The ultimate reading / marking / second brain / reading and workflow

[ready-laura]

i want to develop a workflow that allows me to have a smooth as possible experience of summarizing books across places and devices:

devices: android tablet, android smartphone, windows laptop, kindle oasis, new: boox note 3.

when i drive to work by train:
reading a book via kindle.
using highlight function.
using readwise: h1, h2, h3 for header as well as c1, c2 and so on for combining marked areas.

or i read with my android tablet.
with moon reader pro.
has a readwise integration, too.
but does not unterstand the h1 and c1 logic that allows for better export via readwise towards evernote and notion.

when being at work:
i read with the laptop, using calibre.
i first have to find the are i stopped reading in the train.
i have to export the kindle file - epub - onto my laptop and open it.
calibre have a readwise integration, too. however, again, the h1 and c1 logic does not work.
so while i read on calibre on the one side of the screen, i have evernote on the other side. making my summary of the most important parts.
this is just a copy and paste of those selected sections where i really lean something new.

while being at work, i sometimes switch to my android tablet.
all the notes from the laptop are missing now.
so i can upload my epub to dropbox and download it via the tablet and move on.
i do split screen on the tablet - moon reader + evernote - however, i prefer moon reader only to read fast, mark the important areas and send it to readwise.

back home by train:
putting again the file via usb from android to kindle to read.

new device:
boox note 3 - with android 10 - so moon reader pro can be installed.
idea: reading more or less only with the boox note 3 via the moon reader.
the moon reader allows to save the point where i stopped reading and works of course with readwise, too.
later, when i am at my laptop, i do a summary of the most important areas that were just exported from readwise to evernote.

my goal is / i am done when:
1) i have a summary on evernote (sometimes larger text blocks, the more important part is bold, the even more important of that is highlighted yellow - see tiago forte of making summaries)
2) that i copy it to notion
3) notion allows me to link just selected parts of note across different other notes and create evergreen notes (like a tree diagram of information).

it would be interesting to hear how other's manage their "ultimate smooth read-/workflow? i feel like having too many manual interface interactions (switching files with a cable between devices) that ultimately decreases the overall smooth workflow experience.

[BookCat]

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to achieve.
For me, after reading a book, I write a short review with a fountain pen in an A4 ring binder.

What kind of books are you reading? Academic? Or novels?

[ready-laura]

sorry for my late reply.

i am reading mainly academic / education books. so many valuable insights + notes + summaries + color coding i do.

[ready-laura]

push...

[Rbneader]

Honestly, I'm not sure what you're looking for here. You have a setup that works for you, and it's a fairly unique one, so if you want tweaks you're probably just going to have to try things out.

I still haven't found anything to beat taking notes in a separate notebook or OneNote notebook for studying textbooks.

[grogu]

I've just started looking into this recently and I've found a few people experimenting with the second brain idea. It seems like the kindle/apple route is easier, but I don't have those devices. I have windows/kobo/kindle/android.

Ali Abdaal talked about using readwise to get his highlights from kindle to notion. He has a notion book template linked in the video. I thought his approach was very interesting in terms of helping him remember and integrate information. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjoxkxM_I5g

This is another person with a kindle and notion, I bookmarked it to look into later https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/n...monplace-book/

I guess with the kindle app you can handle the android part and sync it via readwise, not sure if boox also can run the kindle app.

You mentioned academic research, not sure if you need citations etc. Thomas Frank (on youtube) talks about his system using Roam, I have a vague recollection. I've seen others talk about obsidian. It seems like people doing academic research tend to go the obsidian/roam route.

My own personal interest is just keeping a book journal for the fiction / non fiction books I read for fun or self education. I've used goodreads to track progress and make short notes in the past. There's enough friction to it that I don't always bother.

I haven't gotten very far with this yet. Right now I need to
1) Not highlight everything in the damn book (there's a book called how to take smart notes that's on my to read list). I likely have ADHD, the only way I focus on what I read is by highlighting it. So I wind up with almost everything highlighted.
2) Get better at typing my thoughts into my ereader. I do type short notes or thoughts as I go. But I don't always know what I should or shouldn't put down. Most of the time there were things I wish I had commented on but didn't.
3) Get those notes uploaded somewhere, hopefully with stats on reading progress.
4) Get better at summarizing chapters and thoughts when I stop reading for that interval.

I'm kinda on a fence because I process things differently when I type vs write. So I've gone back and forth over keeping a notebook vs digital.

I've been watching Deep Guide in hopes that there will be an ereader that does a good job of taking notes while you read. Like I like to mark up books or documents directly and then write my thoughts elsewhere. I kinda realize that splitting the screen might be a pita and it might be better to take notes on a phone or tablet instead. So I would need a separate pen based device I guess...

It's really hard to know how to integrate everything. Especially when my brain goes in a million directions all the time!

I grew up analog and digital came later so I often struggle with what to do. My brain remembers some things better when I can flip back through a notebook or book, but having a search feature has helped me find stuff I couldn't locate otherwise (ADD brain). I can think better sometimes when I can diagram or use color and write, but I can type a whole lot faster than handwrite so less information gets lost or forgotten. And typing guarantees it will be legible when I read it later. I also can copy and paste and I guess link stuff in notion like a wiki, which you can't do with a notebook.