h a l f b a k e r yA dish best served not.
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Pre-Hotlined Books
The most important words underlined in red, the most important sentences in green. Skim the book in 5 to 15 minutes before reading the whole thing. | |
Nothing is more annoying than getting
a book from the library and finding that
some idiot has written stupid notes all
over it and hotlined certain passages. Not
because it's a mess, but because they
never call out the parts I would. Actually,
the general idea is pretty good. Most
books
have about 5 minutes worth
of information in them anyway and this
would cut to the chase and save a lot of
time.
The text could have
different color hotlines from cool to
warm.
Cooler (Greens and blues) for longer, less
important passages to warm (Oranges
and
reds) for the shorter, more salient
sentences.
Read the whole book, or just
the underlined parts. If you're really in a
rush, read the reds alone, then decide if
you want to get further into the book.
For non-fiction only.
Now please, when annotating, don't stray
off the subject and start talking about
Moby Dick, whales being insects, that
sort of thing.
Book in a Minute
http://www.rinkwork...nute/classics.shtml baked! [xenzag, Apr 18 2008]
Five Minute Shakespeare
http://www.fiveminute.net/shakespeare/ more like 5 seconds! [xenzag, Apr 18 2008]
Reducedshakespeare
http://www.reduceds...com/shakespeare.php How could they? [xenzag, Apr 18 2008]
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Your subhead is a synopsis. Highlighting passages cuts the clutter, but may not summarize the text. From the title I get the impression that the book includes a Cliffs Notes style summary, which I think is useful, although annotated books exist. |
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//Have the authors do it// Herman Melville is hotlining fewer books lately, the slacker. |
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This is why used books are coveted by college students. |
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Also, if this were done in anything approaching professionalism, they'd probably be banned from classes. |
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//Highlighting passages cuts the
clutter, but may not summarize the
text// |
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Sure, but in some cases it would be
handy to be able to do a cursory read of
the chapter. In a chapter titled "Eating
lots of Beets: the secret to happiness?"
You could just flip through and read the
red line saying "probably not" and save
a lot of time. |
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Again, this would really only really work
with non-fiction like Do it Yourself
Home Surgery or whatever. |
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Melville's dead? I didn't even know he
was sick. |
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Whales are not fish, they are mammals. |
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You might also want to point out that
they're not insects either. |
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Oh I see that now - hadn't read to bottom
of idea. I just read the Hotlines, as per the
idea. |
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It's ok. Dumb joke anyway. |
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Technically the whale is not a fish. It's an Insect ..and lives on Bananas.
Peter Cook was it not (Interesting Facts?) ? |
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I could only see this as useful for nonfiction, for study or as a formalised method of summarising. |
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I just don't see the point of "condensing" a work of fiction. I read novels for the experience. |
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I read <again> animal farm the other day. It would summarise as < animals take over farm, try communism. It fails, corruption ensues, pigs take over and end up worse than the original farmers.> |
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How would someone read such an impersonal synopsis and get anything out of it? |
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Yea, I think using Moby Dick as an
example was a bad idea. It would suck
for fiction. |
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The book that gave me the idea was
one that looked into lifestyles of those
who lived past 100. The important info
was what they ate, what their daily
social life consisted of, attitude,
physical activity, that sort of thing. |
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I had to plow through a lot of "cute"
stories about plucky old people though.
That book could have used this. |
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I think that one picks up the knack of skimming for content after reading too much. Also, many textbooks are already set up to emphasize certain text through typographic means, such as boldface, font size and even by use of colors. (Aside: a friend told me that one of her college classmates used to highlight ALL the text in the book, neatly and completely.) |
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I've created a couple documents like that and am resisting the temptation to post one as an example :) |
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I use black for the important text, then other colours for explanations, embedded footnotes (navel notes?), humourous asides and personal takes. |
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Whales, being insects, are prone to litigation and anti-rhetorical Beowulf fox-trotting. The related formulation of proalmagated nebula being necessary to the realigned rapid flirting pinwheels of the third trimester in a sure-fire Hanabel's Poncho of forgiveness, we heartily recommend fishing a grand larceny through the pinhole of reconditioned fulfilment. Furthermore the bohemian paratrianthepheil rely solely on the tintinnabulation of the fourth order of sheikhdom. This obligation results in phosphorous cheese. |
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