I’ll highlight like crazy, even journal after chapters, but a few weeks later most of the key ideas are just gone.
I got tired of that cycle and started building a tool for myself. It’s called NeuroGlo — you upload books you’ve already read, and it helps you retain what matters through interactive recall prompts and spaced revisits.
No summaries. No AI regurgitation. Just your own reading remembered better.
I’d love feedback, thoughts, or ideas from anyone who’s faced the same problem:
https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1646332/159260796148254196/share
Curious what have you found actually works for remembering what you read?
So here's a different perspective on solving this problem: don't bother!
I'm sure you have other strengths. Lean into those and don't worry about trying to be the guy/girl that can recall details from books. Life gets much easier when you don't try to fight things that don't come natural to you.
So what do you do about your non-fiction reading? Keep reading! You may enjoy it more when you're not trying to read with an agenda and you're relieved of the burden of trying to memorize. Even if you can't recall the details, your brain will be folding ideas from what you're reading into the things you're working on and you'll have breakthroughs.
What happens for me is that I read some books that resonate so much for me that they become my "bibles." I can't remember all the details, but they're helpful to me in certain periods of my life. I come back to them every few years or when I think they'll be particularly helpful for something going on in my life and I get to read them with fresh eyes and new perspective.
- Technical which teaches skills,
- And knowledge, which only updates my understanding.
There's no point in memorizing for the first one. What's needed is pure practice. So after the first read (which can be chaotic and not a linear process), I only place landmarks there to refer too when I need to practice or needs a solution or some information when facing a problem. Retaining will happens naturally as I interact more and more with it.
For the second one, I also don't need to memorize. All that is needed is thinking. By explaining the concept to others (mostly my SO) or using it as a lens for some situation I encountered (or possible ones), I make the idea my own. Anything else is not worth remembering.
I seldom take note. When I do is because the quote is nice. Or I summarize a page (or a chapter) of content down to some actionable ideas.
What is important will retain automatically by your subconscious.
And there is not much unique net new information in nonfiction books to begin with.
90% of it is a garbage made up with sole goal of getting into your pocket.
9% is rephrasing and redigesting same thousand year old ideas.
And 1% is small and memorable enough by itself.
What I’m doing is when I’m reading a book, I taking notes and underline all the sections that Interest me, then I compile them into a book, I’m using Vellum, which is a print layout tool.
Then, every month or two, I go to Lulu.and I print it out. I try and read half an hour or so every night before bed, and I keep editing. Move things around. For instance I read and took notes on three management books, and now I’m slowly and iteratively combining the notes. Adding my own color, keeping direct quotes I may hear from friends or colleagues, movies and tv, or famous historical figures.
It’s fun because I think one of my core values / goals in life is around creating things, and working on this as an actual artifact I can hold in my hands fills that desire.
For me I can’t do typed or device drawn notes. Idk why but I just don’t remember as well if I type out notes instead of write.