The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

A New Way to Read, Part I

Every once in a while (every two or three days or so) I’ll read a blog post that changes my life. Maybe it shifts my perception of a book I’ve read, makes me think about my views of the world, or just introduces me to an addictive online game.

About six months ago, I came across a post at Classical Bookworm, where blogger Sylvia wrote about her neurotic note-taking on the books she read. Check out her post, because she included a picture of a page out of her notebook—it’s amazing. This picture of her meticulous notes was the first thing that caught my eye, and then, as I read on, I realized how seriously she kept her records for both fiction and non-fiction books.

This is the part that changed my life: “It certainly does require time and effort but with my swiss-cheese brain I would have a hard time remembering and grasping the overall import of what I read if I didn't write it down in one place.”

That hit home. Is that why I can never remember anything about the books I read? I go through them so quickly that I don’t properly think about them or fully digest them. I would love to be able to appreciate the depth of the writing and the breadth of the thematic material in every book I read—or at least the good ones.

Luckily, Sylvia gave a quick overview on her note-taking method and also referred readers to the book that it is based on: The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. Here’s a brief description of the book according to School Library Journal:

Written in a straightforward style accessible to most students, this readable book provides solid, step-by-step advice on how to read some of the world's great books with discipline and comprehension. The first four chapters explain the author's well-thought-out three-step program, how and why it works, and how to prepare to use it. The remainder of the volume devotes a chapter each to analysis of novels, autobiography/memoirs, history, drama, and poetry. The system involves reading each book three times: once for the facts, once for analysis, and once for an informed evaluation of the author's ideas. Readers are encouraged during this process to mark up their books with comments and questions in the margins (or use Post-Its), and to keep a journal of quotes, summaries, questions, and ruminations.

Within a week I had borrowed The Well-Educated Mind from the library and read the section on fiction (it’s best to start small, right?). In fact, I photocopied the section so that I could follow Bauer’s note-taking strategies. I figured it would take at least one book to get the hang of the system and figure out my own note-taking preferences, so I chose a cheap spiral notebook (didn’t want to invest in a Moleskine quite yet) and a fairly moderate book to read on the literature scale: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.

… to be continued…

The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

Tags: literary analysis taking notes Susan Wise Bauer