Wreck that book! How to use your books as a reference.

Jun 11, 2010 by

Wreck that book! How to use your books as a reference.

I’ve always been hesitant to write or mark up any book other than my Bible. When I was younger, I took good care of my books always thinking that I may decide to sell them later on. And I often times did sell them for a decent price. By putting myself in this “resale mode”, I believe I made myself afraid of writing in ANY book. I’m trying to reset that train of thought today.

I heard Dave Ramsey say something about using his books as a reference on his podcast yesterday. If you listen to Dave much at all, you’ll know that he’s always recommending a good book or referring to someone’s mind-blowing quote. He shared a secret with one of his callers and explained how he managed to do this. When reading a book that he knew was worth its weight in gold, he would keep a pen, highlighter and sticky notes handy. Then as he would read the book, he’d mark it up like crazy and place sticky notes throughout to mark some of his favorite pages.

I think this is where I’m missing out. I many times read books half way then quit (watch my video below for an example). Stupid, right? Yeah, I know, but it’s something I’ve been struggling with for a while. So my plan of action is to try Dave Ramsey’s tip and see what happens. I think the results will be pretty great.

Photo credit: Piotr Bizior – www.bizior.com

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  • http://twitter.com/tekoamiller Tekoa Miller

    I leave my “currently reading” stack on my nightstand and diligently read one chapter each night. That way, at least I'm making progress, no matter how slow! In addition to a pen, I also keep my cell phone handy (in order to text the things that stick out to me to my Facebook or Twitter).

    [Reply]

    Mandee Widrick Reply:
    June 16th, 2010 at 2:32 am

    I like the phone idea, Tekoa. I often times keep my iPhone handy as well!

    [Reply]

  • Lesly

    hm.. I'm with you! I have so many books I have started and not finished! I have maked books up , but never thought about putting post it notes on the page. Makes sense! I'll have to do that! Nice post!

    [Reply]

    Mandee Widrick Reply:
    June 16th, 2010 at 2:34 am

    I really like the post-its concept a lot, Lesly. I've already started doing it and it makes me feel as though I'm really absorbing what I read. And as busy as I am, it will be nice to flip right open to a certain page instead of trying to skim the whole book to find a favorite quote or helpful paragraph.

    [Reply]

  • Johanna Brem

    Hi Mandee,
    good suggestion I might try this as well and see how it goes.
    However lately I have found it difficult to find the time to read a book and have started to ‘read’ audio books. It gives me the opportunity to listen to the book even if I am driving, shopping, jogging etc. Try it out! There are some great book available on audio.

    [Reply]

    Mandee Widrick Reply:
    June 16th, 2010 at 2:45 am

    Great idea, Johanna. I would love to get more books on audio. I love to listen to them. This is partly why I talk about the Dave Ramsey podcast so often…it's free to download to my iPhone so I'm able to listen to it while I walk!

    [Reply]

  • http://twitter.com/washouse Nelson Schroeder

    I'm a book saver for whatever reason not apparent to me. I do reread them often so this “marking” might be for me. It could be a learning model to reread something and see a highlighted passage then review your life as to why this passage was so important. Thanks for a very valuable post.

    [Reply]

  • Barryggarner

    Great idea. Dave is always a wealth of information.

    [Reply]

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