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
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
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
Janet's Writing Blog 