Despite being a very systems-oriented person, I don't have anything comparable to David's method.
Instead, I bend down the corners of pages where something catches my eye. This also gives me a metric for how thought-provoking I found a book to be: years later, I can tell at a glance. Although I've gone through periods where I highlight key lines (making it a point to do so on Sundays for my Shabbos reading), I actually enjoy NOT being more specific than noting the page. When I revisit a book and see a bent down page, going through the process of trying to remember or figure out what I thought was noteworthy feels like it activates my brain in a different way.
I'm also a fan of book darts, but I reserve those for flagging specific lines and paragraphs that I intend to incorporate into my writing or teaching. If it was something that spoke only to me, I'll bend down the page, but if I want to share it with others, I'll use a book dart. This makes it much easier to write articles about passages in books I read years ago.
Lastly, I TRY to be disciplined about writing book reviews. Nowadays, I post these on Instagram, Facebook, Susbtack, and Whatsapp, but a friend just convinced me to join Goodreads, and I suspect I'll at least give that a shot.
One thing I'd like to try to incorporate is the practice of writing my own index in the back of books I liked, in which I make notes of what I found interesting on all the pages I bent down. Right now, that seems like too much work, but I often regret not having something like that.
Despite being a very systems-oriented person, I don't have anything comparable to David's method.
Instead, I bend down the corners of pages where something catches my eye. This also gives me a metric for how thought-provoking I found a book to be: years later, I can tell at a glance. Although I've gone through periods where I highlight key lines (making it a point to do so on Sundays for my Shabbos reading), I actually enjoy NOT being more specific than noting the page. When I revisit a book and see a bent down page, going through the process of trying to remember or figure out what I thought was noteworthy feels like it activates my brain in a different way.
I'm also a fan of book darts, but I reserve those for flagging specific lines and paragraphs that I intend to incorporate into my writing or teaching. If it was something that spoke only to me, I'll bend down the page, but if I want to share it with others, I'll use a book dart. This makes it much easier to write articles about passages in books I read years ago.
Lastly, I TRY to be disciplined about writing book reviews. Nowadays, I post these on Instagram, Facebook, Susbtack, and Whatsapp, but a friend just convinced me to join Goodreads, and I suspect I'll at least give that a shot.
One thing I'd like to try to incorporate is the practice of writing my own index in the back of books I liked, in which I make notes of what I found interesting on all the pages I bent down. Right now, that seems like too much work, but I often regret not having something like that.
I think that's about it!