in What I'm reading 805 Words

May 2024 – Not my usual month of reading!

I read bits and pieces of various books in May, but there were only two that I read from cover-to-cover or deserved a mention on my blog today. I went on a nice vacation and ended up not reading any of the books I took with me.

Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential, by Tiago Forte

Building a Second Brain, by Tiago Forte

I was intrigued by this book’s title after reading a reference to it in passing in a blog post. I was able to borrow it from the public library immediately.

If you’re like me, you feel like your brain is constantly overloaded. As a 71-year-old person trying to learn something new every day, honing my writing skills by reading what the “experts” recommend, and taking notes from the variety of history and other nonfiction books I read… whew! It just seems like too much for my brain to absorb and remember.

Building a Second Brain, by Tiago Forte gave me much to consider and some techniques to try. The “Second Brain” he is talking about is a digital way to record and store the things you wish you could remember. The method the author lays out that works for him is a tad more involved than I want to pursue at this stage of my life and my level of tech savvy, but I did pick up some helpful lessons and things I want to implement.

The book also talks about various apps, some of which I’ve looked for and others I haven’t gotten around to yet. Did you know there are apps that will automatically capture the things you highlight in an ebook? Learning that is probably my best takeaway from the book!

I was intrigued by the idea presented in the book about being able to capture all the lines I’ve highlighted in my Kindle books; however, as I pursued that it seemed no matter which route I took it was going to cost me. I looked into Readwise.io and Evernote.com. Readwise.io Lite is $5.59 per month. I’m not sure my limited budget wants to add that new expense. I need more information before I make that decision. Anytime a website says, “Get started for free,” I proceed with caution.

It was deeply instilled in me in high school to be ever-cautious to never ever, ever plagiarize. My high school term papers were probably nothing more than a string of quotes from my research sources because I was afraid to distill the information into any semblance of a summary. And heaven forbid I take my source material and have an independent thought!

As a writer now, I appreciate the laws and rules against plagiarism; however, the fear ingrained in me as a teenager has almost paralyzed me as an adult. When I take notes from a history or other nonfiction book, I tend to take meticulous notes because (1) due to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome I have memory problems and (2) if I ever want to quote from a book or even summarize it, I don’t want to plagiarize.

This book prompted me to start condensing the notes I’ve take from books about the craft and mechanics of writing and still have access to the original verbatim original notes I took. That was time well-spent.

One last point… As usual, I’m probably the last person on Earth to learn this: Did you know you can sign into your Amazon account and then go to read.amazon.com and see all the things you have highlighted in each of your Kindle books?

Outer Banks Mysteries & Seaside Stories, by Charles Harry Whedbee

Outer Banks Mysteries & Seaside Stories, by Charles Harry Whedlbee

This little book contains 15 stories from the Outer Banks and other coastal counties of North Carolina.

Here’s a sampling:

“The Dram Tree” is about a cypress tree that was in the harbor of Edenton, NC for hundreds of years. Every ship that came in would stop and a bottle of rum would be left at the tree. Every ship would pause by the tree as it left the harbor. A bottle of rum would be retrieved, and the crew would share a drink to fortify themselves for their voyage.

“The Gray Man of Hatteras” is about the apparition of an old man that has appeared to Coast Guardsmen and others. It is said he appears when a hurricane is approaching.

I enjoyed this book so much that I ordered a used copy of it and used copies of Mr. Whedbee’s other books.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

Enjoy the simple pleasures in life.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

25 thoughts on “May 2024 – Not my usual month of reading!”

  1. Building another brain, well, I am not so sure, by this age the one I’ve always used is getting a bit worn out, maybe it is a good idea, LOL! Now the book about the seaside and the outer banks sounds quite engaging for sure. I have seen videos of the Grey Man and the story is interesting indeed. I love mysteries and ghost stories especially when they are related to, historical or specific to a certain region. Great selections. And you still beat me by two books. I did finish reading one that I had begun in January! And it was rather a short novella… Well, I am getting ready for the summer, already it is getting quite hot here in this area of the Mediterranean, so we are bringing our the summer gear, the swimming suits, water shoes, t-shirts et cetera… Hope you have a wonderful week Janet and I am sure you will be reading quite a lot more next month. All the best. (I did pick up a book I had begun back in 2022! I am half-way and now I reckon I can finish it).

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  8. I apologize for being slow to respond, Vicki. I’ve sort of been in your neck of the woods this week. Got home this afternoon from Cherokee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Now, after my trips to the Outer Banks and the Smokies, I’m afraid it’s time for me to get back to real life! I hope you will find a copy of that book. Very entertaining.

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  9. I’ve just downloaded Evernote and haven’t used it yet. If it’s a place where stuff goes to sit… maybe I don’t need to use it. Who knew having the world and all its information at our fingertips was going to weigh us down? It’s certainly a double-edged sword for me.

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  10. It certainly is. My sister and I always travel together. Our ages are catching up with us, so I don’t think we’ll be taking many more long trips. We enjoyed several days this week in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee, NC, but it’s always nice to get back home. I hope you have a splendid weekend!

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  11. I’m with you! That first book just got deeper and deeper into organizing and putting everything (and I mean, everything!) into four categories on the computer. I cannot do that! I think I’ll just keep plodding along the best I can. The book about the Outer Banks and other coastal NC counties is a neat little book.

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  12. I can see you absorbing more of the Second Brain book than I was able to do. The theory is good — that the computer can remember more than we can, but he lost me in all the layers of organizing and putting everything in our lives into four categories. I don’t regret the time I spent reading it, but I’m not sure how much of it I can put into practice.

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  13. I thought I could, too, Diane, but the more I got into it the more I was in over my head. The author seems to think I can organize everything in my life into four categories on the computer. He lost me at that point. The theory that a computer can “remember” more than we can makes sense, but I think it would take me a year just to figure out which category to put each document in! LOL! I think I’ll just keep plodding along….

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  15. My sister and I spent this week in Cherokee, North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was a bit cooler in the higher elevations but even int he upper 80s in Cherokee. We had great weather for yet another trip! Highs in the mid- and upper-90s are predicted for the next week, so we will be adjusting to the heat and humidity of true summer. I’m glad to hear you finished reading that book! And now you’re halfway through the one you started two years ago? You are on a roll! The sky is the limit! No telling how many books you’ll read in the coming months! All joking aside, I’m in a bit of a rut right now and nothing is grabbing my interest. I looked forward to John Grisham’s new novel, Camino Ghosts, but I just couldn’t get into it. The first part was quite gruesome and realistic in describing the horrors African slaves endured on the ships to America. When I got past that part, lo and behold if we weren’t on a deserted island off Florida encountering rattlesnakes. That’s when I decided it was time to return the book to the public library. Life is too short to read novels containing rattlesnakes! Have a great weekend, Francis, and try to stay cool!

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  16. Sounds like a good idea to put such a book down! Well here we’ve not felt much heat yet and I am getting ready to relocate to my summer getaway in Turkey on the Aegean Sea coast where it is always breezy. I am in the process of reading a book about the Knights Templars, a subject I really love, hopefully I’ll finish it by the end of the decade! LOL! Well Janet I am sure you will find good books, there should be many out there. In the meantime, this summer, I will try to finish mine. Take good care and all the best.

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  17. It’s a double-edged sword for me, too. On the other hand, I’ve had the same trouble with Evernote that I had when I relied on paper files. I have trouble remembering how I’ve catetorized the information to know where to find it.

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  22. Have a lovely summer on the Aegean Sea coast! I remember from last year how beautiful your photos were. It sounds refreshing and relaxing. Take care and safe travels. All the best!

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