My personal notes are in obsidian.md and I basically go chapter by chapter. Bullet pointing things that stand out, then I write a recap of each chapter.

So it'll be

Chapter 1 -note -note -note

Summary

In this chapter we covered x and x is a word of contrasts.

I also make separate large pages for any topics that get expanded upon and link to those, like if it's a historic figure like Napoleon that will show up on another book I'm going to read.

One thing that I like doing is making an outline. Each main point of the outline who ikr be the chapter start and each sub point would be a point it idea that supports the main theme of the chapter and those points can be broken up however small the author goes

Make your own template based on your objectives (what you hope to gain from the book)

For each chapter/ section, note:

What is the main point / hypothesis / argument?

What are the evidence the author uses to support the main point (research, principles, etc)

Was the author successful in persuading the reader?

What's missing from the author's analysis / evidence (this doesn't have to be accurate, your personal opinions and guesses also count. These can be supported/refuted at a later time)

How does the main point relate to previous arguments made in the book?

What references does the author make to other authors/resources (this is good for general reference if you want to expand your knowledge and address the "what's missing" points you made earlier)

All these questions can be modified to fit your needs, and the main idea is to state the central ideas, the evidence, and any thoughts you may have.

If you need more help, consider looking up critical thinking skills online, which should give you an outline of how to think about a given issue critically.

Get a piece of paper and a pen, then write stuff down. Analyze why would you like to even take notes; don't focus on pretty notes, at least if your goal is understanding.

Think about it, rethink it other day, talk about it with someone else...Don't expect some kind of recipe of "how to..." that will tell you the very secret to finally understand ideas.

When you are done with the book, use what you can recall and your notes to try to draw some conclusions. Those conclusion don't have to be perfect and definitive, they're just one step towards working on those ideas. You can always revisit the work later.

And most importantly, don't mind doing it perfect from the beginning, you will curate the process as you go. You have some books about how reading books too if that's very important to you.

Eons ago I used to write a review of a book I owned, writing in pencil at the back, fiction or nonfiction. It was a habit I picked up from my Mom. It was a way of gathering my thoughts, and moving on, and was meant for me, no one else.

When I decided to sell the books, my erasers were worn to the nub deleting those same reviews. I thought the writing might diminish the price I could get. The habit ended then and there.

[removed]

I read for enjoyment. I don’t take notes or annotate anything that is t a textbook. Others here have given great ideas. My only suggestion is have you ever read a Spark Notes companion? Maybe that would give you some ideas on what to note: plot, character analysis, imagery, etc.

I really don't write notes for most books, because I remember most of it in my head and it slows me down a lot. But I've carried a notebook for a few years, I call it my "random thoughts journal", and I write things that pop in my head while reading there. Themes I find interesting, given phrases I like, a term I don't know or something to look into more

I don't have an organized style, per say. I just write bullet points, but I have a standard key I just use in my notebook anyways to keep track of everything: circular bullets for random thoughts, dashes for questions, squares for specific quotes/phrases/terms

Notes aren’t useful in of themselves unless you actually plan on testing yourself to actually ingrain that knowledge.

You don’t need to write down everything u want to remember, just enough to jog your memory to cause yourself to recall the information. The act of struggling to remember something is actually what sets it into your memory - if you just write everything down verbatim your brain won’t try very hard to remember it since the words are there for it to see

geez... I hate to say it, but Schimmel is an idiot. Drop it and move on. We have bigger problems than the so called seven deadly sins. If each of us individually committed one of the seven deadly sins every day - and no OTHER sins - we'd be so much better off as a people. Humanity would be so much better off. Read Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, instead - Twain had real insight.