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+---
+title: How to Consume a Book
+slug: consuming-books
+published: 2025-09-19
+description: >
+  How I consume books.
+
+---
+
+There are two ways that I read books: reading and consuming. As children, we were taught how to read
+books. We start at the beginning, read all (or at least most) of the words in order until the end is
+reached. Consuming a book is different: effectively taking notes to build networks of thoughts that
+extend beyond the text. It was years after I graduated from undergrad when I learned to consume
+books.
+
+## Reading 
+
+Before I was 8, our main summer activity was listening to my mom read to us for hours. I grew to
+love the worlds that the authors painted and the stories they would tell. As we grew older and could
+read to ourselves, we took trips to the library. We would ride our bikes and exchange our pile of
+books from last week for a new one. Books were a source of infinite worlds of possibilities and of
+knowledge.
+
+Reading remained a favored past-time through my teenage years. I would rush through our home school
+curriculum to get done before lunch so that I could read from noon until bed. There was no need to
+remember the information, only to get lost among the pages.
+
+Reading fiction tapered off a bit as I started university at 16. Reading started became more about
+analysis (literature) and retention (all other subjects). It wasn't until Christmas break of my last
+year of undergrad that I craved to get lost in the pages of fiction once again.
+
+Since graduating university almost a decade ago, the majority of my reading has been informational:
+topics ranging from management theory and business to mathematics and spirituality. But even here, I
+was only still just reading. I was unaware that the process of consumption existed.
+
+
+## Consuming
+
+![Tabbed Book](/posts/0095/consumed-book.jpg)
+
+As a lot of software engineers do, I was looking for ways to increase my productivity. I found
+myself having to solve the same problem multiple times over spans of years. My mentor mentioned
+their 20 years of software engineering notes that they kept in Evernote. They regularly referenced
+it when they needed to remember how they solved a problem at a previous job. The idea of a "second
+brain" intrigued me, but I was also cautious around the risk of spending more time organizing the
+information rather than using it.
+
+I didn't start a system until a dear friend of mine suggested to explore the Zettelkasten Method. I
+was really intrigued. I picked up the book _How to take Smart Notes_ by Sönke Ahrens and I proceeded
+to learn how to consume.
+
+
+### Zettelkasten Method (my flavor)
+
+This post is not a how-to on the Zettelkasten Method. If you are interested in learning more, I
+would highly recommend checking out [this introduction](https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/) by
+the Zettelkasten Method community.
+
+As a TL;DR, I will briefly explain the different types of notes in the method as it give some
+context to book consumption.
+
+- **Permanent/Zettel:** a note that contains a single original thought (no plagiarism!), connected
+  to other Zettels.
+- **Fleeting:** a random thought that may turn into a permanent/Zettel note or may be discarded
+- **Hub:** a note that provides a linear hierarchy to Zettels (helpful in collecting Zettels for a
+    written body of work).
+- **Literature:** a note from an external body of work; either paraphrased to avoid plagiarism or
+    directly quoted.
+
+Creating literature notes in the Zettelkasten Method is how books are consumed. When done well, the
+book does not need to be opened again for reference.
+
+<details>
+  <summary>Example of a Lit Note</summary>
+
+```
+## xxiii
+Early success comes with the risk of losing oneself in the out-sizing of role
+that is has in one’s identity.
+
+## 2
+Ego is the need to better than others, more than others, recognized as more
+important than others--past the actual benefit that any of these might actually
+have
+
+## 3
+Ego prevents a direct connection to the world around us, to the people around us
+and it is this that inhibits collaboration and success, however one might define
+their success.
+
+## 4
+“If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity”
+-- Marina Abramovic
+
+---
+
+## 17
+As an ambitious man, Sherman turned down the opportunities to outgrow his
+current abilities. He felt better suited to being number two because he wanted
+to be ready for any of the promotions that he took.
+
+## 20
+For those leaders that are built through actual achievement instead of through
+being born into it, constant surprise  in their accomplishments is their friend.
+It is true modesty they have, not feigned.
+
+## 21
+Talent is not sufficient to make success. One has to step outside of one’s own
+way to utilize the talent for success.
+
+## 22
+Learning and growth happens in small iterative steps. These steps will take us
+into the long term future and they cannot be skipped.
+
+## 26
+Talk prevents action, so therefore is inaction itself. Being silent is the
+strength that drives action.
+
+## 31
+“To be or to do. Which way will you go?” -- John Boyd. To be someone requires
+compromising who one is while doing something often brings hardship and disdain
+from others.
+
+## 33
+Purpose helps answer “to be or to do”. If the most important thing to someone is
+themselves, then “to be” is the answer. Talk about where you’re going, say yes
+to the promotions, and chase bigger salaries. However, if one’s purpose is
+larger than one’s self, it is about doing the work; no matter the cost.
+Compromise is not needed because it is all about the doing the work.
+
+## 38
+Becoming a student under a master places your power in someone else’s hands. One
+cannot be better than their master, so ego has a ceiling.
+
+## 39
+We don’t like to think that someone is better than us at something. However,
+believing ourselves to be the most knowledgeable prevents us from learning.
+
+## 41
+“It is impossible to learn that which one thinks one already knows” -- Epictetus
+
+## 45
+More often than not failure comes by following passions over reason.
+
+## 47
+We only hear the part of the story where successful people had passion, so we
+equate passion as the precursor to success. We don’t hear about the stories
+where passion people to failure.
+
+## 49
+Passion is about the self. Purpose is greater than the self.
+
+## 50
+Doing something requires purpose and dedication; making it something one must do
+and not just something one desires to be.
+
+## 53
+Support others so they can be good instead of just making them look good.
+
+## 56
+How would it be different to ask every newly met person what could done to truly
+help them with no thought of how the act or relationship would be of benefit?
+
+## 63
+When one wants to do something, they will be treated poorly. The temptation to
+yell I deserve more than this will continue to grow. The ego must be subdued.
+The purpose is greater than poor treatment.
+
+## 64
+One has to make it before having the influence to change the system. One has to
+work with the system until this time.
+
+## 67
+Thinking and planning based on what one desires is pointless. It assumes what
+has yet come to pass; “festering on their thoughts” Arisotle.
+
+## 71
+“imaginary audience” (David Elkind) is where we are at the center of our own
+stories and everyone around us are secondary characters in our own story and all
+of their eyes are on us. We find the small mistakes we make and ruminate on
+them, thinking that everyone else around us is constantly thinking about them as
+well. Or we obsess on what we look like and congratulate ourselves in our heads
+for our snazzy outfit. This is ego, the one that is doing the congratulating.
+
+## 72
+Living in the present--ignoring the imaginary audience, visualizing victories,
+ruminating in mistakes--takes courage. The audiences are imaginary! They don’t
+exist. Instead, focus on the present; on the work that needs to be done.
+
+## 74
+Pride is a sin because it consumes all humility and separates from human
+connection with others.
+
+## 75
+Pride creates identity labels for the things one has done. “I am a manager
+because I was amazing at the job that I am managing”, “I am important because
+everyone is asking for my opinion”. Label making is fraud. If one does the work
+there is no need to overcompensate and create the labels.
+
+## 77
+Truly knowing one’s self produces humility.
+
+## 81
+Success and expertise doesn’t have a finish line. It requires a lot of effort.
+But this means that it is within reach, if we have the patience and the grit to
+do the work.
+
+## 83
+There is no success without work. Give some credit every time you sit down to
+work, but not too much to feed the ego that gets in the way of practicing,
+working, learning, and improving.
+
+## 87
+It is truly ambitious to not proceed in quiet confidence, no matter the
+challenge and the loneliness; to refuse to take the edge off by pursuing the
+success instead of the work; to do instead of to be.
+
+---
+
+## 99
+Sobriety is required to sustain the intoxication of success. A system dedicated
+to the work instead of to us is required.
+
+## 103
+“as our island of knowledge grows, so does the shores of our ignorance” -- John
+Wheeler.
+
+## 104
+Scientia infla (knowledge puffs up).
+
+## 104
+To test against humility is to see the result. The humble observe and listen and
+they improve. If the result is not improvement, there is a lack of humility.
+
+## 106
+It is not enough to just learn, but one has to understand how one learns to set
+up the required processes to continually learn.
+
+## 111
+One should not look for the steps to success in a narrative about a specific
+success. The story leading to success is messy. Reducing it to a linear
+narrative creates a fictitious clarity. No one can predict the future, not even
+the successful.
+
+## 112
+Labeling oneself or letting others apply labels because an accomplishment is
+dangerous.
+
+## 115
+We start out with the knowledge of who we are or what we value. But once success
+is achieved, we often want more, even if what we achieved was enough. And in
+pursuit of more we lose sight of what we found important.
+
+## 116
+Saying “yes” and taking the road given is easy and may lead to success as others
+define it. Temptation is strong down that path, but the destination also
+contains compromises. One finds that oneself does things contrary to what is
+desired, for people that are not held in respect to achieve things that are
+undesired. It is a waste of life energy.
+
+## 117
+Euthymia - setting out on your path and not being distracted by those that cross
+it. It is about being true to who you are and not letting those around you
+seduce you away from it. It is translated to “tranquility” in English.
+
+## 124
+Paranoia is not trusting anyone (even not trusting them to not be able to do
+their work) and thinking that everyone around you are fools.
+
+## 127
+Organization and structure are necessary for the smooth operations that leads to
+success.
+
+## 128
+Without organization and structure, chaos ensues. There is not a focus, so
+nothing gets accomplished.
+
+## 131
+Top-level goals must be set and adhered to on a personal level AND at an
+organizational level.
+
+## 133
+Ego is thinking that one’s experiences are so unique that no one else could
+understand.
+
+## 134
+Ego needs external validation, but Confidence can instead focus on the work at
+hand and does not need the external validation.
+
+## 135
+Our ego refuses to allow us to take a step back and ask if we are the right
+person for the job that is offered.
+
+## 139
+Sympatheia - a connection to the cosmos. When one is not connected to something
+greater than oneself, ego stands in the way of experiencing beauty.
+
+## 145
+Success through sheer will is not sustainable. One cannot outwork and out run
+everyone forever.
+
+## 146
+Ego often demands to standup for oneself, but that doesn’t lead to resolving the
+matter, only escalation.
+
+## 151
+Every goal can be simplified to the pursuit of happiness or fulfillment. But we
+end up somewhere completely different when ego takes hold as we approach
+happiness and fulfillment.
+
+---
+
+## 165
+Narcissistic injury is what psychologists call taking personally the indifferent
+events of the world. This happens when the sense of self is low, we are not
+resilient and require everything to go our way all of the time.
+
+## 168
+Success comes from adhering to an internal set of metrics and not getting
+distracted from the metrics that external people are using.
+
+## 173
+Dead time is created by idly distracting oneself.
+
+## 178
+Success is not guaranteed. We cannot be outcome oriented. Meeting our own
+standards of work is enough.
+
+## 180
+Success is the peace of mind knowing that the effort put forth was the absolute
+best.
+
+## 194
+One only fails when abandoning one’s principles.
+
+## 197
+Others might see success where you see failure. If your standards are higher
+than that of others, do not be swayed by their celebrations when you exceed
+theirs but miss yours. Do not care what other people think.
+
+## 199
+Ego is undermined with every increasing standards.
+
+## 201
+Trying to destroy something with hate and ego often drives that thing to persist
+instead
+
+## 202
+Love is the best response to an attack, slight, or something else that doesn’t
+go the way you’d like; let go and love.
+
+## 205
+Are we going to choose misery because that’s what everyone around us is
+choosing?
+
+## 209
+Learning comes from failure and rarely from success.
+
+## 216
+“Any fool can learn from experience. The trick is to learn from other people’s
+experience” -- Bismark
+```
+
+</details>
+
+
+### Process
+
+![Consumption Tools](/posts/0095/consumption-tools.jpg)
+
+When consuming a book, I have a stack of sticky notes, a pen, and page tabs. Page tabs are to mark
+any piece of the text that resonates with me. They become an entry into the literature note, most
+often in my own words rather than a direct quote. Paraphrasing helps with long-term learning.
+Additionally, I loathe writing in books, so if I have a thought to capture that is connected to one
+of these thoughts marked by a page tab.
+
+When I get to a good stopping place (the end of the chapter, the end of the book, etc), I go through
+the tabbed pages and paraphrase or quote each. If there is a sticky note on the page, I will create
+a Zettel and link it to that literature note via the page number (using `216.1` for the second lit
+note on the page). 
+
+When going back to write a paper or a blog post, I normally remember which book or author had an
+idea, and can then easily scan the literature note for that source to verify my memory and to find
+the page number. If I want to go back and reference the original source, this helps me find what I
+am looking for relatively quickly. For some reason that I forgot the source, I can easily run a
+search through my notes, since it is digital, and find what I was looking for.
+
+
+## Should you consume books?
+
+The question of consumption is really up to the reader and the goal of reading the text. If
+information retention is the goal, then consuming may be a good approach. However, I do not consume
+every book that I read. I rarely take notes in a works of fiction, as I still read those to get lost
+in the story. 
+
+As a writer and as a graduate student, I highly value attributing ideas to their original sources
+and leaning on the thoughts of authors that are way smarter than me. This literature note method is
+extremely helpful; especially when required to use the MLA format which includes page numbers for
+the in-text citations, unlike APA which does not.
+
+As an additional advantage, when I consume a book and create a literature note from it, I no longer
+stand in my library looking at books that I read in years past and think that I need to read them
+again because I forgot their information. I may read it again to gain new insights, but not because
+of forgotten information.
+
+If this process of consumption seems intriguing, give it a try. If you'd rather just get lost in the
+pages of a good story, there's nothing wrong with that either.
+
+
+---
+
+## Resources
+
+1. [How to Take Smart Notes - Sönke Ahrens](https://www.soenkeahrens.de/en/takesmartnotes)
+2. [The Zettelkasten Method](https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/)