[majos]

My approach to fiction is different from the author's, but there is a point where we agree: taking notes on books greatly improves the experience.

Before and during college I read a fair amount of fiction. Most of it I enjoyed in the moment, and sometimes I even experienced those deep-truth-feeling "whoa" moments. But even then they faded from memory within a few months. Eventually, I'd recommend the book to somebody but, when pressed for a reason why, struggle to produce much beyond "oh, it's just...really good...". This bothered me. If that book was so damn good, why couldn't I articulate even some of that goodness?

Solution: now when I read a book, I keep a written list on the bookmark of page numbers for quotes I like. After I finish the book -- or decide to stop reading it -- I go back and type those quotes up in a Google doc. An OK book might have one or two, a book that "speaks to me" might have 20. Even if the book is amazing, a dozen quotes usually provides a reasonable-enough sketch to jog my memory. Finally, I write a few paragraphs of thoughts about the book.

This sounds a little tedious, but keeping the list as you go is pretty easy. Typing up the quotes and writing some thoughts might take a half hour. And it seriously improves retention of why I liked or disliked the thing and makes the reading process more participatory. Now, when I recommend a book to someone, I can usually call back some of my notes and form a coherent reason. I'm also more likely to run into a situation and realize "oh, very smart author x wrote an illuminating paragraph about this in book y that makes a point way better than I could, let me ctrl-f my Google doc and fish that out". And this doubles by deepening my appreciation of what I've read.

It's like keeping a journal: stepping back, collecting thoughts, and analyzing can be a lot of reward for comparatively small investment, especially next to the amount of time reading the book probably took.

[Aromasin]

I do the same thing. My reasoning is, if you're going to put dozens of hours into a book, or hundreds into a good series, an extra 20 minutes at the end to file away any good memories from that really isn't too much of a time expense in comparison. Sometimes it's even fun. I basically wrote an essay on the Stormlight archive (probably my favourite ever series) which is something teenage me doing my English Literature GCSE's would have gagged at the thought of.

[CGamesPlay]

This is off-topic but since you've obviously thought about it, why is Stormlight Archives good? I was pretty turned off Sanderson after Mistborn because there were some aspects I really didn't care for.

[Aromasin]

I read the Mistborn novels following my reading of Stormlight, and compared to the later I really struggled to get through them. They read more like teen-fiction in comparison.

There's been a stark improvement in his writing quality. The Stormlight Archive is much more robust in characters (granted the main protagonists can still get a bit angsty in places), incredible in terms of world-building (which of course is what Sanderson is really know for), and has a story line with enough plot twists and development to keep you entertained despite the page count.

I highly recommend it, but if the size of the volumes are bit daunting the Audible narrations are decent too. I flipped back and forth between the two, listening to it in the car and then reading from where the recording left off when I got home. I'm not normally a fiction buff, but I'm chomping at the bit in anticipation for the next in the series.

The 3 books total about 1.25 million words mind, so get ready for the long haul.

[TacticalTable]

The general reason they're well liked is that they have deep and well thought out world building, while also being fairly fantastical. Characters aren't entirely realistic and sometimes parts of the books can drag, but they're true epic fantasy.

I'd still recommend Way of Kings to you, it's quite a bit different from Mistborn, and his writing has come a long way.

[mxuribe]

This is a really great idea; so simple but quite useful! Thanks for sharing!