post on the “PNC” that Google Notebook didn’t support the same mobile access and search capabilities that Gmail has, and that’s why he uses it.
I haven’t evaluated this myself, but I’m doing research for a feature on clippings and bookmark capabilities, so maybe I’ll have a chance to do so in the near future.
Have you checked out the updated Google Notebook? It’s very nice. Including the searching.
I’ve actually been doing essentially the same thing with blogspot. Just create a dummy blog where you post notes on whatever you happen to be reading at the time with the post title as the title of the book. Edit the post as you go. Works quite well and is formatted nicely for re-reading.
I use my moleskine for just about the same thing. All the little “brain droppings” of my life find their way into my “little black book.” The advantage there is that with a pencil, I can continue working even when the DSL is out, the laptop battery is dead, and the power is out for the whole block.
I’d try either Google Notebooks for random droppings, or Zotero for more formal “research”
I utilize Clipmarks (http://www.clipmarks.com) for this type of information storage. Since it also automatically creates entries to my delcious account as well, I therefore get 2 reminders in a short amount of time.
I did not notice google notebook before, and I’m going to give it a try. isA
Thanks
Mahmoud Abdelaziz
master_mahmoud@hotmal.com
http://zprogramming.blogspot.com/